Today’s happiness is brought to you by a tangling-related tidbit from my time in Victoria – a photo of one of my very earliest Zentangle1 tiles that’s now framed and hanging in my sister Dee’s place.
100 Happy Days – Day 39
I’d forgotten all about it until I was scrolling through my photo stream today looking for something else, and I smiled as soon as I saw it. I’m telling you, there’s something so very thrilling (and definitely happy-making) about seeing your work in someone else’s space!
→ The 100 Happy Days web site
→ My 100 Happy Days posts
Now, on to today’s Tangled Tuesday musings.
I wanted to repay Dee for teaching me how to make needle felted pumpkins, so I asked her if she wanted to learn some tangling basics from me while I was in Victoria. While I am not (yet) a certified teacher (and Dee’s aware of that!), I was able to share a little of what I’ve taught myself and also show her a few patterns. Here’s her very first tangled tile:
My sister Dee’s very first tangled tile
Last time I talked to her on the phone she said she was drawing little berries on stems as we spoke, so my work here is done. 🙂
As you’ll know if you’ve been watching this space, this past weekend I finished the letter Z in my tangled alphabet series…
Zenletter Z
…which means that the creation part of this particular project is now FINISHED! (I celebrated that fact a few days ago, in case you happened to miss it.)
I also shared in yesterday’s post that I’d taken the entire set of letters in to the print shop and had them scanned. I was going to get started on converting and editing the digital files in preparation for setting up monogrammed products for sale at Ten Thousand Tangles, but when I looked at the digital files a little closer I realized that I wasn’t satisfied with how the shading turned out, particularly on the ribbon portion of each piece.
I asked around to some of my artist friends and they suggested that rather than scanning the drawings in black and white, I should try using grayscale or even colour settings. I experimented a bit on my own home scanner, and discovered that the end result when using either option is FAR superior to the black and white version that I had done at the printers – on the black and white version, the shading looked grainy, but on the other versions it had more dimension and gradation and was much closer to the original drawings.
Unfortunately, my home scanner isn’t quite big enough to accommodate the drawings, so I’m going to have to take them back to the printers and have them redone based on this new information before I set up any monogrammed products on Ten Thousand Tangles. It’s going to mean a bit of a delay in making the products available for sale, since I won’t be able to get back to the printers until Monday, but I think the extra time will be worth it in the long run. I really want anything I put out there to be of the highest quality possible, and now is my only chance to get the originals right, so if I have to take the extra few days now then so be it.
In the meantime, I guess I’ll spend my spare time learning new tangles (such a chore!), making some art (oh, the drudgery of it all!), and dreaming up my next “little” project (which I can guarantee will NOT involve creating 26 of ANYTHING in order to reach completion!).
P.S.
Previous posts in this series are all tagged Tangled Tuesday.
For background on how I discovered and got involved in Zentangle, and links to further information and resources, check out my blog post For the love of tangling.
You can browse my entire tangle gallery at Ten Thousand Tangles.
And, if you’re interested in having a little piece of my art for yourself, please click on the GoFundMe button below for more information and also visit my Zazzle shop Ten Thousand Tangles. (Pssst… links to my international Ten Thousand Tangles shops are in the Alphabet Salad sidebar – just click on the appropriate flag and you’ll get to the place you need to be!)
1The Zentangle® Method was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas and is copyrighted. Zentangle® is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc. Learn more at zentangle.com.
So… what made you happy today?
Please share!
