Zendala Dare #58

Last week I attended a beading class during which I made necklace charms with wire-wrapped beads.  It was interesting, and since I had all kinds of wire left over, I've made a few since then.  Here are the ones I made at the class... they turned into mother's day gifts for my mom and my boyfriend's mom.

My first attempt

My second attempt

I also recently tried my hand at embellished letters using zentangle and colour.  I think I need to play and experiment with them a bit more - I don't like to make mistakes, and I need to let myself so that I can learn how to play with my artwork.  I like how they turned out (Sakura gel pens are so much fun!).

This week's mandala challenge was a lot of fun for me - I loved the design and the combination of curves and straight lines.  Here's my submission - thank, Erin, for doing this every week!  I don't always get to them, but I always go and check out everyone else's!

Crescent Moon, Flux, and a bunch of other ones!

Diva Challenge #88 - IX

Wow - I'm WAY later than usual on this week's Diva challenge!!  I'll explain in a moment.... :)

I made an attempt at IX tonight.  I have to admit, I'm not too fussy on this pattern, however perhaps that's because I haven't had much of a chance to "ix-periment" with it.  Here's what happened:

IX, Flux

This week at school was a little chaotic.  We had Meet-the-Teacher night, many ETFO meetings, a PD Day (lots of developing professionally), and just generally a busy week!  I held my first "Zentangle club" meeting and was thrilled to have about 25 kids sign up.  I've placed my order with Chari-Lynn for materials, and am hoping to receive my Apprentice Kit early next week :) Our club will begin once I have all my supplies, and I absolutely can't wait! 

I hope she's okay with this, but I wanted to share a touching story.  I have a student who is in my Grade 8 class who has taken to Zentangle like no other student I've had.  She has created her own blog so that she can participate in (and submit!) Zendala Dares.  I'm so proud of her - her work is beautiful!  I'm posting her link here, so that you may see some of her outstanding work.... please go on and let her know what you think! (Thanks!!)
http://girinlovespeace.blogspot.ca/

Happy weekend-ing!  I'll likely have another post tomorrow for the Zendala Dare :)

Haliburton Treasures

What a day today!  Spent the whole day hanging out with friends at Chari-Lynn's amazing Zentangle workshop at the Haliburton School of the Arts. We did more tangling in one day than I thought possible! I thought I'd share some of the resulting fun :)

First tile of the morning - Printemps, Bales (which I turned into Puf b/c I love it!), Ahh, and Nipa

Second tile of the morning - Knightsbridge, Hollibaugh, Tidings, and Pokeleaf

Black tile with white gelly roller Sakura pen - Mooka, Flux, and Fescu

Black tile with white and pink gelly roller from Sakura - Echoism, Flux, Fescu, and Shattuck

Playing with Pendrills - watercolour pencil crayon (which does not translate well with a scanner)

Using a stencil and sponges & stamp pad to get the background; tangles Verdigogh, Dragonair, Jonqal, Opus, Finery, and 'NZeppel

Thanks for popping in to see what we did!  I'm re-inspired, so I'll have a few new ones to post soon :)

Diva Challenge #78 - Auraknot

School is done for the summer!  I'm hoping to get in touch with my tangling again now that there's time to breathe.  I'm always stunned that as school "winds down" for the summer, my schedules just get more packed and crammed.... things keep winding UP until the PD day after the chaos ends!  The fact that I had to pack up my entire classroom to move to a portable next year didn't ease the madness.... man, I have a lot of stuff.  No worries though - I have a mini-retreat in Haliburton this weekend with Chari-Lynn (my local CZT who is amazing!), with a bunch of friends from work - can't wait to spend the day tangling and playing!

Update:  Spent the day tangling at the Haliburton School of the Arts - please click here to see what we did!

This week's Diva Challenge is one that asks us to experiment a little with the new official tangle, "Auraknot".  I have spent the entire day playing with this!  It's a lot of fun, and has endless possibilities.  I think it's a tangle that stands on its own, more than one that I'll use to fill space (mainly because I haven't tried yet).  I'm still playing with the shading, but here are the two (of the many, many I tried!) that I thought I'd share. Happy Monday!  Have a great week :)