December 11, 2019

Decorating for Christmas

December 11, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

Our decorating has lagged this year because of my travel at Thanksgiving and then the flurry of volunteer gigs right after I returned. My husband put the wreath on the door before I got home from Springfield, Missouri but it wasn’t until this last weekend that we put the tree up.

We are keeping it simple this year – just lights and Zentangle coasters on our white tree. I’m still creating more coasters so there will be others added to the tree as the month progresses. I started with about 40 this past weekend.

I put the cards from past years on the door scrunchies as I usually do….and more cards will be under the plastic on our breakfast table.

Festive…without a lot of effort.

December 01, 2019

Zentangle® - November 2019

December 01, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

The 30 tiles I picked for November were all ‘project’ tiles. 28 of them are 3-inch paper coasters with patterns made with red Sharpie Ultra-Fine pens. The round coasters are thick enough that both sides can be tangled. My plan is to punch a hole in the coasters and use them as ornaments on my Christmas tree or hanging between the newel posts of my stair and loft railings. I’ll be making more in December and will post about how I am displaying them.

The other projects were 4-inch tiles made with window plastic…patterns made with Sharpie Fine point. These tiles will go in the corner partitions of a glass paneled door at my daughter’s house.

Overall – this continues my tilt over the past few months toward Zentangle tiles with a purpose beyond the Zen of their creation.

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 28, 2019

Ten Little Celebrations – November 2019

November 28, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

Today is **Thanksgiving** here in the U.S….so I’ll start out my list of celebrations for this month with that holiday. It’s a day to reflect on what we appreciate in our life. There is so much to be thankful for. I even remembered to put the Indian corn on our front door the day after Halloween so I could enjoy it all month.

Robinson Nature Center - I am celebrating the new volunteer opportunities…more indoors that my other gigs. This winter won’t be a lull in volunteer activities!

Fennel – I celebrated that there was organic fennel in my grocery’s produce section!

HoLLIE lecture – An interesting lecture….and a reminder to celebrate the richness of learning opportunities close to where I live.

A sunny fall day – The month had some cold temperatures. I realized that seeing the sun on those cold days (even if through a window) is a little celebration.

Zentangle Christmas ornaments – I managed to start early making designs on both sides of paper coasters with a red Ultra-fine Sharpie. They are a celebration to make…to display…to give away.

Witch hazel blooming – Something blooming in November…with streamers…just when the trees are losing their leaves. Worth noticing and a celebration.

Mowing leaves – It works! The yard looks good and my back doesn’t hurt. A strategy to celebrate.

Howard Country Conservancy preK – 3rd grade field trips – October was the peak of the field trip season but the ones in November had their own challenges – some cold, some wet…some windy. Overall – they were a good time in the outdoors for all – celebrating fall.

Road trip to Springfield MO– Road trips on my own are always a good time to think and enjoy the open road…celebrating with family when I get there.

November 13, 2019

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts – Part 2

November 13, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

Continuing the highlights from our visit to the Virginial Museum of Fine Arts….

The Ancient gallery is dedicated to Egyptian, Greek, Roman and Etruscan art. I was glad the museum permits (non-flash) photography because there were lots of Zentangle prompts in the pots. Thinking about how old some of them are…how amazing it is that they survived…that they still appeal to us now. Some of them appeared to be more functional objects than art but may those pieces tell us more about the lives of long-ago peoples that things intended only for display or another special purpose.

2019 10 hf IMG_5866.jpg — I’d never seen an Egyptian bust that was intentionally made from a rock with a vein of another color across the face. It is quite striking and was the ‘style’ for a short period of Egyptian history.

2019 10 hf IMG_5895.jpg — In the East Asian gallery, there was black screen with botanical images. It did not look as impressive until I zoomed with the camera and made out the detail of the images.

Other items from the East Asian gallery provided a diversity of styles and materials. The small bowl is made from agate.

Back for a last look as some pieces from the Ancient gallery….gold piece from a crown, more pottery, jewelry and two small friezes.

