Well, it’s Monday again, which means it’s Diva Challenge day.  Today, Laura challenged us to make a zentangle, ZIA, or zendala with no strings.  That is not a really big challenge for me, as long as I am doing organic anyway.  I often don’t start with a string.  However, I got really challenged about trying to do something geometric or structured without a string, and ended up skipping it.  Since it’s only Monday, I may think on it, and try it out a little later in the week.  I did a total of three.  Here is the first one:

Tangles: Frondous, Flux, Coil and Ribbon.

All the tiles are 3.5″ square, drawn in Micron 01 and shaded with graphite.  Below is the second tile.

Tangles: Opus and variations, and tipple

And now for the third tile.  This one is sooooooooooo far out of my comfort zone, but I decided to try it anyway.  I recently bought Sandy Steen Bartholomew’s e-book called Tangles of Kell.  I have all her books but one (and I’m expecting that for Christmas, I love her work, and her instruction style, and I’ve wanted to do a tile based on the tangles in that book ever since I got it.  This week’s challenge just beckoned out to me to try it.  Believe it or not, this tile took twice as long to do as the first two.  I think that’s because it’s so abstract and “doodley”  (is that a word?).  I didn’t try to name the tangles there are so many, but I believe all but one of them is named in the e-book.

Hope you like my tiles this week, and if you take the time to leave a comment, it will be very much appreciated.  I love getting and giving comments.

And now a quick word of thanks to Laura (the Diva).  I’ve been doing her challenges since I first got introduced to zentangles, about mid year. I’ve followed her family, and prayed for Artoo, Chewie, B-rad and Laura many times. I feel like I know them, although it’s not likely we will ever meet.  I have the utmost respect and admiration for Laura’s positive attitude and creative spirit in the face of heavy adversity.

I’m now a CZT myself, and it’s people like Laura and Erin, over at The Bright Owl, and my friend Carolyn Bocher, through their websites, and in the case of Carolyn, personal encouragement, that caused me to take the plunge and go east to meet Rick and Maria.  It was the trip of a lifetime.  I wish I could go every year, like a “reunion”.

There are a few other people who have encouraged me by their work or their books.  Sandy Steen Bartholomew is one of those.  Maria Browning, who teaches at My Creative Classroom is another one.  Then there are all the friends I’ve made on Flickr, who have commented on my work, encouraged me, given me tips, and egged me on.  There are too many to name, and I wouldn’t want to leave anybody out.  They are all important to me and tangling friends I may never meet.

I guess because it was just Thanksgiving last week, I felt led to say a few words about all my tangling friends for whom I am so grateful.  Have a great week my friends, and until next time, Happy Tangling!