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!

Move on Back Two Squares

September 13, 2017 ~ CharkatTangles ~ 4 Comments

You know, I always have songs playing in my head while I work. They may not be playing out loud, but when I saw this week’s Diva Challenge (#332) and the prompt was 2 Squares…you know this started on repeat. A song from Yes – I’ve Seen All Good People. And to also know I had a bit of a trying weekend made this more prevelant.

Take a straight and stronger course to the corner of your life.

And I learned…always have a Plan B. I had to do some shuffling on a long planned class on Monday when the instructor came down sick, so Plan B it was, and this was one of the results of having something in your pocket to teach at all times. I would like to give a HUGE shout out to Nancy Dawes, CZT of http://www.iteachtangling.com for stepping up and teaching this beauty of a Never Ending Card, adapted for Zentangle by her, to our San Diego Zentangle Friendship Group.

If the video won’t play, you can see it here on YouTube: https://youtu.be/g8Y-JU1Hb7w

And here is a montage of each side.

Not just 2 squares! 8 Bijou, 8 Small Squares, and 8 Border pieces! That was a LOT of fun!

Another side effect of Plan B was the cancellation of the follow on class that I filled in with a Supersized Edition of Summer Time Blues. While several people that were traveling from out of town opted for the offered refund, I had 4 intrepid souls that stayed the course and played with me for the rest of the afternoon!

Look at all that fun they are having! This made my day!

And on Saturday, Karen and Judy came over to play in the paints, and we spent the day making backgrounds to play on. We explored several techniques, including watercolor, shaving foam marbling, and alcohol inks.

I am soaking up the cool breeze in Santa Barbara a the moment. After the heat wave we have had in Temecula, this is a welcome respite. I am going to go get a walk in, as it has been too hot to walk lately!

Have a wonderful week.

Plating Your Tangles

August 21, 2017 ~ CharkatTangles ~ 6 Comments

After the enormity of last weeks post, I feel like I am letting everyone down this week! In my defense, it was only a couple days ago.

This week, the Diva is still on her summer break, so Guest Blogger Jeanette Clawson, CZT tasked us with a plate for our tangles. We did these for a swap at TangleU and I really enjoyed it. And of course, I am still on a kick using my own tangle (Abukas) and simply keep trying to put haKrall in new situation (thank you Holly!) So, here I present a plate of tangles for Diva Challenge #330.

The tile is a shaving foam marbled paper by Annette Carlo CZT. I simply love using these backgrounds to tangle on, so I decided I would share the ones I love the most as my monthly special for September. Be sure to sign up for Paper Play and come play with me! We will be exploring this, as well as some alcohol ink (mono prints and ceramic tiles,) suminagashi (Japanese marbling,) and some different watercolor backgrounds. Oh, and I will also be teaching a few new tangles to use on those!

And the rest of the September schedule is posted now too. There are still a few seats left for Renaissance Express with Cris Letourneau on September 11. Consider coming to spend the day with us!

Have a great week!

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!

From a Paradox to a Hamadox

February 7, 2017February 7, 2017 ~ CharkatTangles ~ 10 Comments

Hama – WHAT? Hamadox…a really cool tangle pattern from Diana Schreur, CZT, which is a cross between Rick’s Paradox and Hamail (Tina Hunziker, CZT). It is this weeks’ Use My Tangle (UMT) for the Diva Challenge (#302.)

I actually started this tile during the Super Bowl, from a Zendala drafted with Ann Grasso’s 4-n-1 template (from a class at TangleU 2015.) It goes along the lines of one of my goals to “Finish” things this year. I had been doing the Paradox in the corners, and set it down for the night. Then viola! The next morning, this UMT came out.

I also have a bit of a “new materials” review for this as well. I tangled with the Derwent Graphik Line Maker pens in Graphite. I like them, very much. It is nice for when you want a grayer black (also comes in Sepia and Black), and good for some great shading. The shading, I did with Stabilo CarbOthello Chalk Pastel Pencils. Very similar to the General’s but the colors seem a bit more vibrant. I am really likely them, and they can also be blended with a water brush (I have not tried this yet.) I will stock both at the shop as soon as my supplier has them available.

