Zentangle® – November 2015

Eleven months of Zentangle®-a-day…..it doesn’t get old…but it does evolve. The trend recently has been to use more color (somewhat tied to the season) and to name each tile. I found some Christmas glitter pens (red, silver, green, gold) and have started using them as I transition from fall color schemes.

Gourds, cross-section, puddles…O flower, plant frame, blue thorns…Bindweed, folded leaves, fire, peaks, tangle of color

Water grass, blue aura, flower frame…Aqua, tentacles, papyrus, red and gray…Spiral miscellany, blue and gray, flowers and pine

Crystal earth, micro earth, Tri-fiddle, ball spiral…Curled leaf, triangle figure, ferns, curls, ribbon beads…Green and gold bubbles, diva night, totem

Christmas flowers, frog eggs Christmas, glitter quilt…Lyre, ferns, pumpkin, yarn loops…Fall forest, eddy, crowd space, arches, tassles

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The Zentangle® Method is an easy-to-learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. It was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. "Zentangle" is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc. Learn more at zentangle.com.

Zentangle® - October 2015

The Zentangle habit is one that I even take on vacation! There is always enough room for tiles, a pen, a pencil, and tortillion!

Toward the beginning of the month I started experimenting with the patterns on soft drink bottles. My rationale was that making patterns on a curved surface rather than a flat tile would take some practice and I was considering making spherical Christmas ornaments for our tree this year; in the meantime, the decorated bottles could hold water for when I was hiking. I bought an ultra-fine point Sharpie. The ink did indeed stick to the plastic although I discovered that any residual oils (like from fingerprints) caused it to wear off. I also discovered that it pooled a bit if I didn’t pick up the pen fast enough so continuous line patterns were preferable. I am not back to tiles…and thinking of ornaments made out of paper coaster material – hanging diagonally ….I’ll have so of my early test tiles later in this post.

I am enjoying the colored pencils even though the patterns are made with the Micron pen.

I find myself using more open patterns so that I have spaces to add color. The group below includes a test of the Sharpie on a strip of plastic…before I used it on the soft drink bottles.

I like the flower fillers!

The group of tiles without color below is from when I was traveling. For some reason – I reverted to more traditional tiles while ‘on the road.’

Sometimes I use only one color…and in areas that I would have done shading.

Sometimes I think – after the fact – of themes for tiles…like the sea (upper left) or jewels and scarves (upper middle). I decided to start naming the tiles.

The names for this batch (starting at the upper left and moving to the right…then lower left and right): Opera house, Space I, D flower, Deed pods, Tri-red, D flower 2, 2015. The last one was an experiment on the coaster material to hang on the tree.

Below are three more with potential to hang on the tree. I started using a red Sharpie. I like the color but the lines are very fat! The lower right is a Zentangle with my name in hieroglyphs (one of the activities in the Coursera course on Ancient Egypt)…and I did auras around it to make a cartouche.

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The Zentangle® Method is an easy-to-learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. It was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. "Zentangle" is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc. Learn more at zentangle.com.

Learning Log – November 2015

October provide a variety of learning opportunities.

Two Coursera courses that I had worked on in September continued and completed. The Tibetan Buddhist Meditation and the Modern World course is the first of a series from University of Virginia. The first course was intense but worthwhile so I am watching for the next one to become available

Forests and Humans from University of Wisconsin-Madison was larger in scope that I had initially assumed. It became clear that to understand forests at all – one has to know something about the Earth systems that enable forests to exist – to thrive or decline. The mix of lecture, interviews, and readings was well done.

I’ve completed the first week of a new course: Ancient Egypt: A history in six objects from University of Manchester. The organization of the core material is very good…and that makes the references (there are quite a few very good ones they provide) easier to use.

Change always brings opportunity for learning. There were two instances that seemed more significant this past month:

The annual enrollment for health insurance. There are always a few changes that require study and choices have to be made. The package is as big as a small book!

I decided to experiment making Zentangle patterns on soft drink bottles to decide if I could transfer what I did on flat tiles to a curved surface (and maybe follow through to make the patterns on spherical balls for our Christmas tree). It was a learning experience…enjoyable but not enough for me to forge ahead with the higher cost project.

Travel learning is somewhat like the opportunities change brings: we tend to do different things when we travel away from home. Our fall foliage trip was my first Star Party so everything was new…and something I want to do again. The places we went in West Virginia were repeats but different enough to be learning experiences too; for example – there could have been puff balls at Beartown when we were there in 2001 but I would not have recognized them!

