December 01, 2016

Zentangle® – November 2016

December 01, 2016/ Gwen Morrison

We were traveling for more than a week in November – but that did not slow we down creating Zentangle® tiles at all. I’ve chosen 10 tradition tiles from the collection. I like colored tiles and inks…although I tend to return again and again to black as my favorite it. This month I have tended to not use as much shading…that is something to improve in December.

I did some not traditional Zentangle items in November. My favorite was owls. I got the idea from a Sue Jacobs blog post and promptly dug through the recycle basket in the upstairs of my housed and found a lot of empty toilet paper rolls to work with. The Ultra Thin Point Sharpie worked well for me. I positioned the owls on top of balsa wood sticks my daughter had bought in bulk when she was in high school and I had stuck in a large vase just waiting (years) for the owls to come along! I start with the eyes then just go from there.

And here are close-ups of the rest of the owls!

I took my car in for service in November and came back with the ‘number’ tag they use to track the car during the service…big red and green numbers…. Hard to resist overlaying a tangle pattern on them!

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.

November 01, 2016

Zentangle® - October 2016

November 01, 2016/ Gwen Morrison

At the end of each month, I scan all the Zentangle® tiles I created during the month and pick tiles for the monthly post – with a maximum set by the number of days in the month. October is a 31-day month so that’s how many tiles made it to the slide show below. I had 48 when I started and found it hard to pick 17 that would not make the cut.

I’m using the colored pens this month…and filling in solid areas. Some of the tiles are on paper that does not soak up the ink (leaving ink blots); it is lightweight packaging material that came with something we ordered…I should put the rest of the blank tiles I cut from it into the recycle.

I managed to create tiles even while we were camping last week!

October 02, 2016

Zentangle® – September 2016

October 02, 2016/ Gwen Morrison

I averaged almost two Zentangle® tiles per day during September – so I had a lot to choose from for the slide show this month. It surprised me that there were so many because I usually make fewer tiles when I travel and I was away from home for more than a week during the month.

I am still enjoying different colored tiles and ink…trying to remember to add shading before I declare it ‘done.’

I noted some event of the day on the back of a few of the tiles – particularly if I savored what happened while I was creating the tile: a birthday, a hike, a particularly good meal. It was not so much that the event inspired the pattern or design; it was the emotional aftermath that the tile commemorated.

Enjoy the slide show of 30 Zentangle tiles for September 2016!

September 01, 2016

Zentangle® – August 2016

September 01, 2016/ Gwen Morrison

The time spent creating Zentangle® tiles seems like islands of calm focus that fit within the context of the rest of life so easily. Perhaps they fit because they are not overly time consuming….or because the rhythm of creating at least one a day has become a habit…a habit that I enjoy.

I’m still cutting tiles from folders with battered edges from my daughter’s years in public school. The boxes of old school paper are finally being cleaned out and we are only keeping a few mementoes rather than every paper. I enjoy the colored tiles.

Different colors of ink are a change too. I may go through a stage when I am back to off white tiles and black in sometime too --- but not in the near term.

Enjoy the slide show of 31 Zentangle tiles for August!

August 02, 2016

Zentangle® - July 2016

August 02, 2016/ Gwen Morrison

I continued to enjoy the colored tiles cut from old folders my daughter used in elementary school – and that I am just now cleaning out a decade and more later. I tend to use more solid black rather than shading on these tiles although I do some shading too. I finally wore out the tortillon I go in the Zentangle® class that I took over a year ago and got a new one.

My favorite tile for the month of July was all purple and black. It started out with some Y shapes that were enclosed in 3 Hershey Kiss shape melted together then reconfigured as flowers in a vase…with auras and the fill. Even if I sometimes start out with a pattern I often don’t stick with it entirely and sometimes I don’t have a pattern at all – just inspiration from a botanical print!

Enjoy the 30 more tiles for my one-a-day Zentangle in July 2016!

July 24, 2016

3 Free eBooks – July 2016

July 24, 2016/ Gwen Morrison

So many good things available for ‘free’ in online libraries. Here are my favorites for June.