Also tangled and shaded this piece with the same pens/pencils. I should have taken a before picture, but it was a mono print piece that I got when I first started taking classes, before becoming a CZT, from Sharla Hicks.

We had a great class with Risa Gettler on Medieval Boxed Capitals. Her next technique class will be on February 23rd, on Vining and Diapering. More Medieval stuff! And we will start a study of Uncial this week (Thursday from 5-7.) This will be a project driven class, spaced out over about 6 weeks, with 3 in person meetings, and plenty of contact time via email with Risa.

I have been taking a watercolor journaling class the past few weeks, and I am particularly proud this week, of my first perspective piece. I even used one of my own photos, from Cardiff Castle in Wales.

And one last piece to share, from my green latka journal. Mostly playing with a loopy string, and trying out a few tangles I hadn’t done before.

So I have not slacked at all this week! AND, finished 2 old pieces, AND got the blog post done (goal is no later than Tuesday!)

Make Stuff…You will feel better!

Merely…Auraknot?

August 11, 2016August 11, 2016 ~ CharkatTangles ~ 8 Comments

Ok…I am spent. But its been a great week so far. It did involve a trip to San Diego, with a Poke-Walk through Balboa Park…

And for a little history lesson…those beautiful buildings were put up for the 1915-1916 World’s Fair. I know by European standards, they are practically new, but for California standards, they are quite amazing! They are in use and beautifully maintained, and the park is really beautiful.

And finished off the day with some oysters at Beerfish (that place is amazing, too!)

But, I digress from what brings you here! This week’s Diva Challenge (#279) was a Duotangle featuring Meer and Auraknot. It did take me a couple of days to get my head wrapped around this, because I could only see it the same way I think everyone else saw it…but you know me, I had to be different. So I grabbed a dyed tile, and my compass (gasp!) and put in the basic flowers shape. I thought I would monochrome it, but it was looking really bland, so I went back in with the black Micron and finished it. Shaded with a chalk pastel.

Not quite as exciting as I had hoped for, but hey, sometimes things don’t work out like you want them to.

I also finished this gem this week…watercolor and Twinkling H2O background using the plastic wrap technique…I was playing with shading using Prismacolor Premier pencils, and not entirely sure I would do that again…but I do like how it turned out.

That’s all for now, I need to jump in the shower and go shopping…groceries need to be acquired!

Stay Crazy My Friends…and Catch them all!

(Actual step counts from last week are unavailable, but the FitBit is back and another 2 pounds is gone.)

Making Old Things New Again

June 30, 2016June 30, 2016 ~ CharkatTangles ~ 7 Comments

Wow…another whirlwind weekend and right into a busy week! Time flies when you love what you do! I am blessed and grateful on a daily basis to be able to do what my heart tells me to do.

In my early days of Zentangle, I would start a tile and if it did not go the way I wanted it to, I would banish it to a pile of Forgotten Tiles (rather like the Island of Misfit Toys in Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer.) I just could not seem to figure out, at that time, how to make them work, and I would not toss them out because they held some value for me.

So, for this weeks Diva Challenge (#273), I dove into that pile to find one that needed some love and a bit of a “Tangle Remix.” I picked this tile, that I was not happy with the Betweed on, but I had done such a nice job on the gold I did not want to toss it.

And I used the adage “When in doubt, black it out.”

And once that was dry (I left it overnight) I went back to work on it, with the gold pen on the black areas, and a little Rick’s Paradox. I thought briefly about putting more, but I t think it really needed a little white space.

See, all better now!

I spent this past weekend up in Big Bear, California at a retreat called Dancing with Petals and Leaves: Mixed Media and Color Play put on by Sharla Hicks, CZT and artist of unbelievable talent. It was an intense weekend (Thursday – Sunday) of color theory, tangling, print making of all sorts, and outstanding food.

By the end of Thursday, we had done color theory and alcohol printing and I made this awesome piece.