Give Peace a Chance?

July 13, 2016 ~ CharkatTangles ~ 8 Comments

I sit here writing this with a lot of turbulence in my brain today.

I’ve just come off a very awesome week of working at the Major League Baseball All-Star Game Fan Fest as a volunteer. It was a lot of fun helping people get the most out of their visit to beautiful Southern California. The weather was perfect and there were only a few negative folks around. All in all, everyone, including me, had a good time. (Excuse my bright, shiny forehead, but it wasn’t easy taking a selfie at the world’s largest baseball with all the crazy lights they were using.)

And I carried on having a great start to this week, with a guest Diva (#275), Suzanne Fluhr, CZT. Suzanne is an awesome blogger, and I enjoy reading her travelogs very much, so when she wrote this week’s challenge, she did so with a heavy heart over all the hateful things that have been going on in our beautiful country as of late. Suzanne wanted us to Give Peace a Chance. I love that song…and it played over and over in my head while I was working on this:

I wish that everyone on the planet would take a minute and step out of their own lives and just be nice to other people. I trust that this can happen. I meditate on it frequently.

The conflict in my brain today comes from my desire for peace, and my desire for safety in my community. In the past couple of years, the homeless population in our town has increased quite a bit. Well intentioned people give them food and money, instead of directing them to the social services that can help them, and now suddenly we have a problem. I’m sad for their plight. I truly feel for them (and its been a bit on the warm side here, so that makes their comfort here a bit uneasy.) I know there are many programs here set up to help them, but as we all learn the hard way, you have to want help to seek it. But what do we do? It is a bit of a conundrum.

Just Trust Peace.

On the shop notes for this week, we have some fun stuff on the schedule. Rock and Tangle is Friday night (the 15th) from 4-9 pm. Regardless of what you are working on, come on down and play! I have all kinds of fun things to try if you are in a slump. Making stuff always makes you happy!

Black and White Summer is shaping up to be a great time too. Saturday, the 23rd, from 10-3, I have an awesome technique to share with you. Bring your basic tangle supplies, I will supply the rest. My good pal Karen did hers ahead of time since she will be out of town, so here is a preview:

She says it is not done yet, but I think it is shaping up quite nicely! I am working on a small set of my initials, so far I finished K. Hopefully will have the C done soon!

I should have the August schedule up by the end of the week.

A parting shot from the traveling exhibit from Cooperstown (The Baseball Hall of Fame.) There be Giants there. Say Hey Willie Mays!

Stay Crazy My Friends.

Bang…Boom…BLAM!

July 4, 2016July 4, 2016 ~ CharkatTangles ~ 12 Comments

Yep, that’s right…it is Independence Day here in the United States. I also like to call it the day we find out which of our neighborhood kids are not that smart and got illegal fireworks. (Disclaimer…Southern California is VERY dry and we have a really wicked fire season here, where many of the fires are human caused…)

But…all in all, it is a good day to be American. As a veteran, I know what it took to get here, and while I worry about the future of my country, I do celebrate it with the traditional baseball (Giants won, 3-1 over the Rockies,) hot dogs (bacon wrapped and baked, with mole aloi, chopped onions, and dijon,) and tangling (in support of this week’s Diva Challenge #274 entitled My Country Tis of Thee.)

The scanner never picks up the glitter and sparkle, but I think sometimes less is more. I sprayed the background through a star stencil with my eBrush and Spectrum Noir markers, then tangled with a blue Micron, clear Stardust Gelly Roll, Silver Gelly Roll, and indigo and white chalk pastels. Seems more complicated when I type it out (kinda like those hot dogs…lol.)

Been doing some other finishing this week, and this ultra cute elephant (or elephunk as I call him) emerged.

I seem to use an awful lot of pens for something so small…lol. He is Brusho paints dabbed through a Dreamweaver stencil. I decided I liked the paint bleeds and didn’t cover them up. I think it makes him look artsy.

I also finally finished this great up-cycle project for a display frame.

I had 2 frames left from a reframing project, and used a piano hinge to join them, and installed eye screws and picture wire in copper and silver. The clips are quilting clips. I did learn the importance of drilling pilot holes for the eye screws after one of them slipped and left a nasty gash in my left palm. But other than that, I think it came out really CUTE!