2016 07 ebook1.jpg — Mann, Kathleen. ***Design from Peasant Art***. New York: Macmillan. 1939. Available from Hathi Trust here. I get lots of ideas that turn into Zentangle patterns from books like this. I’ve clipped one page that had depictions of pinks (the flower) in different folk art. This is not the only folk art books I’ve enjoyed in July. It seems that there were quite a few book published on the topic in the early half of the 1900s and many of them are beings scanned and made available when their copyright expires.

Pole-Evans, I.B. The Flowering Plants of South Africa. Twenty plus volumes available from the Internet Archive here. This is a magazine that has been published since 1921; at first it was published annually and it is now published every other year. The older volumes were made available on the Internet Archive in late June. I’ve enjoyed the first 10 so far. The depictions of flowering plants are outstanding.

Murphy, Thomas D. On sunset highways; a book of motor rambles in California. Boston: The Page Company. 1915. Available from Hathi Trust here. I enjoyed the pictures of what California was like in the early 1900s. Unfortunately, many of the color pictures have moiré patterns which I wish the institution scanning would have noticed and re-scanned. The original must be a beautiful book.

July 03, 2016

Zentangle® - June 2016

July 03, 2016/ Gwen Morrison

June has 30 days so I chose 30 Zentangle tiles from the ones I created in June! My goal is to create one-a-day but I’ve discovered that it is not a hard goal to meet – sometimes I just keep going and create several.

I had several tiles that were odd sizes – because I am reusing any card stock I find – old business cards, left over pieces from when I cut a 3.5 x 3.5 tile.

The colored tiles are cut from old folders I’m finding as I clean out keepsake boxes. So far I am only cutting up the ones that are too raggedy at the edges to be used as folders…but that may change since I don’t have much use for folders anymore and most of them are not new enough looking to donate for school supplies. I like the rust brown tiles the best of the non-whitish tiles. Enjoy the June ‘show’!

May 02, 2016

Zentangle® - April 2016

May 02, 2016/ Gwen Morrison

Several changes this month:

I am doing a selection at the end of the month – forcing the number of Zentangles® in this post to be no more than the number of days in the month.
I bought some colored pens used them for the tiles I made while I was in Texas then left them as a gift. I’ll buy myself another set sometime in May.
Toward the end of April, my husband and I bought a scanner to digitize all our older pictures and slides….and it works for Zentangle tiles as well. This is the first month for scanned versions of the tiles and they do look better than the photographic method I had used previously.

Enjoy the slide show of the April Zentangles!

April 03, 2016

Zentangle® - March 2016

April 03, 2016/ Gwen Morrison

I tended to do more than one Zentangle each day in March. I continued to experiment with color and plant inspired patterns. I also name each tile – but sometimes when I look at the name later I realize that I have completely forgotten what I was thinking about when I selected the name!

Most of the time I am using card stock tiles cut to a standard 3.5 x 3.5 inch size. But I also used a pad from a hotel when I travelled in March…and old business cards.

I chose a project to make the alphabet using the same pattern for all the letters. I finally used up one of my Micron pens (some of the lines got very faint but I decided I liked the effect of the sputtering pen). It felt good to finish all 26 and move on to other patterns again.

As the month progressed, the trend seemed to be toward more color. I told myself that I was trying to us up the colored pencils that are over 40 years old…but it might just have been the moved I found myself in. After finishing the alphabet!

I did try another experiment in March - photographing tiles before I colored them with the idea of creating pages suitable for coloring. The white tiles were not bad but the off white ones were too gray looking. When I use up the card stock I have, I'll switch to white and it will be easier to create those coloring pages!

March 02, 2016

Zentangle® – February 2016

March 02, 2016/ Gwen Morrison

My Zentangle-a-day goal was very easy to meet in February since I didn’t travel way from home and didn’t have many other commitments. I learned the Molygon pattern (upper right tile below) and proceeded to use it throughout the rest of the month.

I often decide that I like to use just one color. I experimented using a label for a tile this month – too glossy, won’t do that again.

I occasional get in the mood to use black paper and gel pens…but not frequently. The biggest tile of the month was the back card stock weight from a pad of paper I used up. The 3.5 x 3.5 inch tiles are still my favorite size.

I found a package of file cards – lines on one side and white on the other. They make for an odd tile size; I don’t have another use for them so I’ll continue to use them but I won’t buy more.

I’m also using up some very old colored pencils – a set that my husband had in high school that are probably 40+ years old. Sometimes I get in a mood to not use any color at all!

