Which 'Schway' do I go?

This week's challenge over at The Diva is all about the new official Zentangle pattern Schway. Its name reminds me a lot of the 'valley speak' craze of the early 80's in which cool dudes and 'valley girls' would respond to everything with... "Way?" or "Way!" or "Totally!" depending on which fit the circumstance. Of course, as a scientist, the square sine wave that makes up the foundation is exciting (OK, so it doesn't take much for me to be excited anymore ... I did grow up in the 80's after all). I was afraid that it wouldn't be very fluid, but I managed to get some curvy lines out of it in the second piece, although, ironically I like the first one better. Which would be your choice?

In other Zentangle news this week... I get to share the Zentangle method in a class in which we are having an end-of-semester cultural celebration. I sort of jokingly told the organizer that I could not do a music or dance or poetry performance (which is the bulk of the program)... all I could do would be teach people to do the patterns I do in my notes during class. He was unexpectedly enthusiastic about that prospect. I hope the rest of the class is too, and I hope I do a good job of representing the method in 15 minutes! Have a great week.

Snowflakes in May

No, it did not snow here in Georgia on May first. However, I have relatives in Colorado that sent photos of (cold) hummingbirds in the yard eating from feeders covered in snow, so it did snow some where on May 1st, including in my drawing book!  I saw Erin's Zendalla dare the other day and knew I had to save this template because it was so nice and curvy and symmetrical  (a huge draw for me!). And I knew instantly what it was screaming for in the way of tangles (Auraknot) so I just had to do it. Fortunately, between class last night with a lot of group presentations that I did not have to take notes for and getting a little maintenance done on the car while I waited this morning I had plenty of time to work. It is not as symmetrical and perfect as I would like... there are a couple of errors in there, but it all blends and looks, well, like a snowflake.

The one to the right was my first scan of this piece... I don't know if this ever happens to you, but sometimes I look at a scan of a piece and see something that needs adding or changing that I didn't see before. Its like stepping across the room from a large painting or a quilt to get a better perspective. As soon as I saw this I knew I needed to beef up the straight lines. I only added them in the first place because there was a dent in the paper there from tracing the original template and there was no getting around that, but the thickening of the inside ends of the lines really makes a difference I think.

Now I have to do another one with all the other ideas I have for this template!

Inspiration from a Tea Box

I had fun with this week's Diva Challenge to use a blind string. I grabbed my book, scribbled two quick strings, snapped a photo of them with the IPad (a really blurry kind of dark photo-sorry) and headed out the door to my daughter's gymnastics lesson. Before I left I made a mug of tea and the box the tea came in has some very Mehndi-like patterns decorating it and I was inspired! The designs pictured above are from the box. OK, mine aren't nearly as beautiful as those, but the inspiration is there. I added some more images at the bottom of the post so I could keep track of what inspired me. There are definitely more patterns there I want to explore.

Here is the original string...

and the large one below is the finished piece. 

The next one has a lot more straight lines and was not nearly as big as I thought it would be when I was drawing it. It was kind of a challenge. I had to break out of 'straight' eventually and added the curvy elements to soften things up a bit. Again, the string... and then the finished piece. Have a great week! Who knows, with almost all my classes over I might have time to do the Zendalla Dare too!

This is another inspiring image that I found  while looking around for more this evening. The photo on the left is from HERE. And below is the rest of the box. I like the leaves and the rest of the pattern, but really love the tendrily bits on the outside edges.

and the inside of the box is covered in this yummy pattern. and not only is the box so nice to look at, the tea is pretty good too!

Better Late than Never...

Good Saturday! I noticed that Erin over at The Bright Owl has not yet posted the new Zendalla Dare for the week and thought I would take the opportunity to get my entry for last week's in before she does. I had some printer issues this week and was not able to print out the size that I usually use so I was not going to do it at all but I sat looking at the half of the sheet that did print the other night and had an idea. So, right there on that print out I tangled in the shapes and kind of like it... it looks sunny and warm, a harbinger of the coming summer heat.

I think it also suffices for my entry into the Earth Day Challenge since what would life be on this planet without the sun? Non-existent! The sun is the basis of all life on Earth, so why not a tribute to our star on Earth day? We love our star!

Then, while I was scanning I thought I would throw a few others in there that haven't been posted because they were too late for the challenge or I just did them this week! First there is the "frames" challenge from The Diva a few weeks ago...

and then this one that was just a trial of a new-ish tangle - I really like this one and was tempted to add color, but I think I will try it on a different version since this one had pencil shading already and the lead sometimes just ends up smearing and making it look dirty.