For a short walk around, we saw a lot of interesting (and beautiful) things!

November 11, 2019

Chuy’s Tiles as a Zentangle® Prompt

November 11, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

We stopped at a Chuy’s restaurant on our way home from Staunton River State Park and I photographed a few of the tiles because they were excellent Zentangle prompts.

I combined several ideas into one and made a reticula that I tangled in 3 orientations on Bijou tiles (2” squares). What fun! The same pattern with different orientations.

The idea reminded me of a symmetry course I took on Coursera back in summer and fall of 2014. It’s no longer available from Coursera and my notes are more about crystals and the semantics to talk about symmetry than the videos of symmetry in plants and tiles that were side lectures for the course. Still – I remember enjoying the course more because of those side lectures.

November 01, 2019

Zentangle® - October 2019

November 01, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

Lots of ideas tried in October...31 tiles.

I did some experimented with not filling in all the spaces on a tile. What do think? Which one of the two do you the best from below? It’s easy to save an intermediate version on the iPad and then continue to fill in the blank areas.

On my iPad, I continued to experiment with colors and simple patterns.

Probably my favorite tile of the month was done on black paper with gel pens….no shading. I like the irregular black spaces too.

b zen 19 10 (17).jpg — I discovered that my hole punch works on the paper coasters I am using as tiles…and they are thick enough to make a pattern on both sides. I’m buying some red pens and will make ornaments for my Christmas tree or to thread onto ribbon to make a garland for the stair railing.

The square paper tiles vary in size from 3 inch to 4.5 inch…impossible to tell after I scan them since they are all square. There are still a lot of gingo leaves this month; It may be my favorite pattern from now on!

October 17, 2019

River Boot Tangle

October 17, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

I decided to make my river boots (that I use for field trips with high schoolers into rivers and streams looking for macroinvertebrates) unique with a Zentangle®.

I chose the gingo pattern – which has become one of my favorites since it was shared on the TanglePatterns site in late August. These boots are several years old and are scuffed from the river rocks near the foot part of the boots…but the surface I tangled was relatively smooth. I used a Sharpie and only worked on the outer side of the boots…so I still have room for more tangling.

So – even if I somehow take off my boots and they get in the pile of boots we have for the students…I’ll always be able to spot mine!

October 08, 2019

Beautyberry as Zentangle® Prompt

October 08, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

When I was at Mount Vernon in December there was an American Beautyberry growing at the edge of the bowling green. I took a picture of the bush then zoomed in on a stem with berries.

Nature is a great source of prompts for tangle patterns…and the purple clusters of the beautyberry are one of the easier examples. There is not much deconstruction required…the pattern is just some parallel dashed lines for the stem and filling the spaces between the stem lines with the tipple pattern. Easy!

October 01, 2019

Zentangle® - September2019

October 01, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

I had plenty of tiles to choose the 30 to feature in this Zentangle-a-day post for September. There were some patterns that came up again and again during the month. The dominant one was gingo. I’ve always liked the trees and was thrilled to see the pattern posted on TanglePatterns.com site in late August. 13 of the 30 tiles I picked for September were this pattern…sometimes as a mono-pattern tile and sometimes with other patterns or a background. The ones with the dark background below were made on the iPad…others were done on square heavy paper/light cardboard tiles of various sizes and colors.

The feather-like pattern that I enjoyed so much with the campers is still one of my favorites…with variations.

I did an experiment with the paradox pattern – making the ‘same’ tile on paper and with the iPad. I love the meta-pattern that paradox creates and made two different ones. I was going to pick a favorite (meta-pattern and media) but I liked all of them.

Periodically I enjoy making a tile with a crazy string and then just filling in. Both tiles below were simply filling in shapes where only a point touched the area I had just finished coloring. For the second one – I made some red dots on the tile after I drew the string but before I started filling in shapes. It is surprising how different they look….so dependent on the scribbled string!

Then there were 8 tiles that didn’t fit any of the above categories. Sometimes it’s just fun to try something different!