But then I swing back to color – sometimes extreme. There is definitely a link between Zentangle and the popularity of adult coloring books! I don’t think I will ever buy a coloring book since I enjoy the Zen aspect of drawing patterns. Adding color is just an extra step

It is true that I don’t fill in the patterns with as much tangling if I am in the mood to add a lot of color.

Sometimes alternating layers of color become a theme.

Sometimes developing something mostly round (mandalas) is a theme.

Sometimes almost round shapes remind be of shields. Botanical themes pop into my tiles frequently.

Toward the end of the month – I made more tiles without color. Looking at them now they could use some additional shading but – for some reason – I didn’t take the time.

February 23, 2016

Beautiful Food – February 2016

February 23, 2016/ Gwen Morrison

So many good things to eat – even in the winter time. We have it so much easier than people did 100 years ago!

I enjoyed stir fry slaw this month. It was a quick meal-in-a-bowl for a winter lunch. I simply stir fried apply, broccoli and frozen cranberries in a skillet…added a heap of savoy cabbage and some sliced smoked turkey…added a bit of General Tso’s Sauce at the end. The red of the cranberries and apple skins adds just the right spark of color.

Hearty soups are also a favorite for winter lunches – another meal-in-a-bowl. This month I made mushroom soup. It is easy to make and beautiful too!

Cut up fresh mushrooms, sautéed in a little olive oil.
Put in beef bouillon and water…dried onions…ground up dry roasted soy beans (I just processed them in my small food processor)…soba noodles.
After it cooks about 4 minutes add almond milk.
After the soba noodles are cooked (it usually takes a total of 5 minutes, but read the package) – pour into a bowl…drizzled pumpkin seed oil…and scatter some pumpkin seeds.

This is a high protein soup with mushrooms, dry roasted soy beans, and soba noodles. The drizzle of pumpkin seed oil – dark and rich – and the seeds on top add to its appeal.

Now for a snack: blue corn ships with hummus. I like the color contrast. It is very easy to eat too many so I always prepare the number that I want to eat on a plate – and don’t go back for more!

Egg casseroles are becoming my favorite beautiful food to make, enjoy for one meal…and then several more. I usually make the 4 serving size and include whatever is handy in my refrigerator. The baking dish I use is the perfect size and has a lid so I can easily store the left overs in the refrigerator. Note: I am lactose intolerant so am using non-dairy products, egg casseroles can obviously be made with milk and cheese.

The general recipe for this one:

Whisk together 4 eggs and a scant cup of almond milk.
Add broccoli (processed in a food processor), dried parsley, dried onion (and any other seasonings desired). Whisk.
Cover bottom of baking dish with non-dairy cheese substitute. Pour egg and vegetable mixture over the cheese.
Sprinkle pumpkin seeds on top.
Bake for 15 minutes at 425 degrees F and then for 30 minutes at 350 degrees F.

The green and yellow/gold colors are cheerful on a winter’s day – even if it is very gray outdoors!

I really am enjoying the cook that I’ve become... or maybe what I truly enjoy is evolving the way I prepare food to appeal to the taste buds and the eyes! The other requirement is that it be good nutritionally too.

February 02, 2016

Zentangle® – January 2016

February 02, 2016/ Gwen Morrison

Last year at this time I was taking my first Zentangle® class. I’ve branched out in several directions from the ‘purity’ of those initial black ink, standard size efforts. Not I like to experiment with colors – inks and colored pencils. The images sometimes take on the look of something ‘real’ although in a very abstract way. I have favorite patterns that tend toward tentacles rather than squares. I take inspiration from just about everything – plants, pottery, tiles, art. Even the size and type of paper title has varied – sometimes because I am trying to use up materials that have been around the house for ages and sometimes because the paper is just handy. The last two in the collection for this month were done in a blank book with a regular ball point pen while I was in an airport! Everyone could us a little Zen in an airport….

January 04, 2016

Zentangle® – December 2015

January 04, 2016/ Gwen Morrison

It’s now been a full year of Zentangle®-a-day. It’s become an easy habit to maintain. Did I draw more spirals and fiddleheads in December with Hawaiian vegetation as my inspiration – maybe. I also continued to name my Zentangles. Can you find the one I titled ‘female cyclops’?