Tangled Tuesday No. 3

It’s Tangled Tuesday once again! While personally-speaking I have to say that it’s been a rather rough week (as you’ll know if you’ve been following Alphabet Salad regularly), some fairly momentous things have taken place, tangling-wise (at least I think they’re momentous!). Lots of exciting news and updates to be revealed, so here we go!

Tangling Goodies

I keep all of my finished 3.5″ x 3.5″ Zentangle®¹ tiles in a binder, stored in “Pocketz Pages” that hold 12 tiles per page (there are six perfectly-sized pockets on each sheet, and I put two tiles back-to-back in each pocket). For those of you who are tanglers looking for a storage solution, I highly recommend these pages, which are available from Crop Stop (here and here).

Recently I started tangling on Artist Trading Card (ATC) tiles (i.e., 2.5″ x 3.5″), and rather than use up my original storage pages (and waste space in the process) I set out to look for something specifically made for this size. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to find anything along these lines at Crop Stop; however, Amazon came to the rescue with a box of clear trading card pages. I think they’re meant to be used for sports trading cards, but since they work perfectly for ATCs it’s all good! They arrived in the mail this week, and I’m very happy with them.

Also included in my Amazon order was a book which, while not specifically Zentangle-related, is something that I hope will enhance what I’m doing with tangling and take me another step down the road, artistically-speaking. It’s The Art of Whimsical Lettering (by Joanne Sharpe), and while so far I’ve only had a chance to quickly flip through its pages, it looks very promising and exciting! I’m looking forward to experimenting with lettering as soon as I can make the time, and also seeing how I can incorporate it into some of my future tangle pieces.

New Tangles

I hadn’t learned any new tangles since I finished my Tangling from A to Z project, so I decided to pick up where I left off in Totally Tangled (by Sandy Steen Bartholomew) prior to the challenge.

This week I learned Swaddle, Gust, Ripple, Fyre, and CUdad… but honestly, I can’t say I was particularly happy with how any of them turned out! I’ll have to do some more practice and also try incorporating each of them into a finished piece and see if I end up liking them any better.

Tangling-in-Progress

Unbelievably, I currently have no WIP (or TIP, I suppose!) as I’ve been rather preoccupied with other tangling-related busy-ness (just keep reading and you’ll find out all about it!).

Finished Projects

I was quite tickled when a friend (and sponsor!) posted a photo on Facebook of Zentangle 75 (which I’d created especially for her), framed and hung in her home. It’s a rather odd (albeit in a good way!) feeling to know that something I created is on the wall in a house in a whole other country!

One of my goals for the week was to create a final circle ZIA to complete the set of four… and this is the result.

ZIA 18 – Zendala 4 of 4

Another goal was to have the four finished pieces scanned, which I accomplished by taking them to a local print shop. I was surprised at how inexpensive and quick the process was – I will definitely go the professional route every time from hereon in.

Here are all four together…

Set of Four Zendalas (ZIAs 15, 16, 17, and 18)

…and here are the originals, framed and ready to be hung.

Set of Four Zendalas, framed (ZIAs 15, 16, 17, and 18)

After much research and several sessions of internal agonizing, back-and-forth, humming-and-hawing, I finally decided on a price I felt was reasonable – $150 for each – then made display cards and dropped everything off this morning for hanging at my friend’s diner. I have absolutely ZERO idea if they’ll garner any interest, or if anyone will like any of them enough to actually purchase one, but I’m proud of myself for doing what it took to get my work out there.

Oh, and in other finished projects news… once my final circle ZIA was complete I wanted a smaller project that could be wrapped up quickly, so I made another simple bookmark.

ZIA Bookmark 6

You know, while I am (for the most part, at least) relatively secure about my writing – because after all, I’ve been doing THAT since forever – expressing my creativity in a visual way is fairly new to me. I am discovering in the process of exposing my art to the public that doing so can be surprisingly challenging, and I often find myself dealing with unwelcome feelings of vulnerability and self-doubt. Will anyone apart from me and my loved ones actually like my work? And if they do, will they like it enough to spend money on it, or are they happy just to look at it online? And if they SAY they like it, how do I know that they’re telling the truth? Maybe they’re just being polite and saying what they think I want to hear! So much insecurity… and dropping off those pictures this morning brought it all to the forefront.

But I am learning to deal with it. Every time I push myself a little further outside my comfort zone it gets a little easier to banish the worries and just get on with the delightful business of creating art. This week I took a HUGE step in that direction, which brings me to…

An Exciting Announcement!

I am SO pleased to tell you that after many, MANY hours of blood, sweat, and tears (not to mention earning a few grey hairs!) I am now able to announce the launch of my new Zazzle shop, Ten Thousand Tangles! I’ve created a huge variety of products in a wide range of prices, so I think there should be something for everyone… and I’d love if you’d check it out! (I’ve posted a banner in the Alphabet Salad sidebar – over there ↗ – so you can always find Ten Thousand Tangles even if you lose track of this post.)

I’m aiming to add new products on an ongoing basis (because honestly, there are a TON of items available on Zazzle, with more added every week!), so if you don’t see something you like please keep checking back. And, if there’s a specific product you’d be interested in seeing, please let me know and I’ll add that to the top of my priority list.

Coming Soon

This week’s tangling goals include:

• Continue adding products to Ten Thousand Tangles.
• Create pieces for new sponsors.
• Begin working on a new piece with rectangular dimensions and, if I get it finished, take it to the print shop for scanning.

P.S.

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.

¹ The 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.