September 05, 2019

Zentangle® in the Transom Window

September 05, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

In my September 1st blog post, I talked about the large Zentangle I was making on window film…and then forgot to include the photos of the segments taken before it was huge (from right to left). So here they are now –

My husband helped me attach the window film to the transom window above the French doors in our breakfast area. I cleaned the window thoroughly before wetting it a little then positioning the plastic film and using a shower Squeegee to smooth out the air bubbles. The matte white film with Zentangle patterns is very effective at making our dinner table less sunny! I wish I would have thought of doing this sooner. If I get tired of the patterns…I can take it down and make another.

This is prompting me to think about what I might do with window film for Christmas. Right now I’m thinking: red Sharpie for the patterns and the same type window film….for the narrow windows on either side of my front door.

September 01, 2019

Zentangle® - August 2019

September 01, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

The August Zentangles included a lot of variety. I collected up 31 to demonstrate. There are nine general tiles created on the iPad (black background usually with white ‘ink’ created using Procreate and an Apple Pencil).

Three general tiles are on card stock using a Sharpie Ultra Fine pen.

Everything else has something different for my ‘norm.’ I found a pad of black paper left over from my daughter’s teen age years (over 10 years ago). I drew 3.5 inch squares on the tiles and made tangle patterns using metallic gel pens. The silver shows up the best. I’ll be gradually using up the rest of the pad this fall.

The butterfly tiles I had left from the activity are 2 of the 31 tiles this month.

And then there are the feather themed tiles I made preparing for the activity with summer campers and guiding the Zentangle class.

Last but not least – I tangled a long rectangle of window film for a transom window over the French door in our breakfast area. I used Sharpie Fine Point pen on slightly pebbled mist film. The photographs below are segments before it was hung. This project is -by far – my biggest Zentangle to date!

August 11, 2019

Summer Camp Volunteering- Week 3

August 11, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

The theme for last week’s Howard Count Conservancy’s summer camps was ‘Water Wizards.’ The campers at both Mt. Pleasant and Belmont made terrific water themed Zentangles®! I started out the sessions by briefly talking about the water cycle…how water moves on our planet and in the atmosphere….honed for the 5-12 years old campers. I projected a simple diagram of the water cycle from the NASA website….and then used the same set up to enable the campers to see how I drew some water themed patterns on pale blue cardstock (using the camera on the iPad which was hooked to a projector).

There were three groups at Mt. Pleasant. They all enjoyed frogs eggs and tadpoles, raindrops making ripples in a pond, mist….and clouds. The youngest group made rainbows! I used 4.5-inch squares for the youngest group (last of the group of 3 mosaics below); the other two used 3.5-inch squares.

At Belmont, the session was on a hot afternoon and the campers appreciated the time to cool off inside. I took a picture of the room before the campers arrived – the cool and calm before a flurry of activity.

After a short discussion of the water cycle, the room was filled with very focused campers making Zentangle patterns. One of the counselors came in and commented about how quiet the room was. It wasn’t silent exactly…everyone was just busy. The first mosaic were made by the older group and are 3.5-inch squares…and some that finished early made mini-tiles on 2-inch squares. The younger group used the larger 4.5-inch tiles. Both groups enjoyed frog eggs and tadpoles, cattails (or seaweed), raindrops into a pond, and mist.

Each week I do Zentangles, there are a few campers from prior weeks that know the Zentangle basics…and others that are new. All are keen to learn some patterns and are tickled with the tiles they create. There’s always a crowd around the mosaic at the end.

August 01, 2019

Zentangle® - July 2019

August 01, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

There was quite a lot of variation on the Zentangle front in July. There was a challenge on the long road trip days and then being very busy the rest of the time. Some days there was plenty of time to make several tiles…other days were too short to do anything other than on the critical path to get my daughter moved to Missouri! In the end – I still had a lot of tiles to choose from to come up with 31 tiles for July. The normal variation is seen in this first group made on the iPad with the Apple Pencil using the Procreate App. I found the iPad the easiest to work with at the end of a long day of driving.