I am going to be a bit busy this week, with classes and I volunteered to work the Major League Baseball All-Star FanFest in San Diego. For anyone that knows how much I love baseball, this is going to be a very memorable event for me, and I get to be involved for free! I don’t get to see the game (except on TV) but just being around so much baseball stuff is awesome!

Stay Crazy My Friends!

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.

We did a lot of tangling, using the “What ifs” and exploring different forms…

And we played with print making on a larger scale, using big tools!

And lots and lots of other fun things…

Oh, and did I mention food? We ate VERY well.

And I will leave you with this…my pile of things that need to be worked on or finished is so much larger now!

And be sure to join me in July for some fun stuff! Stay Crazy My Friends!

Red Hot in Black and White

June 20, 2016 ~ CharkatTangles ~ 10 Comments

So, I’m not going to wax all poetic about the state of anything this week except the HEAT WAVE we are experiencing here in the Southwest (and I dare say, other parts of the country. Staying inside and tangling sounds like a great alternative to going anywhere, but I did have to go into the studio today for my monthly session with my “kids” (11 year old girls!) I made a pit stop on the way home to pick up some groceries and stop into Michael’s (for my foreign friends, that’s a large arts and crafts store here in the US.) Everyplace was like a ghost town, I was only one of two customers in Michael’s. Rather eerie.

This week’s Diva Challenge (#272) was titled “Black and White and Red All Over.” I had a bit of fun with this with the girls today, as we learned a few new tangles and used stencils to make strings to tangle.

So…while that was cute, I wasn’t sure that “qualified” for my weekly Diva entry, so I had to do another tile when I got home…

I have been hard at work this week, finishing up stuff and things, and shop samples, and putting together the schedule for July!

If you are in the area, I have a little creative time management going on this Wednesday, with Pocket Journals.

And later in July, this awesome Black and White Summer.

So if you get a chance, come on down!

Back to work for me! Stay Crazy My Friends!

Courage in the Wake of Adversity

June 15, 2016 ~ CharkatTangles ~ 8 Comments

Yes…I know that waxes rather profound as a title. This week has been a rather sad one all over the world, but one thing the tragedy in Orlando has done is bring people together in the face of adversity. I would like to think that, as a world, we can be, stronger together. And that would take some courage for a lot of people, to put aside their prejudices in the name of peace and just downright accept EVERYONE.

Pointing fingers, blaming, and looking for scapegoats accomplishes nothing. But we all know that. I’ve recently read a lot on the Responsibility Foundation. Their main goal is to Educate, Engage, and Elevate the ideal of Responsibility, especially in today’s young people. Everyone takes accountability for their actions…there is no blame for the things that “happen to you.” I like this idea, and its ideals. I’ve long thought that people take too little responsibility for what happens in their lives, and constantly look for someone else to blame for their woes.

But these things all take COURAGE. And in the Army Values, that means to me, Personal Courage.

Personal Courage as defined by the Army, is to face fear, danger or adversity.

It’s not always easy. But then, life isn’t easy either. All we can do is take responsibility and have compassion. These things are free.

I know you don’t come to my blog to read, but you do come here for my art, and for that I am grateful. I use Zentangle and other art forms to calm my mind when things are in a state of adversity and that is often reflected in my work. So when The Diva sent out this weeks Challenge (#271) to interpret Beads of Courage, I meditated on that for a while.

Beads of Courage is an arts in medicine program that helps kids with chronic or life threatening illness tell the story of their medical journey. Each bead represents something different. A different procedure or appointment, or special circumstance. For example, when seeing a doctor or getting a poke instead of getting a sticker when they leave, they are given a glass bead for each thing. (blue for doctor, black for poke… some other beads are yellow=night in the hospital, pink=respiratory support, magenta=trip to emergent care, teal=tube insertion or removal, rainbow=therapy; physical, speech, occupational, respiratory) and every child’s string is different and unique to their story.

This has been very personal to The Diva, as her ADORABLE little Artoo has Moebius Syndrome, and spends *lot* of time in hospitals and at doctor visits.

So this week, I combined my meditation for Orlando with Beads of Courage, and came up with this:

I hope the sun shines on the families affected by this, and any other adversities.

I should have the July Schedule up by the end of the week. I have air-conditioning! Come in to escape the heat and relax. Rock and Tangle this Friday Night!

Stay Crazy My Friends…Make Stuff…You will feel better!

And one final note…To quote Rush, “If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.”