Sometimes a ‘travel’ type experience happens close to home too. I finally got a tour of the farmhouse at Mt. Pleasant farm…and learned about how the house had been enlarged around the original long cabin. The continuity of a family living there and modifying the house to meet their needs over the years was more interesting than many of the houses of wealthier people I’ve toured over the years.

Gleanings of the Week Ending October 17, 2015

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

One-Third of Cactus Species Threatened – The main dangers to cacti are illegal trade for horticulture and private collections. I was surprised that development in areas where they grow was not high on the list of dangers too.

How to tangle on glass Christmas ornaments – Wow! This is a project I want to try. I’ve already started practicing by tangling on soft drink bottles. It takes some new skills to work on a rounded surface!

Take Free Online Classes, Get Course Credit at MIT – The experiment is a one year program in supply chain management. The first half is online (and free); the second semester is on campus.

What Those Frost Patterns on Your Car Window Have to Do with Ice in Space – The patterns are like abstract art – I prefer to use the defroster rather than the scrapper…watch them melt slowly.

DuPont Predicts CRISPR Plants on Dinner Plates in Five Years –Improving crops by rapidly introducing beneficial gene variants found in other varieties of the same species.

Microsoft’s Very Good Day – Microsoft has a whole new vibe….that became a lot more apparent in early October.

Postcard from Cape Monarch – It would be wonderful to see this many Monarchs on goldenrod here in Maryland. We have seen the butterflies this past summer – but not in the numbers we observed before the mid-1990s.

Dying at home leads to more peace, less grief, but requires wider support -

9 Germ Fighting Facts – Well timed for the beginning of the cold and flu season!

Not your average peacock – Peacock images collect by National Geographic editors

Zentangle® - September 2015

Zentangle-a-Day is becoming a well-established habit for me. The day is not complete without at least one. In September I continued my experiments with color. I also decided to cut the whole 8.5x11 inch pages into tiles (no left over skinny strips) and continued to use old business cards. The net result was a lot of variability in size.

My husband a virtually new set of Crayola Erasable Colored Pencils that I started using. They have a different ‘feel’ than the older pencils….the colored part of the pencil seems softer.

I experimented with overlaying colors (in the bottom right below, there is a yellow overlay on all the colors. One of my favorite tiles of the month is the middle left one – with gingko type leaves – and left black and white.

I tend to like tiles with one or just a few colors the best. The simple business-card tile with green triangles is one of my favorites.

As the month progressed – I started thinking about using colors at the edges and in spaces of tiles….as in the upper left (below).

The tile in the lower middle below was the same ‘ribbon’ pattern repeated 3 times….the color made a difference!

My most favorite tile of the month was done on a paper coaster (upper left). I think of it as The Flaming Spiral.

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The Zentangle® Method is an easy-to-learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. It was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. "Zentangle" is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc. Learn more at zentangle.com.

Personal Metrics - September 2015

Back in January 2012, I wrote a series of posts about personal rhythms (daily, weekly, monthly). They were not specifically about personal metrics…but enough that I am looking back at them today and realizing what has changed - and what has not - during my first few post-career years.

What has changed:

• I no longer use an alarm clock (unless I need to wake up for a very early plane) so I am rarely jarred from sleep before I am ready to wake up.
• I am more consistently in the ‘normal’ weight range for my height (I was still slightly overweight when I retired). Weight is something I check every day.
• I pay more attention to exercise - specifically to my level of activity during the day and strive to have at least 30 ‘active’ minutes (measured by Fitbit).
• I went through a period where I closely monitored the nutritional content of my diet and stopped taking some supplements so that I would not get ‘too much.’ I eat more whole foods - particular produce now. This has been helped along by joining a CSA (5 months of the year). I have dramatically reduced the artificial sweetener and caffeine in my diet.
• My reading/book browsing goal for the month has increased slightly (to 100 per month). The Internet Archive and eBooks from the library are so easily available that there is no excuse!
• The volunteer naturalist gigs are a significant part of my interactions with people outside of my family…in some ways similar of interactions during my career but different because of the wider range of ages and backgrounds of the people…and being outdoors.
• A Zentangle a day.

What has not changed:

• I still sleep between 7 and 8 hours a night…going to bed about 10 and getting up between 5 and 6 most days.
• My exercise goal is still 12,000 steps per day and I reach it unless I am travelling for a large portion of the day.
• I still do household chores are a weekly cycle…although I sometimes realize that some cleaning chores have been ignored for too long.

Zentangle® - July 2015

It’s hard to fathom that I have been doing ‘a Zentangle a day’ for 6 months already. The ‘Zen’ part of it is a welcome part of my day and the art that it produces is gratifying. I have collected the June and July tiles in a file box and am contemplating what to do with them - whether I should put more under the plastic on the breakfast table or make a cover for a scarred desktop with clear contact paper holding tiles in a long ‘runner.’

