This has been a rather fun week of tangling, due in part to a last-minute pre-BlogHer ’14 creative project that was sparked by a link (along with a not-so-subtle suggestion!) sent my way by a friend and taken on by yours truly. I can’t share it with you just yet, as I’m not quite finished… but there WILL be photos for sure on my next Tangled Tuesday post, so please check back!
In the meantime, though…
Tangling Goodies
Since just this week I finished filling a third sketchbook with tangles I’ve learned, I thought it would be a good opportunity for me to share the details of my tangle reference system with you.
I started out using a Moleskine Sketchbook for my tangle practice sessions and have never looked back. I like Moleskines for several reasons such as their durable hard covers, nice quality of thick creamy-coloured paper, an elastic that wraps around the book to keep it closed when it’s not in use, and a pocket on the inside back cover for storing bits and pieces of paper, sticky notes and tabs, and so on. Oh, and a built-in fabric bookmark, too, to help you mark your place. Now that I’ve moved on to a second and third (and soon to be fourth!) book, I especially appreciate the consistency and uniformity of the Moleskines – something you may not get if you start with a less popular and readily-available brand and then are unable to find additional volumes to match (assuming such things are important to you!).
I used a white gel pen to write the volume number on the spine and also the front cover of each so I could easily tell the difference between them. Now don’t they look nice together?! I’ll definitely be glad they’re all the same size and shape when I’ve accumulated a whole shelf of them!
Now, on to my system. On the left-hand pages of the sketchbook I paste copies of the step-out instructions and samples of two new-to-me tangles. Then on the right-hand pages I set up two square spaces for tangling practice – one for each tangle – by tracing around a 3.5″ x 3.5″ piece of stiff cardboard (i.e., the size of the official Zentangle®1 tiles). Then to keep track of where each tangle is located (more on that below) I number each page of the sketchbook.
Here’s an example of a typical page spread – which happens to be the very first tangles I ever learned!
As I add new tangles to my sketchbook I make a note of them in a custom table of contents I created in Word which includes the name of the tangle, the volume it’s in, and the page(s) it’s on.
Here’s what the complete list looks like at this point (lots of tangles, huh?!) – if you’d like to see the document in more detail just click on the images to enlarge:
The nice thing about this document is that it can be sorted in various ways – for example, sorting it by tangle name gives me a complete alphabetical list of everything I’ve learned. Alternatively, sorting it by volume and then by tangle name gives me an alphabetical list of tangles grouped into volumes… so when I finish a sketchbook I can print out the list of tangles from just that volume and paste it into the front of the book as a table of contents.
So that’s my system! I’m sure there are as many ways to organize (or not) as there are tanglers, but the method I’m using is working really well for me, and hopefully by sharing it I’ve given you some ideas and inspiration that you can incorporate into your own tangle reference system.
New Tangles
This week I learned Orange Peel, Papyrus, Pinwheels, Printemps Variation, Purlbox, Pyramids, Queen’s Crown, Rain Variation, and Sabi, all from Joy of Zentangle. (If you’re following along in Joy of Zentangle you might notice that I’ve been skipping a few of the designs. This isn’t because I didn’t like or want to do them, but because I’ve previously learned them through one of my other books. As I mentioned in an earlier post, there is often overlap and some repetition between the various Zentangle books.)
I also learned Maryhill, which was posted this week on TanglePatterns.com and has become one of my new favourites!
Tangling-in-Progress
As I mentioned earlier, I’m in the midst (actually, nearing the end stages) of a fun last-minute tangling project (which will be shared here next week). I’m also in the early stages of the letter “L” in my alphabet series – I’m not sure how much time I’ll have to work on it this week, what with that little conference I’m attending and all, but you never know!
Finished Projects
I managed to complete the next letter in my alphabet series… though it took quite a bit longer than some, as this one has lots more surface area to cover!
Zenletter K
This was a fun one, and I’m quite happy with how it turned out.
Coming Soon
This week’s tangling goals include:
- Talk about tangling and hand out business cards for Ten Thousand Tangles to people I meet at BlogHer ’14.
- Carry on with my Zenletter collection.
- Continue adding products to Ten Thousand Tangles.
- Create pieces for new sponsors.
This week’s tangling goals do NOT 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. This long-postponed task is on hold until I return home from BlogHer ’14, at which point I will be seriously short on cash and will therefore get serious FOR REAL about setting up my Etsy store!
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.
