Gathering #7

The Intermountain Tanglers April Gathering

Hi, Everyone.........

Here we are, once again enjoying each other's company, sharing in the amazing creative energy that flows so freely when we get together.

Clockwise from Left, One of Stacey's girls, Stacey, HeidiSue, Barbara, Lisa (hiding her face), Dave's granddaughter Katelyn, and Stacey's other girl.

Dave had the camera so we don't have any pictures of him. But he is a portraitist or something, because he managed to get some terrific candids of people (Lisa WOULD NOT hold still for a picture of herself.)

This is Stacey.

Stacey's daughter works large.

A page from Stacey's sketchbook.

Stacey found us through tanglepatterns.com, when she found Dave's pattern Pinbawl. And just look at the sample of her work! She has been doing zentangle for about three years, and has an amazing array of bold and lovely pieces in her notebook.

Barbara was there, an old friend we've seen several times.

She and Lisa got visiting about techniques and patterns.

Lisa also found us thru tanglepatterns.com. Having patterns published on that website has brought us several new friends. Lisa came from the other side of the Wasatch Mountains, and we were so glad to have her join us. I can hardly wait to see some of her work, once she gets going in her new sketchbook.

Meanwhile, Barbara has been busy, and very creative. She has a fine touch with the pen, and creates delicate work with lovely lines.


Love that Tulip, Barbara.

This tile reminds me of a spring day, with light rain falling down, and the plants receiving it gladly.

Heidi Sue got snapped, too.

And she didn't even notice...maybe that's the mark of a real artist with a camera: grabbing the pictures while people aren't looking.

Dave also scanned some of our pieces to display here.

Stacey's amazing Diva Dance.

Barbara drew the next two Tiles. They look so gardeny and springish.

And Dave had a Tile to share.

The Pinbawl in the center bottom is SO cool.

What a delightful thing this has turned out to be. Enjoyable company, creative energy. And it's a repeat event.

The next time we meet, Dave will be a CZT! Because he is going to the training seminar beginning on the 19th of this month!

Have fun Dave and learn a lot!









Gathering #6

Well we've been at it for half a year. Hard to believe that amount of time has passed, and we have had our sixth Intermountain Tanglers Gathering. As always, what a lot of fun we had. Most of us were return participants. On the left, Annie, Leslie, David and his granddaughter Ivory (His daughter Heather is taking the picture)
On the right, Barbara, Heidi, Donna. Doris came in a little bit late, and Annie had to leave early.

Dave brought a pattern sheet, as usual, and we practiced Allium, Niuroda, and Amalea. Niuroda proved to be a pattern that most everyone wanted to play with, and Dave's daughter Heather created a lovely page of Amalea.



In the course of our time together, we created a lovely jumble of papers, pens, and other supplies.

All the creativity!

 Dave scanned a lot of pieces with his little portable scanning wand, making some good clear images of samples of everyone's art.

Here he is working with a piece in HeidiSue's sketchbook. A black backing under the paper helped with the show through that was occurring from the other side of the paper.

Barbara had a page full of circle tangles

Ivory's talent for tangling shone 

Donna tangled a Letter D

As always, we had a terrific time, enjoying each other's company, admiring one another's art, and flourishing in the creative energy that abounded in the room.

Everyone was so glad to see David, and offered condolences. He was relaxed and at ease, enjoying the time to create.

Scans......

 Barbara Huppe

 Donna Mirabelli

 Heather Hunter

 Heather Hunter

 Heather Hunter

 HeidiSue

 HeidiSue

The 12 Spiral Rose Mandala. To color or tangle as desired. How to make it is in our resources tab.

Heidi Sue

Ivory

Ivory

Leslie Burge

Leslie Burge

Lesli Burge

David

Sad News...

It is with a heavy heart, and grieving for my friend, that I post this news about Dave Hunter's wife, Linda. She passed away on the morning of Friday, Feb 20 at 9:25 am.

Linda has been sick all winter, and took a turn for the worse on Friday morning. The ER doctors did their best to resuscitate her, working on her for 40 minutes. Dave says her heart just couldn't do it anymore.

Please hold him and his children and grand-children in your prayers. He will be taking a hiatus from the Diva challenges as he deals with all the details surrounding this sad event.

---Heidi

Gathering #5

Our February Gathering! (Sunday, February 8, 2015)

Dave, Judy, Lezli B, Barbara, Annie, HeidiSue, Shelley (Susan had not arrived when this picture was taken)

This is Susan.

