"It's a String Thing" # 68 Tiles

This week's string combined straight lines, sharp angles, and a long curvy cross line.  Many participants were reminded of mountains as they tangled away.  Let's take a look ~


The first tile arrived from Lori Byerly who wrote ~

I haven't used ixorus or jax before in a tile, so I was pleased to be able to use them both. You can also see my tile here. 

It must take a great deal of thoughtfulness to use the minimalist approach that Lori used here.   Jax floating from its line and  Ixorus are stunning in their simplicity.


A very warm welcome to Kathy McDaniel.  Kathy recently took her first Zentangle® class (from me!) and it is so good to have her join in the fun.  This is her first tile ~

Kathy said that one her second tile she "added two more patterns but kept to the “J” and “D” patterns… using Jelly Roll and Diamond Drops…"

Both tiles are very detailed.  Kathy used each of the string's sections to highlight a different pattern.  Notice how she curved the line for Jax in her second tile.  That is a great idea.

Sandra S. said ~

Every Tuesday I look on your blog several times, just to get the new string-thing ;-) This time, I was really glad, because I like this string very much - it looks like two mountains to me and so I decided to tangle the picture in a way you can identify these two mountains ;-)
I used Jax, Undling and Ixorus for my zentangle. I had a try to use Undling a few weeks before, but I was not really pleased with the result... This time it was better :-)
I show my zentangle on my blog too 

Sandra used Jax so creatively - along the string line angles and then to fill in the spaces below.  The Printemps sun and cloud cluster are happy additions.

From Cheryl Stocks ~

Attached should be my response to the challenge you posed this week.
I immediately saw mountains with snow, that fresh sparkly snow that makes everything glisten, bright and fresh.

Bright and fresh are just the words to describe Cheryl's tile.  Notice how she used Drip Drop and Jax in a Msst type fashion.  That is a fabulous idea.

Carmela wrote ~

This was again an real challenge to fit in an nice combination of the patterns.
I used them all, because i had so many places to fill in, hahaha
Thanks again for this challenge that make us artisticly grow.
Also on m,y blog.

Carmela said that there were "so many placed to fill in".  She did just that and did it so beautifully.  The three sections of Ixorus carry the eye up and around to the other tangles.  

From Lily Moon ~

Lily's Ixorus and Undling morph together as well.  Notice how a small detail like the little white dot she added to the dark arc of Ixorus makes such a difference in a tangle.  Lily put Jax on a grid and it looks right at home there.  She also tippled Drip Drop and playfully reversed the pattern as it crossed from a white to black background.  

Ragged Ray wrote ~

Ixorus is a new one for me, and I think it's got a lot of potential but I need longer to work out different ways to use it. For now quite simply filling some of the string sections, with Undling in basic too. And across the middle an amalgamation of Jax with Drip-Drops on it. I left a halo around that section as I wanted them to stand out from the background - I think of this as a 'Sue Jacobs halo' as she employs this technique so effectively!

A resounding yes to all of her observations about this wonderful tile.  She not only included a "Sue Jacob's halo", she added lovely orb shapes to the tips of Jax along with sparkle and shaded under the darkened beads at the string's ends and they magically rise off of the paper.

Ilse Lukken said ~

Thank you for another nice challenge! I didn't know the string, nor most of the patterns (I only used Ixorus before) but they gave me a nice zen-feeling. Just what I needed ;-)
I put the tile on my blog. 

Can't you just feel the zen looking at Ilse's tangles?  The alternating Undling and Ixorus are beautifully complimentary.  Notice how she included a line of Jax that ends in Drip Drop on either side.


Donna Flynn said that she has been "stuck for several months, and this challenge inspired me. The mountainous string did the trick."

That is exciting news - with exciting results!  Undling in the main sections of the string with all of the dips and curves and shading give the entire piece a dimensional feel.  Ixorus spins up and out from the peaks and Jax and Drip Drop add lovely light touches.  

Cathy Cusson said ~

I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving! This was one of those challenges that I loved everything about it. I loved the string, it reminds me of the mountains in the children's book, The Polar Express, for some reason. I love all of the tangle choices. So to sum it up - I loved this challenge!

It really does - and now with the Polar Express in mind, I need some hot chocolate :)  Notice how Cathy added aura to Jax and added brown.  It makes for a wonderful wintry tile.


