Know When to Fold Em’

February 15, 2019 ~ CharkatTangles ~ Leave a comment

You got to know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em. Know when to walk away, know when to run. – Kenny Rogers The Gambler

Yes…I just quoted a country song. It seems fitting for what I am doing in life.

The shop was a gamble. I planned, I budgeted, I tried. I had a good time. I cried a bit. It was frustrating at times, trying to get people to come along for the ride.

My plan after closing the physical location was to keep the Online Store open so I could help people afford supplies for Zentangle® and whatever other art they practiced.

But with the increase in postage rates, and increases in our local in district taxes here in rainy California, I am just not seeing a way to do that.

So…that being said. I am having a HUGE inventory sell down. Starting out at 25% off EVERYTHING in stock. EVERYTHING. Nothing is excluded. If it is in the store, it is on sale.

Use the code

CHARKAT25

Some fine print here: I have done my utmost to make sure the inventory is up to date. There may be items where the counts are off…it happens when you are a one person production. If an item does turn out to be not in stock for this reason, I will refund your money for that item, or if you like, cancel your order.

If you are still reading here, do not be sad for me. When one door closes, another one opens. There are some fun things in the pipeline and I will be letting everyone in on it later!

Aloha…Abukas!

August 8, 2017August 8, 2017 ~ CharkatTangles ~ 22 Comments

I know…cryptic, eh?

This week’s Diva Challenge (#328) is a Use My Tangle (UMT) by Suzanne Fluhr (CZT and Guest Diva Blogger) for her tangle, Aloha. Suzanne writes a travel blog I really enjoy reading called Boomeresque. Mike and I had the honor of meeting her, and the infamous Mr. Excitement, when they were in San Diego for a cruise earlier this year. We had dinner and did some walking…topping it off with ice cream. What could be more fun?

I dig this tangle. I have done it several times now…

It is fun and bold and graphic. It makes a great border, string, or if you make it big enough, you can even tangle inside it.

So I wanted to do it a little bigger, and on one of my alcohol ink mono prints that reminded me of Hawaii. It is, after all, called Aloha!

So…you may notice the other tangle I used here. Yes, it is new. AND…it is my VERY FIRST tangle. I call it Abukas, and it is influenced by Lynn Mead’s tangle Abeko and the original Zentangle® tangle Arukas. I rather stumbled on to it while I was working on some smaller Bijou tiles for a project I am working on.

I thought to myself….self….you should do a step out for this and see how it comes out. So, here it is for all you to try, too! I like how art deco it looks, and I think it has a lot of potential.

I have had some grand fun playing around with it, and I know a few others have tried it as well.

Speaking of those little Bijou tiles…here are some more of them.

I love doing these little things. It really helps me stretch my creative juices without a lot of sit down time. While I love to tackle larger projects, I think it makes it more fun to break it up into chunks, like we can do with an Opus tile.

I tend to lose my motivation when faced with finishing one of the really big things, like this mandala. It actually sat on my easel for just over a year! Finally took some Inktense Pencils to it, blacked in a bunch for consistency, and attacked it with a gold pen. Yes, that is a pen.

Imagine the relief when that was finished. (It is 20 inches across!)

I am prepping some wool appliqué to keep me busy during a couple of flights next week, so I had best get back to it.

Have a Wonderful Week! Aloha!

Where Do I Fit In?

July 25, 2017 ~ CharkatTangles ~ 11 Comments

This is a question that has plagued me my entire life. In my family, I was rather an outsider. At school (and I went to 9 schools over the course of my K-12 days) I was not popular or athletic or anything really. In the military, first in the Navy I was a woman in a predominately male occupation (avionics,) then again with the Army in advanced tech/electronics. Later in my Army career, I was older than everyone I worked with, usually by about 20 years. Even know, I feel like I do not really fit in with a lot of the people around me, but they kinda tolerate me because I can be fun sometimes.

So this week’s Diva Challenge (#326) with guest blogger Elisa Murphy, CZT, prompted us to use the ultimate “fit in” tangle – N’zepple. Now, unlike last week with Peanuckle, this is one tangle I use a lot. And since I was playing around with some black paper and bleach for another project, I challenged myself to use this as my medium.

Different papers react to bleach differently. They have different underlying colors. It was very interesting, and I started to see what colors I could coax out of them.

The N’zepple tile is a 6″x6″ cut of some scrapbook paper. The other 2 are a black Apprentice tile and a regular black Zentangle tile. Here is the finished black tile. I did a little shading with some General’s Chalk Pastel in the closest color I could find, but the light spots were just the concentration of the bleach in those spots.

I may have gotten a little carried away, as I continued this into my Mandala study on Monday night.

And I thought…hmmm…what about other colors of paper? I still have some more work to do on this one, I am going to add some color with colored pencils.

And I wasn’t the only one that had fun trying this, eh Karen?