The tiles made in July include some work with colored pencils, pens and markers….but I find the black pens (various thicknesses) are still appeals to me the most. I occasionally give in to make something more ‘real’ looking - like a dragonfly.

I have a red pen that is not as good as the black Micron pens…but I like using two colors. I’ll add some high quality colored pens to my Christmas wishlist.

There is still a lot of experimentation to do with pencils and markers to add color - but I am not as please with the results most of the time.

Sometimes I get ideas from looking at pottery or design books on the Internet Archive.

Sometimes I start out with a botanical idea…other times I realize that what I’ve done looks botanical even if I didn’t start out with the intent.

Looking at it again - the pink and purple floating flowers appeals to me more now that right after I created it.

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The Zentangle® Method is an easy-to-learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. It was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. "Zentangle" is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc. Learn more at zentangle.com.

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 4, 2015

Hope you are enjoying the 4th of July! We’re going to see the local fireworks display tonight. The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Weight loss, combined with vitamin D, reduces inflammation linked to cancer, chronic disease - And the study was done with postmenopausal women! Quite a welcome change from the days where most medical studies were done with middle aged men.

The Mythology and Art of the American Road Trip - 100 billboards along I-10 from California to Florida.

The Colonial Revival Furniture Made at Eleanor Roosevelt's Val-Kill Industries - I like the old fashioned writing chair. If I had one - would I use it for my laptop? I also liked this article because it reminded me of a road trip to New York (state) a few years ago that included a tour of Val-Kill.

Antarctic life: Highly diverse, unusually structured - Will the high diversity help the Antarctic ecosystem adapt as climate changes?  

Photo Gallery: Scenes from the Golden Age of Animal Tracking -  (click on the ‘View the gallery’ link under the three-toed sloth picture) Animals as subjects and samplers of the environment where they live.

Joe Mangrum's Temporary Sand Paintings Are Pure, Beautiful Magic - Videos of how the intricate paintings are made

This One-Ton Fish Is One of Nature's Most Improbable Creations - I’ve seen ocean sunfish in aquariums…and noted how odd they seemed. They can grow to be quite large (heaviest boney fish in the world!

Frame for displaying tiles - After I fill up all the space under the plastic sheet of my breakfast table with Zentangle tiles® - this is my next display strategy form my ‘tile a day,’

How to Make Vegan Parmesan-Style Cheez - Another recipe to try. I’ve noticed large packages of raw cashews in my grocery store; maybe there are more people trying recipes that call for them - like this recipe.

Presentation: Mobile is eating the world - Trends…..but there is a lot of room for disruption of the ‘mobile’ vision that we have right now.

Zentangle® - June 2015

June is my fifth month of ‘a Zentangle a day! Early in month I decided to put the tiles from previous months under the plastic on breakfast table (like I do with Christmas cards every year in December). The arrangement will have to become more ordered when I put the June tiles in the same location. I am already thinking of other locations I could display them this same way.

I started using markers and pencils to add color to some of my tiles. Most of the time the old style - black in on neutral card stock - appeals to me the most.

I do still have some teal card stock left and I may buy some more of it…or maybe an assortment of bright colored card stock. I realized that I should put the boxes of old business cards that I accumulated over the years to Zentangle use too; they will always be the smallest tiles.

I made two in a row that I really like - the one on the upper left and then the next one to the right. I was thinking ‘beads’ when I made the first one and decided the second one was ‘medusa’ as I added the tentacles near the end.

My favorite from the collection below is the on the lower left. I used markers that had miraculously not dried out that my daughter left behind (they are probably over 10 years old!).

I get ideas for patterns in all sorts of places. They pop up everywhere: hotel bedspreads and carpets, antique furniture, and pottery! Sometimes I start with a pattern from TanglePatterns but most of the time I do deviate in some way….or surround it with something completely different.

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The Zentangle® Method is an easy-to-learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. It was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. "Zentangle" is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc. Learn more at zentangle.com.

Zentangle® - May 2015

May was my fourth month of ‘a Zentangle a day’ - sometimes more than one each day!

The last of the colored card stock in the house was used up in May.

And I moved on to experiments with different sizes of tiles.

Sometimes I use a pattern from the Tangle Patterns site and sometimes I start with a prompt from a botanical print or pottery design or an abstract painting or a carpet…..it seems like I see opportunities for new patterns in so many places.

I found several sets of colored pencils (one of which is probably over 30 years old) and have started experimenting with added color. More to come with that experimentation in June - I’m sure.

