Across and Inside my Universe

This 'N That June 18 2012

I'm going to from time to time do some posts that collect a scattering of thoughts, links, things I'm currently working on, anything that strikes my fancy that week, etc.  These won't be that often; maybe twice a month, sometimes, maybe every other month, other times.

I'll start with Zendala Challenge #9 at Bright Owl's blog; it became a chore after awhile, repeating the patterns over and over; Challenge #10 has even more sections to repeat, although I could alternate, I suppose . . . or I could do it the Zentangle© way, and not worry about how it looks at all.

That doesn't seem to fit the way these challenges are done, however, but it's up to me.

I used patterns of my own devising here; Nestabol, Quirk, and Fandana.  Those names don't seem to be used at Tanglepatterns.com, but I have no idea if they are too similar to tangles already in existence.

Patterns for these will be at the bottom of this post.

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My therapist is gone for a couple of weeks.  Can I go without therapy for a period of time?  Yes.  Am I feeling particularly fragile, volatile, and unstable right now?  Yes.  I'll get through it, though.

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New to me -  I never knew there was such a thing as a pretzel cone . . . nor cookie cones, either.  Think of the salty crunchy goodness combined with sweet, creamy ice cream . . . . mmmm.

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My favorite DQ Blizzard is Chocolate Covered Strawberry.  Although when DQ barely mixes the Blizzards, it drives me nuts . . .

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My bedroom cleaning/organizing project has stalled.  Time to figure out what to do next.

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My Tangle Patterns:

Fandana - the name, well, is probably obvious why.

Nestabol - same thing.  Try this one with wider bowls, with shallower bowls, or both.

Snake this around all over.  Or make it really skinny and tiny as in my Zendala Challenge #8 up above.

Quirk, well, my example isn't the best, but in the cluster of them, you can see some less wonky ones.

You can do a variety of variations of this one!

Zendallion - I was playing around with Z's and came up with this.  You need to be fairly precise, though.  It's ripe for embellishment!  Oh, I messed up the second step and did it in black; see the red line next to the black one, that indicates the second step (one line only, not double).  And woops the first step is missing.  I think you can see it though in step 2.

Happy tangling, fellow tanglers!  I'd be happy to see what any of you do with these.

My Newbie Zentangle, Zendala, and ZIA Recovery Tags

ZIA stands for Zentangle (copyright)  Inspired Art, as Zentangles are done on 3.5" squares or circles.  My computer isn't letting me do the copyright symbol . . .

So, here's my first Zentangle. 

This wasn't with an 01/.25mm Sakura Micron-type pen. Also I need to learn which patterns work better at different scaling. I think this is cool, though. One isn't supposed to worry how it's supposed to look, and there are no mistakes, since life doesn't have an eraser. ZIA, on the other hand, you can make it look how you want, or do it with the Zentangle rules if you like to. 

One pattern was . . well, I didn't get it.

This is fun, though, and creates mindfulness, although it takes longer than the 15 minutes they say, for this size.

I then did some recovery tags as I've mentioned before, like AA recovery tokens with the day, month, or whatever milestone you're on, on them.

The first one I did multiple patterns on; it turned out with a kind of 60's feel.  The others have just one pattern. 

There are no mistakes in Zentangling.  Often you adapt what you're doing if you make a mis-stroke.  In ZIA, you can fix whatever, however you want.  Me, I'm applying the rules to everything at the moment; it's very liberating.  

However, I really struggled with the Me Three pattern, so I tried again and stopped partway through; I think there comes a time when you know you need more practice, so trying again another time will work better.

I really like the optical illusion ones, though.

Also, my husband has started doodling some of these for me.  He's not into the Zen thing, but he likes doodling.  So, for him, it's doodling.  For me, it's Zentangling.

We picked a letter of the alphabet today to challenge the other to pick a pattern starting with that letter, and show each other when done.  I'll post those sometime.

I also chose, although I'm very new at this, to participate in a challenge that Bright Owl,  a Zentangle blogger, puts out weekly.  I'm not sure how to use her linky machine thingy, but here's my Zendala Challenge #8.

We were to use this template, and use only tangles that started with L-O-V-E.  We could use more than four, but they had to start with those letters, with at least one tangle from each letter.

I used Eye-Wa, Vortex, Organza, LoopLopp, and Ojo.

I'm doing my best to not judge mine as not as good as others', because when you Zentangle you don't worry about how it's going to look.  If it's approached as a ZIA, which some may, then they may artfully arrange things.

For me, though, it just IS, and that's part of the beauty of Zentangling, for me.

Although I must admit, those tiny woven tangles on two ends of the "spokes"?  They were way too tiny and a bit of a pain.  I'm still learning about how to use scale better.

Zentangle-Inspired Recovery Tags

You know how AA has recovery tokens, for 24-hour, 1 month, etc.? 

Well, I thought since I'm trying to stop an addictive behavior, that I could adapt the idea.

Recently I discovered Zentangles (copyright symbol here).  Zentangle.com  Lots of patterns at Tanglepatterns.com.

There's even a study whose early results show a marked increase in mindfulness related to Zentangles.

If it weren't the middle of the night, I'd show you the Zentangle I've done, and the Zentangle-Inspired recovery tags/tokens I've made. 

I make the patterns on one side, more than one pattern, and the day, week, month etc. is on the other side.  I have a small Xyron laminator, so I'll laminate these. 

They are about 1-3/4 inches high, and look like a small shipping tag, the ones with the top corners angled.  A hole punch at the apex will let me put these on a small ball chain holder thingie (like nail clippers come on).

I'm hoping these thingies will help me.  They'll be small enough and durable enough to carry in my pocket.