Blue Skye

May 30, 2016 ~ CharkatTangles ~ 14 Comments

This week’s Diva Challenge (#270) is using Margaret Bremner, CZT’s new tangle Skye. I have admired this tangle since she first introduced it, but I am a bit intimidated by it, so I have not tried it, until today.

I generally do not have to practice tangles…I can see them once in step outs and just do them…this was not the case here! I had to practice this one…more than once…I was vexed!

And it took me the better part of a few hours to get through them…I worked through this on both sides!

But, I got through it, as you can see with the white one on the left, and finally got up the courage to grab one of my Twinking H2O tiles that I painted at TangleU. I love what Margaret does with the monochrome colors she uses, so I decided to give that a whirl. I used a Stabilo Fineliner in blue, for the first time, gold Gelly Roll, and General’s Chalk Pastel in Indigo.

Just as an FYI…the Stabilo bled when I sprayed it with my usual fixative. Fortunately, I like the effect and the lines stayed ok. Lessons learned! (By the way…I spray most everything because I lot of my work gets handled a lot…when I teach and such…)

Had a fun class with 2 of my regular students last Saturday, where we explored some single element tangles on Bijou tiles. I think we did some pretty neat work!

And…I have a 3-Part class coming up on preparing backgrounds and tangling on larger formats, and here is a sample of what we will be doing.

10 x 10 inch watercolor paper…was playing around with Color Bursts by Ken Oliver. The paper is actually much whiter than it photographed…not sure what is up with that!

Lots of fun things on the schedule in June, be sure to check it out!

Have a Crazy Art Filled Week!

Ellish and Adventure

May 24, 2016 ~ CharkatTangles ~ 18 Comments

Sorry for missing last week. I was off on vacation…and I did take things with me to do, but nothing got done. I’ve caught up, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that this week’s Diva Challenge (#269) is the new official tangle, Ellish! I got to learn this one at TangleU, from Molly Hollibaugh herself, so that made it pretty special. It was one of the very few things I’ve finished from that trip (and I actually finished it in class!)

I do like this tangle, and if you alter the center shape, it can even be a “C”-ish. I’ve been working some other alternate shapes to make it conform to different letters, but they don’t look quite the same.

I also finished Diva Challenge #268 (A Bit ‘o Black) but was busy working on the schedule for June so I didn’t get it posted in time…but here it is!

I was on a bit of a Mooka roll, so I just went with it. I really like the look of black and white on the Renaissance Tan tiles.

I have been working pretty much non-stop since we got home, but the fruits of my labor is a really fun schedule coming up in June (July and August should be posted soon, too!) I have included some Zentangle for Kids sessions for the summer break. Those should be loads of fun!

And I’ll leave you with a teaser of what I did on vacation. While I was born in California, I grew up mostly in Arizona. And in my 54 years on this planet, I have NEVER been to the Grand Canyon…until now.

There are simply no words…but we loved every minute of it.

And…back to work for me!

Dueling Tangles

May 11, 2016 ~ CharkatTangles ~ 7 Comments

Another busy week here at CharKat’s! I started a new planner this week, and I seem to be getting a lot more done, which is nice. I hope the honeymoon lasts with this one. It is a bit more compact than my last one, and fits in my purse. Yes, I know there is technology that I can use in its place, but I like paper…I like to use a fountain pen to write, and I like to make notes and tangles and sketches and jot down ideas…so the technology is a time suck for me, because…SQUIRREL! (or FaceBook or Pinterest, or Candy Crush) So I am making more of an effort to stay off the technology!

This weeks Diva Challenge (#267) was a Duo Tangle: Pokeroot vs Drupe. Now, I am not particularly fond of Pokeroot. I don’t really use it much (make that ever) so this took a bit of prodding to get me to do it. ‘Nuff Said…

On Monday, the SoCal Zentangle Friendship Group met at CharKat’s, and I showed them some of my cool projects (the finished ones) from TangleU and led us in a couple of tangles. We learned a new tangle from Zentangle HQ, called Ellish (if you haven’t seen it in your newsletter yet, it will be coming soon!)

And K-leesi by Sharon Robinson.

Speaking of TangleU Projects…here are some books I’ve finished from Cherryl Moote’s Class:

They are still blank on the outside, but so cute!