I started experimenting with some square paper coasters for tiles early in the month.

There was also a series that were created with a spiral string then a single pattern….all on the iPad.

The most different tiles the samples I made using the butterfly tiles I used with the summer campers last week. It was fun experimenting with the shape and working with symmetry.

July 28, 2019

Zentangle® Butterflies at Summer Camp

July 28, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

I enjoyed making Zentangle butterflies with about 70 Howard County Conservancy summer campers last week. They were in 5 groups and 2 locations. The first three groups were done outdoors on picnic tables set up with blotter papers and pen/pencil in holders to keep them from rolling away. There was a little breeze, but the pen/pencil holder had just enough weight to keep everything in place.

I attached my sample butterflies to a plant hook and a pad of paper to use for pattern demonstration on an easel. This was the calm before the first group of campers arrived.

The campers overall were ages 5-12. The oldest of the three groups came first…the youngest were last. I presented different patterns to each group as we talked about butterfly body parts and symmetry. The campers were focused and were very creative both with the patterns (and making up their own) as well as adding color. I took a picture of the creations from each group (click on the image below to see a larger version).

The following day, I did two groups at the second location. This time I was indoors and used the projection technique with the iPad camera (that I had used during my session with the camp counselors back in early June) to demonstrate the patterns. The youngest group came first followed by the older group. I corralled the butterflies for a picture at the end of each session (although one was missing from the older group and I ended up taking that picture later).

Overall, I was pleased with these sessions and I am getting better as a CZT as I gain experience. For example – the blotter papers get used for additional artwork rather than just blotter papers and then the next camper comments on what is on their blotter! The different age groups have different types of challenges which I will get better at detecting…but they all produced beautiful and interesting Zentangle butterflies!

July 18, 2019

Zentangle Pattern from a Dog Bed

July 18, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

It seems like everywhere I look these days I see Zentangle pattern possibilities. My parents had a dog bed with a pattern in the cover that was easy to deconstruct.

2019 07 dog bed.jpg — The first tile I made using the idea was a round coaster….and some old gel pens. The pens skipped but I decided that the skips simply made the pattern look more unique – maybe like part of the lines had deteriorated with age or usage.

The second tile was on my iPad. I didn’t worry about make octagon shapes. It’s surprising how little variations make the pattern look so different.

I’ll always think of this pattern as ‘dog bed’!

July 01, 2019

Zentangle® - June 2019

July 01, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

I had a lot of tiles to choose from in June….it was the usual challenge to limit myself to 30 – June having only 30 days.

2019 06 phicops img111 (1).jpg — I did a series of tiles with the phicops pattern for the whole tile – using it like a string for other patterns. All of these were physical tiles.

2019 06 img098.jpg — And then there were all the others – the black tiles are digital (iPad)…which shows that about half my picks for June were digital…half physical.

I’ll be doing a several road trips in July. It will be an adventure in Zentangle-on-the-go. I anticipate that I’ll create tiles at the beginning or end of the day….unless there is a substantial storm and I stop to wait it out.

June 28, 2019

3 Free eBooks – June 2019

June 28, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

There was quite a variety of books to pick from in my book list for this month…difficult to pick just three. I realized that I have started gleaning from my book list for other posts beyond this monthly one. I feature the botanical books in a separate post and I’ve started collecting images to use for Zentangle pattern prompts (i.e. images that are easily decomposed into patterns and used to create Zentangle tiles) which I will probably become blog posts occasionally too!

Pennell, Joseph; Pennell, Elizabeth Robbins. Two pilgrims’ progress; from fair Florence to the eternal city of Rome. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company. 1899. Available on Internet Archive here. This husband and wife team travelled between Florence and Rome on an odd ‘bicycle built for two.’ He was the artist and she was the writer. I enjoyed their other books available online too.

