Diva Challenge #359: Finger Stringer (or something like that)

Back in April, the Zentangle Diva Laura Harms issued a challenge called “Finger Stringer”. The task was use our fingers in an “interesting” (thats what she said) way to create a string for us to tangle in.

Well, I tried to tackle that challenge. However, I’m not 100% sure if the two tiles I do qualify since I only tangled AROUND my hand. But almost as soon as she wrote the word “interesting” my mind was set to do something that would incorporate my other big hobby next to tangling/drawing: the game of Go (or 囲碁 (jap. igo), 圍棋 (chin. wéiqi) or 바둑 (kor. baduk).

+++ Little note abot Go, if you know it already or are not interested, please feel free to skip it +++

Probably you’ve heard from it, there has been QUITE a bit of a ruckus the last two years because AlphaGo revolutioned computer Go and the wayartificial intelligence work. Go basically is a 4,000 year old game originally from China. It’s played by two people alternately playing black and white round pieces on the intersections of a grid of 19×19 lines (other sizes are used, too, especially by beginners). To win you have to surround more free intersections than the other player. To check out the basic rules, click here. It’s such a deep, challenging and interesting game! And, just like in Zentangle, it sometimes allows me to zone out completely as I only focus on the board and the moves being played to find the best possible counter to an opponent’s move (within the range of my poor abilities XD). I’ve been playing for.. almost 15 years now, I think, and it is the only game so far that never gets boring.

+++ End of Go-related infos +++

Well, anyway.. this is my response to the Diva’s challenge:

Tangles used: Diva Dance, Button

Tangles used: Diva Dance

Especially the second tile is among my all time favourite tiles, I’m really happy how both of them turned out! It’s such a simple and obvious thing to do, but without the Diva I’d never have thought to do it. So, THANKS a lot for the inspiration, Laura!

Please also check out the wonderful artwork the Diva and everyone else did for this challenge by going to the Diva’s blog post!

This challenge inspired me to “go bigger” and tangle a mosaic of a whole board one day. I already laid it out on one of our Go boards: I’d have to tangle 25 or (rather, to have some kind of border going round) 30 tiles fo that. Wow.. that surely feels like a daunting task! But one step at a time… it might work out. I already picked the game, too, it’ll be Honinbo Shusaku’s famous ear-reddening-game from 1846. Hmm… or maybe an interesting game from my most favourite today’s professional player, Iyama Yuta? Hmmm….. You see, I still have to work out a few things until I can get started! Anyways, I’d just LOVE to hang it in our flat (which since we moved in definitely lacks some pictures on the wall). As soon as I start I’ll keep you up to date with my progress. Giving updates and seeing how I progress here will definitely motivate me to keep going.

Have a nice weekend!

Still waters run deep

A short post for a little something I did today:

Tangles used: Crescent Moon (like it a lot for the first time ever woohooo!), Diva Dance & Tipple

I really like it a lot, it even looks a liiiiiiiiitle bit like something one of my favourite tanglers, Margaret Bremner, could have done. Just a little bit.

My unconscience played me a neat trick here because only a few hours before I first put pen to paper on this tile I started watching Avatar – The last Airbender (the cartoon series) and the first part is all about waterbending (that is controlling the element of water so it can be manipulated at the Avatar’s / waterbender’s will). So… I guess I might have to do a tile for earth, wind and fire, too, as the series progresses.. We’ll see! It’s a lovely series and it would be cool to have a little element set for myself.

The downside is that the tile literally took half the day to tangle and colour in.. Hope to get faster here soon! For this tile I sued some watercolour base (Schmincke Horadam) and then my trusty Faber-Castell Polychromos. It somehow felt right to use them here and not my new love, the Caran d’Ache Luminance (there’s always next time!).

Have a nice week!

Diva Challenge #358: Pickpocket again!

The challenge was just so much fun, so I sat down with another tile featuring Pickpocket (for the first one click >>here<<) and the result after many hours of tangling, colouring and fun is this:

Tangles used: Diva Dance, Pickpocket, Printemps, Verdigogh

I baptised this tangle Pickpocketii PriVerDiDa and it was such fun to tangle, colour (must be the lack of spring) and finally name this tree, too! I hope I’ll get to do more plants of all kinds in the future and have the joy to name them, too.

Be sure to check out the Diva’s tiles and the other wonderful contributions from tanglers all over the world >>here<<.

Have a wonderful sunny Sunday!

Sign of Life

Dear all,

it’s been some time since my last post. Unfortunately, work has had me in a firm grip since the start of the year and February & March were especially intense, thus the long time without any post. I did tangle a bit here and there but mostly I was simply too tired to work on the Diva Challenges or even publish some posts that I had already written in January (and which are still waiting to be published). However, I think that these extreme times are over and that there’ll be more life in the near future.

Here are a few works I tangled since the last post that I like a lot:

Tangles used: Ruutz, Black Pearlz, Printemps, Fassett, Hamail, Wheelz

Tangles used: Ginili, Shattuck

These ATCs I tangled for a swap with a friend over at the German ATC website kakao-karten.de. Actually, only the first ATC was for our swap, the second one was a birthday gift and the first work I used my Finetec colours with. You see the shiny golden Ginili there? The gold was done with one of my Finetecs which are about the same as the Kuretake Gansai Tambi many tanglers are already using. I bought a set at the beginning of the year and I LOVE them! Here’s a picture where you can see their shininess a little better:

Tangling on top is a little hard sometimes since the colour seems to clutter the tip of the Micron a bit, but with a little patience it works just fine. I also think that it’s a perfect match with my latest favourite pattern, Ginili. Isn’t it a wonderful pattern?

Tangles used: Ansu, Fescu, Garlic Cloves, Ginili, Onamato, Pozer, Tipple, Zinger

This next piece I did for my mother’s birthday. My sister and I gave her a trip to Berlin this year since the International Garden Exhibition will be in Berlin this year. The picture is part of our gift certificate (that’s why there’s a lot of empty space at the top). I like the picture overall, although Zinger looks a little blocky here. But I guess it’s ok since I was a little under time pressure and finished it at 3am on the morning I had to send it over to my sister to finish it. 😀 I really like Garlic Cloves here, it’s a great pattern to use for “gardening textures”. The background was done with watercolours. I then tangled on that background and shaded with Polychromos coloured pencils. Shading was a lot of fun here!

Tangles used: Auraknot, Ginili, Hollibaugh, Printemps, Zedbra

My latest piece is a traditional tile and I really love how it turned out! It all started with Auraknot, then Ginili joined in and the challenge was to connect both of them. But Hollibaugh (here with dark and bright “strands”), some smaller Auraknots and Printemps did a good job here, I think. Shading the small Auraknots was a challenge though. But if it’s larger, it doesn’t get any easier, too, and I guess I tend to “overshade” it. I’ll have to do some research how everyone else is shading it! It’s always great to see how others are shading or tangling a particular tangle.

You might have noticed that I didn’t scan the tile as I usually do and post a cropped picture. The reason is that I bought a roll cutter which creates a lovely deckle edge. I SO, SO love it! My scanner, however, is not nearly as thrilled as I am and crops the picture as it thinks is best – without the deckle edges.. That’s why I bought a small easel (like many other tangles already did before me) and will have to post the tiles like this in the future if I want to keep the edges. But maybe you think that’s an improvement? Let me know what you think, I’d love to know! 🙂

That’s it for today, I hope to see you here again soon!