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The Zentangle® Method is an easy-to-learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. It was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. "Zentangle" is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc. Learn more at zentangle.com.

Zentangle® - April 2015

April was my third month of ‘a Zentangle a day’ - although I didn’t quite make the one a day in April because I decided to not take my pen and papers when I travelled to North Carolina.

I also did not use patterns as frequently. Some days it just seemed more ‘Zen’ to create the tile out of my head or from designs I’d noticed during the day.

I am starting to use different sizes of pen too.

The colored card stock is about used up so May will probably it the last month for colored tiles. I will probably do more with colored pencils. Sometimes - the day just needs color!

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The Zentangle® Method is an easy-to-learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. It was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. "Zentangle" is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc. Learn more at zentangle.com.

Zentangle® - March 2015

March was my second month of ‘a Zentangle a day’ - and I’m planning to continue for the foreseeable future and limit myself to one blog post about them each month. Sometimes I create more than one tile in a day…just because I feel the urge or because I need the Zen the activity brings.

After the first week of March - I decided to use the letters of the alphabet as the ‘string’ and quickly discovered how easily the string can disappear. Do you notice the A - B - C in the three tiles at the bottom of this group?

What about the D - E - F and G - H - I?

And the J - K - L and M - N - O? The K and the O are pretty clear.

P - Q - R  and S - T - U. I noticed after the fact how much the Q ended up looking like a dream catcher.

V - W and X - Y -Z. The Y looks so delicate.

I discovered the plastic that comes with Health Choice Café Steamer frozen entrees makes a great stencil. The first time I used it was for the O string tile.

The one on the upper left was another attempt to use it.

And a more complex tile using more of the strainer ‘holes’ is in the lower row - middle.

As you can see I occasionally am using red pens and cleaning out various colors of card stock from the office supplies that have accumulated from years of school projects and - I’m not sure what else.

By the end of March - I had quite a pile of 3.5 x 3.5 inch tiles and I begin experimenting with displays for groups of them. I taped a bunch together and suspended them from a strip of balsa wood using binder clips as a first attempt. I’m sure I’ll come up with some other types of displays over the course of April.

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The Zentangle® Method is an easy-to-learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. It was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. "Zentangle" is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc. Learn more at zentangle.com.

3 Free eBooks - March 2015

So many good reads this month….I chose subject diversity to make my selection: biology, poetry, and design.

Maryland Biodiversity Project. 2015. A website started in June 2012 by Bill Hubick and Jim Brighton to document the biodiversity in Maryland. The pictures are the result of contributions of more than 400 naturalists and photographers. I enjoyed looking at the fungi particularly (here for the basidiomycota as shown in the image below) with more images for each one behind the thumbnail). I like that the images are categorized by county within the state too so I can see if anyone else has provided am image from my area of the state.

Stevenson, John (editor). The Herons Nest. 2015. This online journal publishes Haiku quarterly. It started in 1999 and the archives are all online. I am savoring the issues. Haiku and Zentangles® are the best ways I’ve found to get the ‘Zen’ fix for the day!

Tanaka, Kikua; Takazieva, Kiyoshi. Iroha-biki Moncho. Book of crests and designs. 1800. Three volumes available from the Internet Archive: volume 1, volume 2, volume 3. Wow - these books are full of designs that are easily incorporated into Zentangles.

Zentangle ® - February 2015

The Beginners Zentangle class (posted about here early in February) was prolonged by 2 snow days so took 6 weeks to complete rather than the planned 4. I started daily tangling after the first class back in January - both for the Zen and the tangle benefits. The daily process when I first started was to:

• Try 2-4 new tangles per day (generally from the Tangle Pattern site)
• Create the tile in the early morning quiet at the kitchen table
• Pick the patterns the night before

When I travelled to Dallas, I taught my mother about Zentangle (realizing how skilled the CZT class instructor was…Zentangle is not difficult but getting started is a change from the norm for most of us). Fortunately, my mother was receptive and is now enjoying Zentangles on her own.

By the end of the month, my personal process has been tweaked in several ways:

• Pick at least 1 new pattern per day
• Create the tile in the early morning quiet in my office where I can look at the pattern instructions on my computer screen and see the woods through the window (and sometimes birds too).
• If I feel stressed or off-center during the day - take time out to create another tile
• Try different tile material (so far I have tried paper coasters, card stock, heavy paper backing to paper pads….the coasters absorb the ink almost too easily). I also have experimented with different sizes - some that were leftover from cutting 3.5” squares…other I simply used material that were already close to the traditional size (the coasters were 4” squares)
• Try different pens. I bought some other sizes of the Micron 01 pen I used originally. The finer tip works better on the paper coasters.
• Work out simple ways to draw patterns. For example the pattern below was inspired by a drawing in a book about Assyrian carvings. It took me several tries to find the easiest pattern.