We did it again! the Intermountain Tanglers had another Gathering, and what a fun time it was! There were eight people there in all, each of us with our favorite pieces to show around and techniques to share. Finally we met Lezli B, a regular participant in the Diva's Challenge, who has been trying to get to one of the Gatherings from the very beginning. What an artist! my word, but she does beautiful work. Her sister Judy was there, too

Lezli on the left; Judy on the right

We had one gal there who we weren't expecting. This is how she found us (HeidiSue LOVES this story): Shelley was clicking around on taglepatterns.com. She is making a notebook with the stepouts for all the patterns, and she came across a certain pattern Hitched! by HeidiSue. And Linda Farmer put such a wonderful blurb in there about Heidi and about the IT Gathering...and Shelley came to visit! What a cool way to find us. I hope it happens again...and again.

This is Shelley, working on a delicate zendala piece.

Annie perusing a book. Barbara was working on some charming little delights

 Seriously, isn't that a cool way to meet?
Zentangle® brings friends together!










Annie, from the second Gathering, was there, and brought her part of the ensemble we started for our Gathering 2 project and now we have three quarters of it together. Sure enough, it was VERY cool to see how it fit in with the others. Now to get Robin back, and her piece will be in place and our ensemble will be complete. 



 

Ensemble projects are such fun. 
They are amazing when assembled. Three sections down, one section to go.

David sought out and found Tiepolo paper online. It is the same paper that Zentangle® tiles are made from, and it just so happens that Dave used to be a printer, and has some equipment for managing large amounts of paper...so he took an order and cut our paper into tiles for us. It is amazing, the difference such fine paper makes. We got to round our own corners...or not...once we got our tiles. They were an inexpensive way of getting some very high quality paper into our hands. Good stuff!

Shelley, Susan, and Dave. What you talking about Dave?

One of the most fun aspects of getting together with other Tanglers, is checking out each others' work. It is inspirational, and we learn from each other about techniques, resources, tools, and equipment. There was a lot of talent in that room, and a lot of creative energy. Which is another wonderful aspect of getting together: we feed each other. Each of us picks up the energy of the room and it comes out through our pens to the paper. Annie created a very cool heart, filled with nothing but circles (and a cute little baby leafy thingy)...and the idea for the circles was something Heidi had been working on all day. (If you make the circles in the center of a shape larger, and at the edges they are smaller, gradually decreasing from the center to the edge...it adds depth and texture, naturally. Try it! here is a link with an example  (Notice all the tangling! Don't you just want to do the same, and give it a try.!)

Visiting over our art

Along with our tiles, David made templates for hearts, for each and every one of us. We have templates and stencils to work with in many sizes and shapes of heart! Fun stuff. Oh! he also created a mandala template with almost unlimited combinations of angles and lines, that will be VERY useful to HeidiSue as she explores zendalas this next few weeks. And he brought the step outs for a few heart patterns for us to play with. (I wonder if anyone will use them for the Diva Challenge this week? Yes someone used Heartfully by Helen Williams from the Pattern Sheet, but his identity shall remain nameless.)

Tile Samples from the Tanglers present...

Susan Vaughn

Judy Shupe

Leslie Burge

Annie Charat

Annie Charat

Barbara Huppe

HeidiSue

HeidiSue

David Hunter

We all had a terrific time meeting each other, and greeting those we have met before (Annie, Barbara, and Susan have all been to previous Gatherings). we left energized and inspired for more wonderful zentangle® play!

Use your good stuff

 This little essay stands by itself. It is good advice for art, and for all areas of life. Use your good stuff!

USE YOUR GOOD STUFF. 

By Kelly, at whimsy by Kelly

(Used with permission.)

