Tangled Tuesday No. 5

Even though the weather has been lovely and I’ve spent quite a bit of time outside taking advantage of the sunshine, blue skies, and generally perfect temperatures, it’s still been a very productive week in my little corner of the tangling world. I’m anxious to share it all with you, so welcome to another Tangled Tuesday on Alphabet Salad!

Tangling Goodies

I wrote in an earlier Tangled Tuesday post about the plastic pages I use to store my 3.5″ x 3.5″ and also my 2.5″ x 3.5″ Zentangle®¹ tiles. Hoping to find a similar product for my tangled bookmarks, I headed over to Crop Stop where I discovered some Pocketz Storage Sleeves which, while not specifically created for bookmarks, seemed as though they would do the trick. They arrived this week and I immediately put them to the test.

Bookmark Sleeves

As you can see they’re not totally perfect for the job, as part of each bookmark is exposed and therefore not fully protected, but that had been made clear in the product description and so it didn’t come as a surprise. Since most of the original bookmarks I make end up being sent to others, the items filed here will generally be photocopies to use as part of my portfolio, and I think these pages will work just fine for that purpose.

Today’s Amazon delivery included a copy of a new-to-me book I ordered to add to my ever-growing tangling reference library – Zenspirations Dangle Designs by Joanne Fink. It’s a fairly slim book – less than 20 pages in total and really more like a letter-size booklet – but it seems to be fairly packed with instructions and examples and includes some fun ideas which I’m looking forward to trying out. I think it’ll be a good companion to The Art of Whimsical Lettering (by Joanne Sharpe), and might even be the inspiration I need to start adding some colour to my tangles!

New Tangles

Since I’ve been working through it for what seems like forever, I was determined to finally finish Totally Tangled (by Sandy Steen Bartholomew) this week… and as a result, I learned a ton of new tangles: Heartline, Alice, Urchin, Hairy, Leopard, Jay, Linky, Caterpillar, Muzic, Stubs, ButNZ, Linkd, Ramy, Bannah, Abacus, Newell, Scraper, HiRise, and Lilah Bean. It was a bit of a marathon, but it feels good to have completed all the designs in the book!

Tangling-in-Progress

It was a tangling marathon in more ways than just learning new designs – I also finished everything I started, and currently have no WIP. I can guarantee it won’t be that way for long, though!

Finished Projects

In last week’s Tangled Tuesday post I shared the first letter – A, of course! – in my new tangled alphabet series. I’m really happy to say that I completed several new letters this week.

Zenletter B

Zenletter C

Zenletter D

Zenletter E

I’m generally pleased with how they turned out, but you know, on every finished piece I’ve done there is some detail or other (usually more than one!) that I’m just not happy with – and these are no exception. I am possibly my own worst critic, so of course as soon as I look at a particular piece my eye goes immediately to the bit I don’t care for and I feel as though it’s leaping off the page! Hopefully these flaws aren’t quite as visible to others as they are to me and they’re able to just appreciate each picture as a whole.

In Case You Missed It

I am grateful for the support of my friend Becky Cochrane, who not only purchased a Zendala button from Ten Thousand Tangles but also shared a photo and writeup about it in a blog post for her regular “Button Sunday” feature. Thank you so much, Becky!

Coming Soon

This week’s tangling goals include:

• Photograph my previously-completed set of four Zendalas and set up listings to sell the originals in my as-yet-to-be-opened Etsy store.
• Carry on with my Zenletter collection.
• Continue adding products to Ten Thousand Tangles.
• Create pieces for new sponsors.

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!)

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.