So - without further ado.....the my February Zentangles!

My plan now is to do a post each month that will include my Zentangle creations and at least one pattern created during the month. It’s a journey instead of a destination!

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The Zentangle® Method is an easy-to-learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. It was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. "Zentangle" is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc. Learn more at zentangle.com.

Ten Days of Little Celebrations - February 2015

Noticing something worth celebration each day is an easy thing for me to do. The habit of writing it down reminds me to be grateful for these and a myriad of other things in my life. This month has been full of ‘little celebrations’ - as had been the usual for the past few months. Here are my top 10 for February 2015.

Zentangle® Class - There were 4 classes in the course and I got to three of them; there were 2 snow days so the class extended across 6 weeks rather than the 4 planned. And now I am hooked on Zentangles and do at least one each day because they make the day better.

A day in the 70s - I celebrated the warm days in Texas - knowing there would be none that warm in Maryland in February.

Snow - I do enjoy snow scenes (in Maryland) as long as I don’t have to drive until the roads are treated and plowed. It has been so cold that the snow has lingered for most of the month and I’ve enjoyed feeding the birds and watching it slowly melt in the sunshine.

Snowed in at home - There have been a few days when it was snowing hard enough that we didn’t get out at all --- and I celebrated the days warm at home. We had plenty of good food, a fire in the fireplace, and a movie to watch.

Piles of books - I ordered over 100 books via paperbackswap to use up most of my credits before mid-February and now I am savoring the piles. It is a lot like Christmas when they arrive in the mail and then I have lots to choose from for winter reading. Every time I see the stack - I celebrate all over again. I’ve read 6 so far so the pile will be around for a while.

Carrot cake - I couldn’t resist buying two slices in my Mother’s grocery store….and celebrated that they didn’t skimp on the spices. It was good carrot cake.

Sizzling apple pie - One of the Mexican food places I went to in Dallas served apple pie on a hot skillet with sizzling syrup and topped with cinnamon ice cream. Yum! It becomes my favorite place for dessert in Dallas.

Birds at Josey Ranch Lake - It is hard not to be joyous at the sight of birds and people in the park.

Beginning of Master Naturalist training - I celebrate the content - the intensity - the instructors - the students. Everything was even better than I anticipated….and I did more follow up studying than I thought I would do too.

Valentine’s Day

Are you doing anything special for Valentine’s Day?

I made a Zentangle® with heart shapes…that’s about the extent of my extra activity this year. I will be traveling tomorrow….celebrating the return home rather than Valentine’s Day.

I can remember in years past ---

Creating paper bags to receive valentines from classmates in elementary school; it was the tradition to give Valentines to everyone in the class whether you liked them or not!

My grandfather buying a big heart-shaped box of chocolates of us (the 4 granddaughters)

Helping my daughter to decorate my husband’s piano with red and white curly ribbons and hears

Buying a coffee mug with hearts (which we still use occasionally)

Sometimes we have used it as an excuse to go out to eat….but most years we choose the 13th rather than the 14th because then it becomes one of the monthly wedding anniversaries for us. 

Zentangle® Class

I am taking Beginners Zentangle Art at my local Community Center and enjoying it tremendously. In some ways, it is very much like doodling but the myriad of patterns have me on a path of trying new things rather than sticking with too much of the same thing. I’m also learning more about shading, to list the pattern names on the back of the tile, and how to get the ‘Zen’ from the activity. When I doodled, I sometimes got the ‘Zen’ and sometimes not. Now I know that keeping my focus on the tangle - encouraged by the environment I choose for the activity - increases the value of the activity beyond producing the 3.5 x 3.5 square of artwork.

My favorite time of day to produce my daily tangle is right after breakfast - when the house is quiet (except for the birds getting breakfast at the feeder outside the window) and I don’t yet have anything else started for the day. The patterns I selected the previous afternoon are ready for me at the table as are all my materials. I have a pretty box I didn’t want to recycle after I’d mailed away all the greeting cards; it has found a new function: storing my Zentangles. Zentangle is also a way to utilize some of the card stock I’ve accumulated in my office supply cabinet; the 3.5 x 3.5 standard tile size is easy to achieve with a paper cutter.

What do you think of the results so far? The photographs are the tangles in the order I made them. I did break the rule about orientation (Zentangles do not normally have an orientation) when I added the spiders to the webs (day 3) - I couldn’t resist.

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The Zentangle® Method is an easy-to-learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. It was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. "Zentangle" is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc. Learn more at zentangle.com.