Focus on the Zentangle® Method

I have discovered Audio Zentangle® Meditations which is run on Ha!designs Blog. I have very much enjoyed participating in this as it really focuses on the Zentangle Method. Don't get me wrong, the challenges are great, I enjoy them and they make me try tangle patterns I might have thought were too difficult and that stretches me, but I spend a lot of time choosing the patterns and deciding what to do, thinking about how to make it different etc. I do get a sense of achievement, and love to view all the ZIA's, but I am trying to run before I can walk and I wouldn't really describe it as a relaxing meditative experience.

I am only about four weeks into this Zentangle® journey and I need to remember to practise the basics. As I mentioned before I have no Zentangle meetings I can attend so this Audio Zentangle Meditation is a great teaching tool for me and was very calm and relaxing. You begin with no visual clues as to which tangle pattern you will be drawing. Holly explains exactly what equipment you need, a little breathing technique, and then explains each step of the featured tangle and follows along with you. This Bijou tile is my result, I cropped the picture with the ruler in as it is hard to get a sense of scale with Bijou tiles but they are so cute in Real Life.

It's A String Thing is another challenge that I think leans more towards the basic Zentangle® Method.  Each week Adele chooses a string and a few tangle patterns which you then draw in any design you like. The fact that it has the string and patterns chosen for you tends to make me concentrate on the basic full tile experience and afterwards it is interesting to see which bits Adele picks out to comment on.

This week we used String 090 by Carole Koesters.

The Star of the Show was tangle pattern Mel Mel invented by Adele herself (how clever, will I ever get that good?) and tangle patterns Cruffle by Sandy Hunter & Curl by Lu-Marie Laker.

Mel Mel was so good to draw, it just flows and is light and airy. I took one look at Cruffle and thought 'Oh no, I will never be able to do that', but in fact after studying the Step-out I tried it and really enjoyed drawing it. The one that looks easy was the hardest for me, Curl. I could get the different strokes ok, but putting it together on a tile just didn't work for me.

So here is my tile for It's a String Thing #98