And I am seeing a lot of finished t-shirts! All so different, and so pretty. What fun it is to wear your art. Here is one is black and white from Izumi Sato, my fellow SoCal CZT:

And this pretty, almost electric looking colorful one from Karen Sandoval:

Judy Englehart submitted this lovely:

And this bright bit of spring from Julie Gladstone:

If you want to color your own t-shirt, I still have them available in my online store. I can ship international, but you will need to email me your order instead of going online (charkattangles@gmail.com) Click here to get to the store, and don’t forget the Gell Roller for Fabric and Fabrico markers for color!

I am putting the final touches on my larger piece for the May 21st class (May Flowers featuring the tangles of Helen Williams) and I am really liking what I’ve done here. I don’t normally post works in progress, but I thought this might be the time to make an exception!

I think that bottom flower looks a lot like this Japanese beauty, so I am probably going to color it the same.

And on that note, I need to skedaddle! But, I’ll leave you with this:

The String’s a Spring!

April 19, 2016 ~ CharkatTangles ~ 8 Comments

Wow….when I have a good and creative week, it really does start to roll! Too bad that doesn’t carry over to me getting dressed and leaving the house sometimes….

But, it is spring here in beautiful Southern California, and while its been a bit on the windy side, we are already experiencing warmer than usual temperatures. Our darling Diva tasked us this week with using a Spring for a String (#264) and since I am working back through Helen Williams’ e-books, I thought I would work up some ribbons with that spring. Morning Glories with a little of Helen’s Mooka-Style and a pretty green ribbon to tie it all up with. This is a little bit of what we will be doing in the May Flowers Class on May 21st. That class will feature several of Helen’s tangles on a larger format, including her new Compass Daisies! I simply love her work.

I know what you are thinking…wow….those colors are beautiful! They actually look even better in person. I was experimenting with my new Peerless Watercolors for this, on Fabriano Medioevalis paper in the 4.8-ish inch square.

Peerless Watercolors are saturated sheets that are activated with water. Instead of pigments, they are mineral dyes. There were originally developed to hand tint photographs around the turn of the century (like more than 100 years ago…) and the formula has not changed. The colors are translucent, except for the Spotting Black, Opaque. They come in cards that are about 6 x 2.5 inches, and you can just use a water brush to work with them. They are a little strange to work with in their native form…so there are a variety of ways to make them into neat, lightweight, portable palettes to work from. Jane Davenport has a great video and information on that here. But…me being me, I took my own creative license and made mine a bit different.

To give you perspective, that is a hair tie as a closure. 3″ x 4.5-ish. I have acetate between each page for protection and as a mixing pallet, and only cut a 1/2″ piece for each place. It weighs about an ounce, and is easily held in your non-dominant hand while working in it, so page flipping is no big deal. The pieces of card are stuck in with double sided tape, and when it runs out, I can just pull it off and put in a new one. As you can see, the color of the card is not really representative of what color they are, so a swatch test is necessary. I used some old watercolor paper I have had for probably 20 years (and the puppy had chewed on when I still had a puppy) so the net cost of this was…well…just the paints. I also stuck a few extra pieces of watercolor paper in the back in case I got an urge to try something, and the inner cover liners are also watercolor paper.

Not that I haven’t been busy prepping samples for the May classes, and packing for TangleU next week, but I’ve been on rather a book-making tear. In addition to my Peerless pallet book, I also finished my working notebook/travel journal for TangleU. In an effort to not bore the people that aren’t interested in bookmaking, I will show you the highlights. I’m still trying to figure out how to make another listing for just paper craft-type things, so you don’t have to be subjected to this…

I’m pretty impressed with it, and have started keeping track of my “lessons learned” for each of these types of projects, so I can continue to improve them. This one has 4 sets of pages (for a 4-day retreat) with each set having one watercolor page with a “tile frame” mounted on the back of it (still using up that puppy-chewed paper!), 10 sheets that are lined on one side and blank on the back, trimmed with Washi tape and some stickers, and a double-sided pocket folder that I also decorated. The closure is a button held on with another smaller button through an eyelet, with the same cord braided and beaded to loop around the button. This was mostly made from a WeR Kit I found in my drawer, and I bought one button and 4 sheets of 12×12 scrapbook paper. So again, it cost me nothing but time, really, to make.

AND, on that note, I really need to sleep. Baseball season makes me stay up later than I usually like to keep up with my beloved Giants, so I tend to be a bit more sleep deprived than usual.

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!