I have boxes and cabinets filled with things i have never used.. and I can't really tell you why. Because I'm waiting for something I think. No more. I'm going to pull out all my stuff and try and use a ton of it this year, what I don't, I will either sell and buy things I love and will use or I will give away to someone who might actually love and appreciate it. :) The other day in one of the groups I participate in, I posted something. It's been pretty popular and I'm glad that it reached the audience it has, but I want to pass it around a little more, because I think it's really very important. I've cleaned it up a little and made a few additional notes, but pretty much, here it is.
I've seen something a lot in groups and online discussion groups lately. I want to share something with you, not because I am a CZT (though I am) or because I want to sell you something (you have a million options for that and unless you live close to me I'd direct you to someone closer anyway) so I really have NOTHING to gain by what I am about to say. But it's in the spirit of Zentangle so I think it belongs here.
Use the good stuff.
Don't save your good paper for the day you feel your work is "good enough" because you never will. You'll always wait until you are "a little better" or you've "perfected that tangle" Don't practice on scraps, don't treat your work as insignificant. That makes me sad. Use the best you can. If that's a piece of notebook paper because that's all you have, fine... but if you have choices, find paper YOU love. It doesn't have to be Zentangle tiles... unless those are what you love. I mean.. I ADORE them, but that's MY personal preference because it's beautiful and make me happy to just hold them in my hands. You might love Bristol. If that's your favorite USE BRISTOL! Find a pen that works for you. Maybe you want something refillable, maybe the smell of sharpies makes you happy, maybe you like the way Pitts flow, maybe microns work for you. Good! Use what works FOR YOU.

Part of the joy of Zentangle is the play of the ink against the paper. Microns and tiles were selected to teach with because they work nicely together, they don't smear a lot, the color is deep and rich and beautiful and it's a JOY to lay the ink down on the paper. It really is. There are a lot of tools out there that will play nicely together. Each stroke feels like an event when you are using tools you love. Whatever your tools ARE, they should be ones that make you ENJOY what you are doing. Coloring in shouldn't feel like a chore, it should be part of the fun. The tools you use should be selected with that in mind. It doesn't have to be expensive. You can find a sketchbook to practice in with good paper for a couple dollars. I draw almost constantly and I only go through 1 pen or so a month. I can invest a couple dollars in that. .... If you love crayons, use crayons. But use what you love.

Use your good stuff, don't save it for someday,because someday might never come. My favorite responses to that (and there have been a lot) were the ones where people shared that they were going to do that, that they took it to heart and that it inspired them to take it outside their art as well. Go get a glass of your favorite beverage in something beautiful that you've been saving til you had company. You and your family are certainly as good as company. :) Make dinner tonight and use your fancy plates, even if you have leftovers. My Gram used to tell me, make each day a memory. :) I've been forgetting that myself. In the spirit of using things you love... I have a small carepackage of things I no longer love or need. It's a surprise box of goodies... so I'm not going to tell you what's in it... but this is a little bonus contest for the month. (I'll give everyone til the end of Jan) Post your entry on here, show me something using your good stuff. It doesn't even have to be a creation with your good stuff... It can be a china cup, or your favorite boots, or whatever you want.

Gathering #4

The First IT Gathering for 2015
Jan 11, 2015

Today was the fourth monthly Gathering of the Intermountain Tanglers of Salt Lake Valley. There were five people there: David Hunter, HeidiSue Whitney, Doris Stroup, Barbara Huppe, and Jesse (who is David's grandson, and a very talented young artist in his own right.) Barbara and Doris both are friends of Annie, who came to our second Gathering. (Annie! where are you? We miss you...and Robin!)

We enjoyed each other's company tremendously, starting our time together talking about classes and patterns, and sharing (showing off?) favorite tiles and challenges. We talked about the wonderful online community that centers around Laura Harms' Diva website and the enthusiasm and inspiration that are part of that great crowd of creative spirits.

David brought a little project, where we learned/practiced three patterns: Yin Cut, Si Weed, and Puzzled.

Tiles using the Pattern Study Sheet.

David's tile, so flowing!

Heidi's tile, with a meadow look to it.

We also explored the pattern N'zeppel a little bit. The conversation was wonderful, and the creativity flowed freely. This was our fourth get together, and we discovered something: each time we have met, new people have come, but we haven't had anyone come back a second time. Maybe soon we will have a gathering where everyone who has been once, comes again and we all do art together! ha!

Though HeidiSue brought a camera, she forgot about it until Barbara had already left, but here is a picture of David, Jesse, and Doris. That's Heidi's coat hanging on the chair. Next time, all will be included. Promise!

from left: Jesse, David, and Doris.

Heidi brought an exercise, where a large grid is created, 4x4. In the top row, single patterns are entered, and the same in the first column. Then, using it like a multiplication table,
the patterns are combined. This breaks things out of the box a bit. We didn't do this exercise, but the idea was introduced and we talked about the patterns and their varieties of combination.

Now, for instance, in the second row, third column over, hollibaugh and concert are combined for a pretty cool looking new pattern. Also, the flux/yincut combination is kind of cool looking. It is fun to explore many different patterns this way.

It was a lot of fun, and we met some new people, made new friends. I can hardly wait until the February IT Gathering!