Labyrinth Tangle

I was so excited to see this week's challenge over at The Diva. The challenge is to use a labyrinth as the string.  I was excited am I have had this idea kicking around in the back of my mind but I haven't pulled it out.

 The challenge gave me just what I needed to pull it out. While Laura gave us instructions to draw our own, I found a layout online and traced it onto some grey paper.   I love the look of a labyrinth, it is so graphic. But at the same time, as the designs are so often in gardens, I didn't want to go graphic but wanted it to have a more natural feel to it.  I drew in brown ink for the basic out line and then used a micron to draw Betweed in the spaces.  I "walked" this labyrinth several times while making this piece.  First to draw it, then to draw Betweed, then to embellish the design and then finally to shade.

There are some great labyrinth paths on line and I think that I will have to check them out and see what else I can come up with.  Drawing my own would also be a great place to start and see what I can come up with.

Last week Ginny Stiles asked me to show her my dip pens that I use.  I was unable to figure out how to load a photo in the comments so I am posting a photo here.  The pens in the image are the three that I use most often.  The brown with the gold nib is one that I can change out the nibs on.  I use my pen for drawing and not calligraphy, so I keep the nib to one that makes a thinner line.  There are those that can make a thick line but I haven't used them much.  All I can say about working with a dip pen is practice.  It takes a light touch and dipping in the ink often to keep the line the same.  I am by no means an expert.  I have made many mistakes and am really just making it up as I go.  My favorite ink is Winsor and Newton drawing ink.  It mixes easy and has great color saturation.  I just have an initial set but there are tons of colors.  Anyway, I hope that seeing the pens help Ginny.

Have a great week everyone!  Thanks for taking a look and for your wonderful comments. 

Tone on Tone Monotangle Ensemble

Say that title three times fast!  Yeah, I don't want to either.

Sometimes over at the Diva, Laura throws us a challenge that is REALLY a challenge for me.  This week the challenge is to use the tangle Betweed in a monotangle.  Meaning, use only the tangle Betweed in your tile.  This tangle is a challenge for me because it feels awkward to me as I make the strokes.  Well, it does in the "traditional" way of creating it.  I am much better at it when filling in a line or section but trying to do it in a circle really changes the feel of creating it.  Why? I have  no idea.  My brain, sometimes she sees things and sometimes she don't.  Anyway, as I contemplated even participating this week, I thought to myself that there is a reason it's called a challenge so suck it up and do it!

BeTreed (see what I did there?)

At first I tried to force Betweed into a tree shape.  I had checked out a few of the wonderful entries this week and saw a lot of Halloween shapes so I wanted to try something different. I thought that if I could get a tree to work, maybe I could make it into a card for the holidays.  Yeah, that didn't work out so well.  It wasn't terrible, but not so good either.  I didn't even finish the tile.  I decided to move onto a new idea.  But what?

In the last few days I have been using some of the Sakura Gelly Roll pens that I have collected as accents in my inktober pieces.  I bought some of the glaze pens a while back.  At the time I had an idea to use the black glaze on black paper and see how that looked.  Like so many of my ideas however, I never got far.  With the idea of using Betweed in the round, I pulled out my glaze pens, a square of black paper and a circle to trace, and I gave things a go.

Black on Black

I think that part of where Betweed hangs me up is the little spot of shadow.  I always make my lines and then go back to add a shadow spot.  This time using the glaze pen I tried something different.  The ink in the pens really flows and will puddle on you quite easily.  With that in mind, I started each line with a small circle and then made the line.  If the pen is going to puddle on you, why not use it to your advantage?  I was so excited that not only did the black on black stand out - the glaze ink has a nice shine to it - but the tangle turned out pretty well too.  The scan has the paper more gray than black but it is still a good image of the tile.  Since the line of the pen is "fat", I did these on a 5" square.   I debated trying to shade this but I like it without shade so I left it alone.  Once this one was finished, I was so excited by it I pulled out the rest of the set, matching colored paper and DID ALL THE COLORS!  There is a clear glaze that I tried on a white paper but it REALLY didn't show up.  For the white then, I used a Gelly roll glitter pen.  After I got all of the colors done, I realized that I had 9 tiles so I have put them together in an ensemble.  I think that I will put them in their own 5" frames and hang them in one big square on the wall.  A few of the colors didn't scan so well.  The tone on tone was hard for my scanner to see, that or maybe the shine of the ink threw it off a bit, but I think that you can get the idea.

Sorry that I made you get through all this rambling to get to the finish.  :)  Thanks for stopping by and for all of your lovely comments.  Your support is invaluable to me.

Have a great week!