JOY OF ZENTANGLE BOOK

There is a new book out called Joy of Zentangle by Design Originals.  I read about it the other day on Sandy Steen Bartholomew's blog.  What a surprise I had today when I received a copy of it from the publisher in my mail.  Oddly enough I was just going through some old emails yesterday when one came up from this publisher asking how and when I had become a Certified Zentangle Teacher.  They wanted to see a piece of my work as well.  So I told my little story and emailed them one of my mandalas that I made last year when I wasn't feeling well.  I didn't think of it again until I saw that email.  Now it is in a book.  I'm amazed.  My husband....not so much.  He said "wow, that's nice, when is dinner going to be ready".  Here is a photo of the book.  It does have a really nice break down of how to draw 101 Tangles.  Great for new tanglers and nice for us old tanglers as well.

This is the Zentangle Inspired Mandala I shared with them.

When I saw this today I suddenly remembered that I don't have this mandala any more.  About 6 months ago someone very dear to me was fighting AML, a form of acute leukemia.  She was struggling to cope with the diagnosis and I sent this to her with a long note written on the back as well as some Zentangle supplies, etc.  We had done Zentangle projects together many times but she had 2 small children and never enough time to sit for very long.  I was ill at the time and couldn't go for a visit but I told her the package was on the way. She received it and told me on the phone of her plans to do some mandalas herself to help her cope.  She could not accept how serious and deadly this disease was.  Unfortunately, she passed away very shortly thereafter.  When I saw this in the book today it opened a floodgate of all kinds of memories.  Many happy times and some profoundly sad. All in all, I'm just pleased that I happened to choose a photo of this piece of Zentangle to send to them.  It is  like a tiny memorial to a precious person that I could call a "friend".

Black/White Zen-Mandala

I wondered what my mandala Zentangle would look like if I did it on a 12" piece of black card stock with a white Gelly Roll pen.  It really doesn't take as long as you would think to do one of these.  It took me a few hours max.  I considered it my morning stretch while I had my cup of coffee.  Just a few minutes here and there during the day and Voila!  it was done.  Try it yourself, don't over think it, just one stroke at a time, as Rick and Maria (the inventors of Zentangle) like to say.  You will notice that with each small rotation you get a different perspective of the wheel.
Kind of like life.

Now rotate the wheel slightly and you get a different look.

Look a little closer....

It is not perfect but then neither am I and that's OK.  Hope you will try it, it is very relaxing and fun.

A Zentangle Inspired Mandala

Recently I met an artist in an online class, Jenny Doh's class that I mentioned in an earlier post, that makes mandalas and teaches others to do so also.  I thought it would be fun to do a large circular mandala Zentangle style.  I used a piece of 12" white cardstock that had been cut in a circle and a Micron 01 pen.  I added a little color to the outside edge with Copics, did a little shading with a pencil and smeared it a bit.  Here is my Mandala Inspired Zentangle.

My thanks to Linda Wiggen Kraft for her inspiration!