Karla Smith said that this "this light and airy tile came forth and things looked brighter" for her ~

It is light and bright and airy.  She added sparkle and shading and embraced the white space.  Through her example, Karla reminds us all that taking time to tangle is good for the soul.

Heike Mosebach said,"I enjoyed this challenge because the last weeks were very busy."

Heike's tile looks relaxed and comfortable - strings of Drip Drop, a line of playful Jax and complimentary white space for Ixorus and Undling.  

Sharyn Penna tangled this as snow fell in New England ~

We had our first two snowfalls ... all day Wednesday and again Thursday night. Fortunately, there wasn't enough to shovel ... just enough to be festive.
The snow definitely influenced my tile. I mashed together Jax and Undling as well as Drip Drop and Ixorus. My daughter suggested I use this tile for Christmas cards. If I don't manage my time, I just might.
Enjoyed another String Thing prompt!

What a wonderful idea.  This would make a beautiful card.  The 'mashing' of the tangles is fabulous.  Jax seems to spin off its line into the Undling sections and off into the sky.


Portia Hyde wrote, "I feel compelled to use all the tangles suggested and then i think it is too busy. Still having fun though."

Can a tile be "too busy"?  No :)  

Portia very cleverly made her intersecting string lines into the first step of Ixorus.  She opted to keep the arcs white and her aura dark.  From there she filled in the spaces with the remaining tangles.  That is fun!

Annemarie said, "I just started this ST Friday night. And ..... enjoyed every minute of it!!"  She added ~
On my blog I wrote:

Right away, when I saw what string had to be used this week, I wanted to start. The string is number 64 by Judi Palumbo and the tangles all begin with the first letters of the first name:
Jax
Undling
Drip Drop and
Ixorus
Because I was busy doing 1001 things this week, I only started drawingFriday night.
I decided to make a zentangle as it was meant to be done at the beginning; black and white. Lately I use color quite often, but this string did not 'feel' like color. I used all four tangles and drawing was just very pleasant and zen like.
I'm very pleased with the result and that's not always the case.
So, thank you Adele, thank you very much!!!!

To view her tile it is easy to imagine that it was "pleasant and zen like" to complete.  The wave of Undling, the curves and shading of Ixorus, the flow of Jax, and the trail of Drip Drop all add up to one wonderful piece.

Annemarie sent a photograph a project that has been keeping her busy this week.  She has been making these pendants.  Aren't they beautiful?  I spy Ixorus :)

Ingird Coventon wrote ~

...Ixorus and Drip drop were already familiar to me. The horizontal wavy line asked for Jax. So I did. While drawing I embraced Jax as one of my fav's from now on. Not so happy how Ixorus turned out. But Jax makes a lot of good..."

Ingrid has made Jax one of my favorites now too.  Notice how she tangled that pattern - she added sparkle and aura-ed with detail lines.  It looks very much like lace the way she drew it.  

Ingrid also took a very fun approach to Ixorus.  She used the lines of the string as the beginning lines of the tangle then she shaded in the arcs instead of darkening them.

Felicity Strohfeldt took time to tangle during a busy 'Grandmotherly visit' and wrote ~

This week’s tangles were so tempting, so here goes. On first sight the string had a festive feel. Jax especially fits the festive bill. Drip drop and Ioxorus are one’s I’ve used before and enjoyed. It had to work quite quickly and that for me is also a first, yet the outcome seems to worked. Hope you agree.

Yes, I agree.  It is everything Felicity mentioned, especially festive.  With little time, tangling can be surprisingly rejuvenating as Felicity demonstrated here.

CZT Sue Jacobs said ~

The string this week made me think of majestic mountains so I pulled out one of my hand colored tiles to tangle on. The tile started out with a mottled blue coloring - all I could think of was a pretty blue sky. Blue pen, blue colored pencil for shading and white colored pencil for highlights. Fun!
On my blog 

Beautiful blues abound.  Just as Ragged Ray described and illustrated, here is Sue's halo around Jax.  How absolutely fun is it that they both used Jax on the same string line as well and they literally live half way around the world from each other.  

CZT Laura Emler said

I worked on these patterns for quite a few days.
I love the way "Undling" flows. It was hard to resist a tile with
only that pattern!
Here's my blog link

The tree like images she created from this string line are superb.  Laura's love for Undling shows here as it does on the rest of the tiles she has pictured on her blog.  Click on the link above to visit her site and view them.