And that is all the fun I can stand for today.

Don’t forget to check out the store and upcoming classes.

AND…if you were on the list, the first newsletter went out today. If you aren’t on the list, hop on over via the Home button up there and sign up!

I feel like I fit in a little, even if it is on the fringe!

Changes…and Noom

March 28, 2017March 28, 2017 ~ CharkatTangles ~ 8 Comments

CharKat’s Creative Insanity is about to undergo a drastic reset! I can tell you this will benefit all those of you who wish you could come take classes with me, but live far away…but that’s all I am going to tease!

I attended the Path to Profit Creative Business Summit last weekend, and after almost 2 years in, I finally have a clearer view of what I should be doing for YOU! I highly recommend any creative entrepreneur attend this workshop (there is another one coming up in September!) You really will be doing yourself, and your business, a favor. Minette really knows her stuff, and knows how to find the best business you that will make your business shine and be profitable. And…you get to color and play and be around other creative people…even other Certified Zentangle Teachers!

CZTs From Left to Right: Jean Mackie, Me, Minette Riordan, Ph.D., and Annette Carlo

I may or may not have gotten a little carried away with the tangle Noom this week. Diva Challenge #309 had us using it, and boy did I!

The first example is this lovely Renaissance Tan Zendala that is part of another journal page I am working on. It makes a lovely border, and I honestly was not trying to make my Mooka into an octopus, but it just happened!

Then, while I was finishing up my tiles for the TangleU swap, it worked it’s way in again!

I am really enjoying this tangle. It is so simple, but looks so awesome!

I had a few more cool tiles I did for my journal page I am working on, that I wanted to share too. Mono-tangles (just one tangle on the page) can be very striking, and a great way to practice tangles you are not sure about. And Bijou tiles are an excellent way to carry them off. Even an ATC (Artist Trading Card) size can be less intimidating than doing a whole time sometimes.

Lots to do today! Tangle On!

Sometimes, You Just Have to Walk Away…

October 26, 2016 ~ CharkatTangles ~ 11 Comments

Right before I left on my fabulous vacation back in September, I was wearing my super cool Tangle Me Crazy Lotus Mandala t-shirt.

I stopped in at my favorite Japanese market (Myrukai) to pick up dinner and a few groceries on my way back from our very fun Tangle By the Bay retreat. One of those grocery items was my favorite radish kimchi. Well…apparently on the trip home, it got a little shook up. And being a fermented food, it was seeping a little from the pressure in the bottle…and when I opened it (over the sink, of course!) it exploded…all over my t-shirt.

Now…I had planned on taking that t-shirt with me to show off to the European CZT’s at our meet up in Cookham, UK. So I pre-treated it, and washed it…still stained…I did it again…still stained…and one more time…still stained. In utter frustration, I doused it liberally with Spray and Wash stain remover and threw it in the laundry room sink. I was very sad.

So nearly 3 weeks passed, and when we unpacked after the trip, I found myself with a mountain of laundry to do (although we did some it at the laundry mat in Venice…how cool is that?) So I see the shirt in the sink, pick it up, and low and behold, the stains are GONE!

I guess the point here is, If you do the right thing, with the passage of time, everything comes out all right. And…if you want a cool t-shirt like mine, click here…you can buy them at my shop!

Ok, enough of my travails. What you are really here for is to see pretty things!

This week’s Diva Challenge (#290) is a duo tangle of Flux and N’zepple. I love both tangles, and decided to use Flux as my container. And I was being fall-ish with the Renaissance Tan tile (or lazy, because that was what was in my bag and I did not feel like walking upstairs to get a white one…lol.)

And since I didn’t get a post done last week, here is the Leafy Goodness that is Diva Challenge #289!

I am really loving combining quilling with Zentangle. They go together so well. I will be doing a special Christmas quilling design class in December, so be on the look out for that!

We are also up to Gothic Calligraphy at the shop this month, with an ongoing series being taught by Risa Gettler. I was playing around whilst practicing my letters the other day, and playing with Hannah Geddes’ Mandala Template. And this happened.

Well…I couldn’t just leave it like that…and I had a clock I had disassembled in the shop that needed a new face. So now it turned into this:

So long Sons of Anarchy clock…lol.

I did not realize how busy I have been these past 2 weeks until I started writing my post. I started a purge and organize campaign both here at the home studio and the shop, trying to make things more accessible and easier to find. (that, is a long story all of its own!)

I made it through my entire fabric stash so far, dumped all the fabrics I had been holding onto for costuming and what-not, and organized my quilting stash. Emptied out the little used filing cabinet for the bigger pieces.

And folded all the fat quarters into an ArtBin Super Satchel. That felt really GOOD!

And not to be left out, I finally found a container to get all my Gelly Roll Pens in one place.

I will contain this mess!

