ZenHenna

Catch-up post: Permits, Art, and Challenges – with VALOR

The last few weeks are kind of a blur, so while I have been diffusing oils and creating Zentangle tiles for Diva challenges, I haven’t posted. A few highlights to explain why: Thing 2 turned 16 and got his permit, so we’ve been spending a lot of time just driving (eek!)(no, actually, he’s quite natural at it so it’s not that scary)! Thing 1, home from college for the summer, asked me to help him…

Greetings Zentangle and Oily friends! First, a definition – Oola is a state of awesomeness. It’s living a life that is balanced and growing in seven key areas of health and well-being. It’s unlocking the potential for greatness that lies within each of us. It’s finding true purpose and meaning for your life. I started thinking about Oola as I was developing my thoughts around the fusion of…

Tangles and Oils: My zen introvert advantage

I was all set to do a challenge this week and ended up creating my own. I’ve been struggling to think through how to integrate all of my interests and businesses into one cohesive “thing” and realized the answer was sitting right in front of me, literally. My go-to solutions for anxiety and stress fit hand-in-hand: Zentangle and Essential Oils. Yes, I do Zentangle classes. Yes, I am an…

It’s cold and VERY rainy today, perfect day to take on another challenge – R/F Part 2- draw a grid (reticulum), in pen–it’s part of the tangle. Then fill in each of the little squares with a design (fragment) but use a design that’s asymmetrical, and alternate the design to make it more complex. So for this challenge I used Reticula B1 and Fragment Y1, mirroring it across different axes.  Pretty…

Here are SOME of the pieces I created during the workshop. There were others including a (real) marble tile, more gilded pieces (YES, Maria taught us a quick and easy way to do this and I might be addicted), and tiles we tangled using reticula and fragments to contribute to a dictionary of sorts that Maria is working on.

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Now, I’m pushing myself to participate in the I am the Diva challenge so I can KEEP my Zen on…and I’m delighted that the challenge this week involves reticula and fragments, an approach I’m growing more and more fond of with each effort. Rotating, mirroring, so many options for shading… the possibilities are endless.

Reticula A2 with Fragment P4. Endless possibilities, and this is just the simple repetitive approach.

For my reticula I chose A2 – Kind of a diagonal Jonqual-style grid. I filled with with fragment P4 because I thought it would be interesting to see how the folds worked, kind of like an accordion. I love the outcome – even with no rotation or mirroring, add in the shading and it feels very dimensionally complex. If you haven’t played with this concept yet, I encourage you to try. If you want the full experience, go ahead and buy the book – Zentangle Primer v. 1. I promise it’s worth the money (I do not get any compensation for sharing this with you, by the way) for the whole thing, but my favorite part is the reticula and fragments concept. So much fun to play with.