Art on a Shoe String! - Spirography©

 Spirography©!

My new word for this artstyle and I'm 

putting a © on it! Hahaha!

Actually spirography is a real word that has

to do with breathing measurement and

breathing capacity.

I believe it correlates to the zentangle art form

due to the relaxation and calming effect

your breathing and tangling can give. 

Hence, spirography! 

Here is where the  Art on a Shoe String  part comes in!
To get started - grab your old spirograph  from the attic, or basement, or eBay,  or the local Good Will, or thrift shop,  or dollar store, or the nearest kid!  Seriously, there are so many places to find a spirograph for next to no money - or free! Then just have fun and go for it!

 I used my regular tangling pen -

an 0.1 micron.

(Some people use colored pens,

colored pencils, gel pens, 

anything with a narrow tip.)

For paper, I just used card stock.

Nothing pricey in this art project at all!

Not as easy as I remember it being as a kid.

Or maybe we just kept right on drawing

over those slipped lines and 

loved it anyway.

Hahaha!

I had the hardest time.

The inner ring that I had my pen in

kept slipping above the top edge of the

boundaries ring.

 I was getting really discouraged at this point.

But I am no quitter. Hahaha!

So I kept trying.

And trying. Ugh.  Actually, 'ugh' was the word for the day.

I looked through what I had and found one red loopy line that wasn't too bad. Then I added some tangles. Nothing too fancy to get started.
In the photo just above, the red line is the spirograph part. The black lines are the tangling I added. You can see that the tangling takes your eye away from the boo-boos. Spirography!

 Today I pulled my extras sheets out of the

trashcan, seriously, and tried again.

This one wasn't too bad.

I lifted my pen too soon and moved the ring.

Then I realized I hadn't completed the line

but it was too late to figure out how to fix it.

 I'm going to show you step by step

how I tangled this.

I started with some simple perfs (little circles)

around the spiro-ed section,

and made two pencil circles around the whole piece.

A couple simple lines divided this into 

more sections.

 Then I started joining the lines together

with triangles. Easy peasy.

 I turned the triangled boxes into a

somewhat version of knightsbridge.

 I thought about leaving the piece at that point,

but it didn't seem finished.

So, I added another circle around the 

outside and a little flying geese.

I liked how the piece looked at that point, so I called it complete and shaded it. I love shading - although I hate to do it. Spirography! I will keep working on this art style. Because it is so much fun! And so affordable!
Art on a Shoe String comes from the idea that art doesn't have to be expensive to be fun and enjoyable! I hope this series of posts help you realize that you can make beautiful art without it being costly.

Thursday String Idea #7

 Welcome to Week 7 of the

Thursday String Idea!

It is still Thursday for another 3 1/2 hours, so I am not late. Hahaha!

But close!

This past weekend I kicked off a new Facebook group called

Zentangle All Around.

We are focusing on tangling in the round,

and each Thursday I will be sharing the weekly

string idea with them.

If you are interested, go to Facebook and check us out.

We would love to have you join us!

Tangling in the round includes several things: round tangles, OR round tiles, OR tangling on any round substrate. Not every tangle used has to be round, there just have to be some manner of roundness included. Today's string has some curvy angles and I chose not to use any round tangles at all. Using a round string is enough to meet the qualifications.
You can print out the string template by clicking here.  The string is sized to fit a 3.5" tile.
The tangles I used are knightsbridge, cheesecloth, and msst.

Circle Stacking

Circle stacking is different than stacking circles. Hahahaha! And I have done those before. This is an idea developed by Italian tangler Simona Arian Cordara. You start with a circle, then lay in your string. Next add tangles. Shade, admire, reflect. 
I made this circle stack on a page in one of my smash books. From K & Co. That bright, pretty scrapbook paper is the perfect background for some tangling. Circle stacking. It's what's new!
Why don't you give it a try and  see what you can do?

Knights of the Round Table

Each week Joey hosts a tangle challenge. Some weeks I participate, some weeks I run behind schedule. This week I just happened to make it in time. Joey's prompt was to create a monotangle using the pattern knightsbridge. 

Typical knightsbridge is drawn in a checkerboard fashion. I altered that a bit in the path sweeping through the background in the artwork above. Then I took that same checkerboard idea and put it into circles. All those little circles divided into quarters and darkened ala knightsbridge are popping up in a lot of my drawings lately. I am referring to them as knights of the round table. My very own variation of knightsbridge. It doesn't hurt that I've been watching the British fantasy-adventure Merlin on netflix. I am finally in season 5 and Athur has just convened the Knights of the Round Table to discuss strategy. 

OK, Joey, I'm ready for week #35.

Dutch Diamonds

Still working on postcards - I may never get done - hahaha! Not sure why my ipad posted little dots in the center of most of these knightsbridge squares. The center line is a new tangle I've been working on. Mark said it reminded him of the little dutch hats, I thought it looks like the nun hat/wings that Sally Field wore in The Flying Nun. After we stopped laughing, Mark decided it should be named Dutch Diamonds. I really like the way it looks. Going to have to try it out a little bit more.
In other news, I am back in Maryland keeping Kali company until her break in classes. I brought lots of art stuff this trip. I am better prepared :). Like a boss!

1ZAD - Day 3

One Zentangle a Day, so far I am getting the work done. Posting it on the same day might be an issue, though.

On day three we practiced pokeroot, festune, and hollibaugh. For our tile we were to use any of those, or any of the tangles we worked on during day the first two days. For my tile, I traced one onto the next page in my Hand Bound Journal from Dick Blick Arts. I don't always lay down the four corner dots, as you can see here. I just put down a simple string.

Then I started filling in tangles. Pokeroot has always been one of my absolute favorites! That and poke leaf. My intentions with this tile were to stick with the day three tangles, putting a little festune grouping in there somewhere . . .

. . . but I just realized looking at this sketchbook drawing - - - I forgot!

I pulled in knight's bridge and tipple from days one and two instead. This one was interesting for me. I decided to do hollibaugh not as filled as I usually do, and I liked blacking in some sections, while filling out others with tipple.  So, that was day three. I have day four almost completed, which is good since it is now February 5th. 
Kali and I are headed out the door in a few minutes. Back to the doctor's office for me, then on to Panama City to see the Broadway show Beauty and the Beast tonight. Yay!!!!! Keep calm and get your tangle on :).

Zendala Dare #15 . . . Already?

It is so hard to believe that we are already at week fifteen of Erin's Zendala Dare! I love doing this challenge every week. I was so busy last week - working on a new facebook page and working on my blog - I just never got around to last week's zendala. I plan on doing it later today so I can get caught up :). Above is the template Erin gave us this week. It reminded Erin of candy. To me it looked like Christmas packages and I was determined not to tangle a bunch of packages. 

So I just started thinking about random patterns that would work well in lines. And I switched a few of them up to make it work even better. Threw in a couple of my own patterns and this is what I got. Hopefully it isn't too random, but at least it doesn't look like Christmas paper - haha! (Actually I love Christmas paper, I just didn't want to do the expected.)


Patterns - auraknot, hollibaugh, crossroads, muzic, melody/variation, newell, woods/weave mixed together, knightsbridge/variation, fescu, and my patterns blox and pipez.


To check out all the zendalas, head on over to Erin's page The Bright Owl here.