AND…lastly…I have a pineapple guava tree in my backyard that I planted 3 years ago that has never fruited, until this year. I was blessed with an abundance of fruit, more than we could possibly eat before it spoiled, so I found a recipe and made chutney out of it.

And you cannot have a great chutney without some curry to go with it!

Yum! (and, it was pretty healthy homemade!)

Speaking of healthy, I am walking my fish this week…(Pokemon Go thing…it amuses me.)

And now I need to get back to work…Stay Crazy My Friends!

Dream Revelations

October 7, 2016 ~ CharkatTangles ~ 10 Comments

Ok…it’s been quite a week. You might recall I blogged last week from Germany, and this weeks Diva Challenge (#287) was completed in Venice, but I’m writing this in my hotel in Cookham, Maidenhead, England. It has been a lovely vacation…Venice was amazing! Complete with gondola ride!

So, one of the things that has to happen when you are on an extended trip, unless you pack pretty heavy, you have to do laundry. So, while I was doing laundry in the lavanderia in Venice, I broke out this pretty little red leather journal I found…

Filled with beautiful black paper! So this weeks Use My Tangle (UMT) is from Daniel Lamothe CZT, and he provided us with a tangle/reticula called Dreamcatcher. I think it is a lovely idea, and decided to keep it a little simple in my new journal. (It is just under 4″, so perfect Zentangle size!) White and Gold Gelly Roll, and White Chalk Pastel pencil.

And I need to get a nap, so I can join in the Festivities at Tangle EU with my European CZT friends! But I will leave you with this…Inside the Doge’s Palace…(it really is not curved, but the panorama did that…cool effect!)

Life is a Trip(oli)

September 12, 2016 ~ CharkatTangles ~ 9 Comments

I feel like I have been busier than a one-armed paper hanger these days. Between trying to keep up with shop stuff, the upcoming retreat in SD, Sunday Funday market at Vail Ranch Headquarters, vacation packing/planning, and the usual housework, I am spinning in all directions at once. (Oh, who am I kidding…housework…ha…like I do that. I finally remembered to put clothes in the washer today, and promptly forgot about them.)

Before I get to cool pictures of all the aforementioned activities, I’ll trip right into this week’s Diva Challenge (#284) – a monotangle of Tripoli. I have a stack of tiles that I colored/dyed that I have wanted to start working through, so I pulled out one that I did with some pretty greens. I think I used one of the dye inks on this one, because when I started working with the white pen, it picked up quite a bit of the green.

It kind of reminds me of the felt flocked wallpaper we had in our house when I was in 5th grade. I dig it…lol.

I also finished the origami piece I was working on last week. We had a really fun class on Saturday, and I finished it up on Sunday at in the sweltering heat at the market. (High on Sunday was 88 F, today was 76 F. It is just not fair!)

We have a pretty nice set up with our booth there, it just gets pretty sunny…

I played a little bit with the circle drawing I did on my Brother Scan N Cut 2 last week.

I decided to finally “test drive” the Chameleon Markers I got for my birthday and color it. I was originally going to test the gradient features you can use with these pens…

But, I found them to be really cumbersome to use. It was pretty impossible to get a consistent gradient, so I settled for just coloring without the blender. I do find the caps hard to remove (nothing to hold on to really…) and once you get the cap off, I can see how easy these would be to lose as there is no place to stick them on the pen. All in all, I can’t say that I am impressed for the price, and will more than likely not use them all that much, if at all. (the struggle with the caps is a HUGE deterrent for me.) But, they did make a pretty final product.

And…back to work…I think I am going to try to sort this laundry out…and I have to figure out Mail Chimp…and finish my travel journal for the trip…and set up for classes this week and next…and…and….ARGH!

Stay Crazy My Friends!

Blueberry Rorschach

August 31, 2016 ~ CharkatTangles ~ 6 Comments

Sounds like a new recipe, eh? They are very tasty, but also such a pretty color on paper! Read the blueberry ink blots…what do you see?

It was almost too pretty to tangle on. The tile has actually been sitting in my “to be used” pile for quite some time, so when this weeks Diva Challenge (#282) asked me to spill something, I used this one. Started out with an idea, saw a lot of orbs in it, so I tried a new tangle (Starcrossed,) and an old one (Nipa.) Kept it rather simple to keep the blueberries in place.

I’m trying really hard to finish some things lately. A lot of my larger pieces suffer after I start them for a class, and some take a lot longer to get into the completed pile. I pulled this one out last night and finished it while I was watching baseball. It is on some really smooth paper that didn’t shade well, so I used my Cool Gray Fabrico Marker for shading.

I feel pretty good about this one, as it was finished in the same month it was started in!

I’ve been working up some new patterns and ideas for upcoming classes…this week I was focusing on December and ornaments.