That is all for now... I am supposed to be answering questions for my last final - its a take home essay test so there will be lots of typing for me this afternoon! So why am I posting challenges?  Well... I'm cleaning off the desk so I have a clear space to work... yeah ,thats it. I guess it works for the mind too... I'm cleaning off my mental desk so I can think about addressing diversity in the classroom! See ya!

Stars in my Eyes this week.

I managed to eke out a couple of responses to the Diva Challenge this week. I wasn't really "feeling it" with the star theme; although I absolutely love some of the other submissions for the week. Mine are not thrilling to me, but they are there and they are done so I thought I would post, however last minute it is.

 The paradox example that every star begs for

and the 5 pointed stars with Betweed, another obvious star choice, as well as a few smaller 'Floret' stars.
I was not creative enough to come up with any different ideas. I have started to work smaller in the interest of time, which seems to always be at a premium here lately. I subdivided my large sketchbook paper into 6 sections and have almost filled up the page in a couple of weeks. Here are the rest of the residents of that page. One to go, and it already has a frame, I just can't decide what to put in it... I might have to break out the dice and let chance decide.

I had to try the new-ish "widgets" tangle... that one is so much fun! They look like little eyeballs with big eye lashes to me!

I am not sure how this Cadent grew hair...

and I was watching an interesting show one evening about the 20's and 30's and prohibition on PBS and was inspired to do something sort of Deco-ish. Nothing better for that than Betweed and BowTies with a few white Black Pearlz thrown in. I really like this one, I think it is my favorite from the last few weeks.I should be off to figure out what is what with the printer and why it stopped printing in the middle of my 8 page project. I need that print out to work on the next project that is to be based on that one and is due next week... along with the in-class final and that other project in that other class that we have to work on and that website project that is almost done still needs some editing and to have a calculation redone to verify and, and, and... you know, you remember the last two weeks of the semester... death by a thousand cuts.

Mood alteration with pen and ink.

I had a particularly rough month in March. Too much to do, too many commitments all coming to a head at the same time, not enough sleep. My head began to feel very scattered. I was sure I was missing vital details... stuff that would come sneaking up behind me in a few weeks to bite me (and I may have, only time will tell). It sort of felt like that dream everyone seems to have at one point or another... you show up for a college class feeling prepared and slowly realize that you have missed most of the semester and today is the final exam... only I wasn't asleep, I felt like that all the time. I was not a particularly nice person during this time; short temper, bad attitude, unable to see past my own 'stuff' to do much of anything for anyone else. My 'public face' suffered some, but my family took the brunt, as always. I am grateful that my kids are fairly independent and can do for themselves a bit, according to their age.

Now that it is April and some of my commitments from last month are over I have a little time to breathe again. I am still catching up with things piled up from last month, but I feel like I am starting to come out of it. Part of that has meant taking some time to do more than scribble doodles in my notebooks during class. I thought that would be enough to get me by for a while - I know from experience that I go a little nuts when I don't do anything creative; but it turns out that sitting down with 'real' paper and a 'real' pen (although most of my black ones seem to be used up) is the 'real deal'. Since posting to the Diva Challenge last week I have felt a little better. Taking that time made a difference. This week's challenge using Tuxedo was not as tempting as the Mooka challenge. There is something irresistible to me about Mooka but I was not drawn immediately to Tuxedo... but I sat down last night after folding 4 loads of laundry (chores first!) and did a couple of things with it anyway. They turned out better than I expected and made clear that Tuxedo is a very flexible tangle. I hope my mental state continues to improve, whether because of taking the time to tangle (T5) or just catching up on my work. I will give credit to creativity, if only to have an excuse to do it more.

Along with Kunstler, Paradox and Antidots, Tuxedo shows up twice here...
can you spot the substitution of straight lines for curved ones?

This one is round because I got tired of the square. This one aspires to
imitate Inapod a bit and I tried out MrE for the first time as well.

Needed a Little Spring

I needed a little Zen and a little spring and along came the Mooka Challenge this week over at The Diva. Practically to order!

So, so busy around here lately! No time for 'real' tangling or sewing... haven't even been doodling much in my notebooks. I have really missed it so this was a welcome excuse (although I will have to make it up and read all that stuff I should have read this afternoon at some point!). Have a great week.