Trees

I've had a very busy week. I signed up for Julie Gibbons 5 days of Mandala Magic which happened last week. Each day videos and excercises to do with mandalas opened up. I had hoped it would help me with Zendalas. If I knew more about Mandalas and their symbols perhaps I would be better able to chose tangle patterns to make Zendalas with. It didn't quite work out like that but I did learn an awful lot about Mandalas and I was able to use tangle patterns in some of the excercises we were set. Here is a concentric circle Mandala that I made:-

You will notice I put a gemstone in the centre of the Mandala. That is the other thing I was busy with last week. The Zentangle groups on Facebook have gone gem mad (not, I am glad to say, my beloved Purely Zentangle Facebook group;-). I am still practicing gems, using these instructions. As I didn't have a white pen I just left a white kidney shaped gap at the top of the dark area and that seemed to work, but next day I went in search of a white pen and that really made a difference.

Glassy gems are another string to my bow, but I think we have to be careful about when and where they are used. I know there are some tangle patterns such as Pookroot and verdigogh which look pretty real in some artists hands, but by and large ZIA's are abstract drawings so I don't suddenly want large jewellery springing up in the middle of them. I think it is really amazing how you can create things that look like glass or gems out of just paint or crayons, but I prefer it when it is used as an embellishment just like we sometimes use dewdrops. Here I have put three zen gems in the gaps at the centre and corners of this Hamadox, but it is the tangle which is the focus of the tile.

Having said I think ZIA's are largely abstract drawings this week's Diva Challenge is to pick a tangle and draw trees with it. Now last week I branched out with Hollibaugh challenge and made trees out of the Hollibaugh tangle, so this week I have used the tangle pattern Twiggy which is designed to look like a tree, but I added small green zen gems on each branch to represent an apple tree.