76d 19 06.jpg — Jammes, Andre; Sobieszek, Robert A.; White, Minor. ***French Primitive Photography***. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art. 1969. Available on Internet Archive here. A little history not only of photography but for the subjects of the photographers as well. There are quite a few images from Egypt in the mid-1800s of famous monuments before the sand was moved from the lower portions…or had just been removed.

98k 19 06.jpg — Perkins, Lucy Fitch. ***The Belgian Twins***. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. 1917. Available on Internet Archive here. The author wrote a whole series of books about twins from around the world between 1911 and 1934. Evidently, she interviewed someone that had grown up in each country to gain understanding of children’s lives there. She also incorporated aspects of history; World War I was woven into this book about Belgium published in 1917 and the book about French twins published in 1918. Many of the books are available on Internet Archive. The sketch type illustrations are the aspect of these books I enjoyed the most.

June 27, 2019

Leading a Zentangle® Class

June 27, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

I applied what I learned at the Certified Zentangle Trainer class (taken back in April) with a group of summer camp counselors last week…a prelude to working with the summer campers in a few weeks. The counselors were in their pre-camp training session. Most of the camp with be outdoor activities but on very rainy or hot days….creating Zentangle tiles can be a great option.

I prepared for the session by developing a method to project my work on a screen (iPad on a tripod, Camera app, connector to allow display of the iPad screen on any projector/screen via HDMI cable) and making folded paper ‘trays’ to keep the pencil and pen together (not rolling around the table).

I also made variations of the tile I would coach them to make during the first session.

The session with the camp counselors took a little over 30 minutes in all….and look what they created! Now one took an after lunch nap…they were all too focused on creating the patterns on their tile.

I am always impressed by class mosaics…how every tile expresses the individuality of the person that created it.

After the session we had a feedback session and agreed that the apprentice tiles (4.5 inches square) should be used for the younger campers….that the smaller ones (3.5 inches square) might appeal to the older campers that want to create tiles with more detail. Allowing more than 30 minutes would be good too!

June 02, 2019

Zentangle® - May 2019

June 02, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

May was a busy month…but I made time to keep my Zentangle-a-day plan and did more than one on some days. 18 of the 31 tiles I picked for May were made on the iPad. My favorites are still the black background with white ‘ink’.

There were some with a different color background or ink.

Toward the end of the month I started experimenting with complex loopy strings and mixed patterns that made some different looking tiles than my usual.

Switching away from the digital tiles - I am still enjoying the 3-inch round coasters. I did a lot of experimenting with the phicops pattern in May.

I made very few square tiles. I will probably be making more in June in preparation for my first ‘class’ as a CZT to dry run the module I will do with summer campers during the counselor training in mid-June.

I’ve been making small tiles (2” squares, Bijou size) with single patterns that I will use as prompts when I’m teaching…or to help select patterns for my own tiles.

As usual – looking back at the Zentangle tiles I produced in May is very satisfying. It’s awesome to see all of them collected together…realizing I made all them…savoring them again.

May 01, 2019

Zentangle® - April 2019

May 01, 2019/ Gwen Morrison

At the beginning of April, I was in the Certified Zentangle Trainer class…creating tiles as we learned best strategies for teaching others the Zentangle® Method. The tiles were put into a journal with corners like were used for pictures in old scrapbooks. My two favorite tiles that I did during the class were the ‘creature’ tile and the triangular tile (the different tile shape and color).

I didn’t include the tiles from class in my 30 picks for April (I averaged over 3 tiles for each day of April…so had a challenge to pick just 30 for this blog post!). I’ve grouped them into 2 groups below:

The tiles I made on the iPad. I keep returned to black background and white ‘ink’ – even though I sometimes am in the mood for color…change up a little…temporarily.

The big experiment of the month was some round coasters I ordered from Amazon (here). They are 3-inch rounds rather than 4.5-inch that we did in class (and I found overwhelmingly large). The coasters are a good thickness and texture for Zentangle. I’ve used two pens: the Pigman Pen 05 (used for younger students…which I will have in summer campers this summer) and the Sharpie Ultra Fine (lots of colors). At some point I might experiment with a sealer and use them as coasters!