Sue Agnew sent her note a tile with a story to share ~

This was a tough one (good thing I had an extra day off)! I really like Ixorus, but I found it to be the hardest to work with any other tangle, and with the string. I also already liked Jax and Drip Drop, and I enjoyed getting to know Undling. I ended up using predominantly Undling with a little nod to Jax and Drip Drop (I also got into the spirit of the upcoming season a bit). Undling is a huge challenge for a control freak like me because it doesn't want to be controlled. It's hard to predict where the peaks are actually going to be ... so highlighting the peaks is a challenge.

This puts me in a Christmas mood - trees, garland, stars - so beautifully rendered.  

Sue added ~

Working on Undling reminded me of an artist named Sol Lewitt. One of his art series consisted of writing instructions for wall drawings. The drawings would be executed by teams at whatever museum was exhibiting them. So it was very random, depending on people's interpretations of his written instructions. A couple of years ago they did a show at the University of Arizona Museum of Art, and a couple of my friends participated on a team. For their particular drawing they were instructed to draw a mountain skyline in black and then draw equally spaced lines beneath it, following the original line, in red, yellow, and blue. What they discovered (which is what working on Undling reminded me of) is that it is very difficult to keep following the same line without it becoming distorted and flattened. I'll attach a photo of them working on the drawing. 

It must have been quite an opportunity to participate in a project like that and quite a grand scale to work in.   There are some parallels to Zentangle - the free flow interpretation, the aura lines, the fact that lines take on a life of their own...

Thank you for sending that along, Sue.  

Janice L Johnson said that Jax was "one of the first tangles" she ever used "in a completed project."

Tangles can be like old friends, can't they?  Janice used Jax along the string and notice how she used half of it along the border line.  She really made Drip Drop shine with thin and thick lines as well as shading.


Susan Theron sent in this festive tile ~

She ended her note with "I LOVE tangling!"  It shows.  Susan added sparkle to Drip Drop and Jax, ran her lines of Undling horizontally, and shaded an aura around Jax - all very pretty details.


Kathryn White and her daughter Tonya were both reminded of twin mountain peaks as they tangled their tiles ~

From Kathryn (also here on her blog)

Kathryn blended the patterns together beautifully.  Notice how she tucked Jax into the arcs of Ixorus.  

From Tonya (also here on her blog) ~

On her blog Tonya makes mention of the snow and ice in the Chicago area and the chill is felt here in her pretty tile.  The connected Ixorus makes for a glorious pattern.  

Gillie Rhodes was also happily busy with grandchildren and took the time to tangle.  She wrote, "I really enjoyed this weeks String..as soon as I saw it & the patterns I thought rain in the mountains!...so many lines though!"

Rain in the mountains - can't you smell the fresh air?!  As Gillie notes, there are so many lines - so many lovely lines here - and they give Undling and Ixorus such life.  

Cheryl Rotnem said this was a "fun tile!"

She included a corner of Ixorus and left the rest airy and light. Cheryl's detailed shading of Jax makes it look raised from the paper.  

Kirsten Bish called her tile "Mountaineske'"   She added, "I loved Undling as you can tell. However, I couldn't seem to find a place for Jax. Drip Drop needs a bigger space, as does Ixorus but I attempted to fit them in."

Her tile is a showcase for Undling - so many curves and lines and shading.  Multiple Ixorus are pretty too.

And now, the tile for honors this week was sent in by

Natasja Rijsbergen of the Netherlands.

Natasja Rijsbergen said that she really enjoyed this challenge.  She added, "I like the tangle combination.  Each week I learn new tangles so my own tangle library grows! I like it."

And look at her tangle clever combinations!  Natasja doubled the string lines and tucked patterns into them.  She also aura-ed Ixorus but then added Undling to the remaining open spaces.  Once shaded, the tangles have great depth and movement - what a lovely piece.

Congratualtions, Natasja!  I have a little something coming in the mail for you.

Many thanks to all of you for sending in your treasured tiles this week.

Thank you to the creative minds behind "It's a String Thing" #68 ~

TanglePatterns String 064 by Judi Palumbo

Jax by Vera Giesbrecht
Undling  by Susie Achter
Drip Drop by Debbie Perdue, CZT (who first introduced me to Zentangle. Thank you, Debbie!)
Ixorus by Maria Thomas and Rick Roberts

Stop back Tuesday afternoon for "It's a String Thing" #69!