Look for this on the schedule! While it looks complicated, this modular origami is one of the easier ones I’ve found, but I made it a little harder by using a heavier weight paper. Silver and black are pretty!

We also have several fun things in the works for September and October. First up in September. Join us for Art & Aromatherapy (Monday September 19, 5:30pm-7:30pm.)

We will share the many healing aspects of essential oils and aromatherapy and explore calming creative art projects including Zentangle, watercolor designs and mandalas.

Bring your moms, bring your daughters, bring your sisters, bring your girlfriends! Self-nurture through creativity! All ages are welcome! Join the fun. We are offering this class for free but will graciously accept love donations for materials ($10-/person suggested).

On Tuesday, September 20th, join me for Mandala Drafting. I will show you how to use tools and templates to draft the shells of your mandalas to make some spectacular work.

And not to be left out, in October, we will welcome Risa Gettler to the studio to teach calligraphy.

RISA GETTLER, author, artist, calligrapher and instructor, combines her education and career in graphic design with her lifelong study of Letter Arts. Risa’s art can be seen in The Smithsonian Institute, The Washington National Cathedral, national and international art publications, CD jackets, wine labels, and juried exhibits from Washington State to the Washington, DC. The pursuit of honing her craft has lead Risa to advanced and special focus calligraphy studies at the Accademia Delle Arti Calligrafiche, Cittadella, Italy, St. John’s University via a Scholossberg Scholarship, the Marquis de Sentmenat School of Design, Barcelona, Spain, Princeton University, The Getty and Huntington Library, and the UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. Risa has been a featured guest on radio and television programs. Teaching began from 1993 to present for the University of Riverside X, Riverside Art Museum, Oceanside Art Museum, calligraphy guilds and international lettering conferences. Her work is featured in the centennial edition of Speedball Textbook. Notable clients include His Holiness Pope Paul, II.

We are currently working on 2 courses. Monday nights, starting October 17th, we have a 4 week study of the Gothic hand. The price will be $80 for the series, plus supplies.

And then on Thursdays, starting October 13th, a six week series of Formal Italic. This series is $120, plus supplies.

I should have a more thorough description of both courses up soon, and all supplies will be available for purchase at the shop, so you don’t have to go run down things you need!

Olivia and I have been having fun out at Vail Headquarters for their Sunday Funday. Art, live music, food, and fun. It is a new event here in Temecula, and takes place every Sunday afternoon from 12-5. The next time we will be there is on September 11th. Be sure to come check it out!

Ok…I think that is really quite enough for this week!

Stay Crazy My Friends!

Going Global

April 15, 2016 ~ CharkatTangles ~ 4 Comments

Ok…first things first. The May 2016 schedule is up! Journals are the first Saturday, and the Monthly Special is on the 3rd Saturday this month because I will be out of town. But…you won’t want to miss this one…May Flowers featuring the Tangles of Helen Williams. I love her flowery botanical work, and while I am still working up a sample for the class, here is a teaser of one I did previously.

Check out the full schedule here – Zentangle Classes & Schedule. The Buy It now button for classes is at the top of the page now. (Thanks Square for changing the online store around…not sure if I like it or not yet!)

You can also find all kinds of cool stuff and supplies in my online store. CharKat’s Creative Insanity – Online Store!

Ok…enough of my blatant advertising and down to the matter at hand.

This week, I got thrown for a loop (almost literally) with the Diva Challenge (#263) when she asked us to use a Globular Grid. I freaked out just a little with all those small spaces. So I grabbed the biggest round tile I found, a “card” from Dick Blick, and my compass, and made bigger spaces. I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to try out some of the Fragments from the new Zentangle Primer, Volume 1.

It looks great to me, from a distance, with my glasses off. (Of course, we are all our own worst critics!) A note about working on “cards”…this paper had no tooth and was very difficult to shade. It is about 6”, and I used a bit bigger pen, so that was part of the problem for me, I think. Anyway…learning/teaching moment!

We had a lovely time on Monday at this month’s Zentangle Friendship Group. We pre-scrunched pieces of paper bag to make a type of Kente cloth, using tangles. It was pretty fun. This is 9 x 12, so I did use brush pens (hence the chunky designs) and tried a few different things.

A design note: to try this, you need to scrunch and scrunch and scrunch your paper bag. Then, I ironed my with a hot steam iron and let it dry. I imagine its is not a super-permanent paper, and I did not spend a lot of time on it. I am going to try a few other things with some other pieces that I treated with a preservative. I’ll let you know how that turns out!

It’s been a busy week. On Wednesday, I attended a quilting workshop with Ami Simms, and boy was that fun. I should have pics of my quilt posted in a week or 2…woo hoo.

We’ve has some great classes this week at the shop, too! You really should join us.

And on that note, I need to finish getting ready for tonights Zentangle 101 class and Iron Maiden at the Forum tomorrow night!

Stay Crazy My Friends!

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!