Happiness is…a Smile

January 20, 2016January 20, 2016 ~ CharkatTangles ~ 8 Comments

But..what if you can’t smile? What if your facial expression cannot change?

1-2 children in every 1,000,000 children are born with a rare congenital nerve disorder called Moebius Syndrome. While it can result in a spectrum of issues, most notably in those affected are the cranial VI and VII nerves controlling the lateral movement of the face. There is not a lot known about this, and it is pretty rare, but our dear Diva has a son that was born with it. So with that, as we do every January, we recognize Moebius Syndrome Awareness Day on Sunday, January 24th.(#MSAD2016).

Here is my contribution (#251):

In part of my effort to “Finish What I Started” this year, I picked up a piece of watercolor paper that I had used up some sparkly paint water to wash a background, and actually tangled it….the cool part that doesn’t really show up in the scan is that the mica sparkle from the Twinkling H2O paint shows through the pen, and gives a really intense beauty to this piece. I am really rather a harsh critic of my own work, but I really like this one.

The February Schedule is up on the Class and Kumi pages. We have been having an awful lot of fun, so you really should consider joining us!

I am working on the sample for the February Valentangle, and will have that up here with the next posting. It is a “sweetheart” of a card!

I am also working up some samples of t-shirt designs that you can tangle and color and make your own…wear your art!

I know for those of us who love music and good movies, this has been a rough last 2 weeks. I mourn the loss of several people who have had a huge influence on my life…

David Bowie made it ok for me to be weird and change a lot.

Alan Rickman showed me that the appearance of darkness does not always mean bad things.

And my dear Glenn Frey taught me to take it easy.

Namas’cray my friends! Make stuff…you will feel better!

Back to Basics

January 13, 2016January 13, 2016 ~ CharkatTangles ~ 4 Comments

Zentangle is an awesome art form. So often, once we get familiar with everything, we tend to dive off into the realm of Zentangle Inspired Art (ZIA) and forget what the roots are and why we started this in the first place. I am guilty of it, but find that being a Certified Zentangle Teacher (CZT) that I have to intentionally pull myself back to teach the basics.

So it was quite appropriate for what I have been working on this week to get pulled Back to Basics for The Diva’s 250th Challenge. I’ve started a Tangle Journal with a class for a few of my students, to break down the tangles we use, and find “tangleations” of them. And in this weeks San Deigo/Temecula Zentangle Friendship group, we did a page in a spiral bound tangle journal that pulled together 4 very random tangles and a string from tanglepatterns.com to make that most basic of black ink on white paper, original Zentangle.

So that was fun…Here is a picture that Jan took of us all working diligently…

And here are some of the pages from my other Journal Project, which are basically mono-tangles.

I have just started Mandala Magic 2016 with Julie Gibbons. I’m quite excited, as I have been so drawn to round things lately (really, since I started my foray into the art world) and this is already quite an eye-opening experience. I did a little warm up exercise in a “self portrait” to put in my journal for this project. I am not much for drawing anything that actually looks like real life (yet) so I stamped the eyes and nose with a cute little stamp I have, and tangled in the rest. I know…looks just like me!

So, this weeks’ blog is being produced on my iPad Pro, trying out the new keyboard, trying to make sure that I can “take my show on the road” successfully and still stay connected. Hopefully, it looks better on the browser window than it does here!

Names’ cray my friends, keep making stuff…crazy is better!

New Year’s Renewal

January 4, 2016January 4, 2016 ~ CharkatTangles ~ 13 Comments

I would like to think of every January 1st as a time to review and renew my goals from the previous year. Goals are a good thing. They give you a road map to follow. But sometimes, that road changes.

My road took a sharp left turn last summer when I decided to open CharKat’s Creative Insanity. I never in my wildest dreams thought I would ever be in business. It has been a challenge, that’s for sure. I love what I do, and I know that will spread out and bring more people in this year!

There is also renewal in this week’s Diva Challenge (#249). This is the 5th Anniversary of the challenge, and we have been tasked to a DuoTangle of Diva Dance and Auraknot. I already had this tile with a star on it, that I had sprayed with Shimmer Spray…so I thought it was particularly festive for this auspicious occasion!

I know the holiday’s got away from me, and this is my first post of the new year. I have, however, been pretty busy on tangly-type stuff!

First up, this cute little cactus. I was experimenting with stitching on the tile. Cumbersome! You have to poke the holes first….

Then, another one of Dorian Eng’s cute ornaments that she did a video for Sakura on. This time on Renaissance Tan, with blues.

And then this nifty 8×8 scratch board piece.

I did a little coloring to see what that was all about.

I also had some kids over to the studio, and we had some fun making tangle journals and learning tangles. These are mine. The glue was drying on their decorations, so I didn’t get photos of theirs.

And in keeping with this year’s mantra (Finish What You Started) I pulled a few tiles out of the UFO bin and put some new spin on them:

This one is on Fabriano Medioevalis paper…it has such a nice feel to it. I used Ann E. Grasso’s 8n1 Stencil for this.

And Diva #247: African Artist by Swiss CZT Tina Hunker:

So be sure to check the schedule, lots of fun classes coming up.

Namas’cray – stay crazy in the new year!