Challenge #178

Challenge # 178

This week's challenge (here) was to use two tangles that start with the same letters as your name.  So, I went to this awesome site (tanglepatterns.com) and chose one tangle from the M tangles and one from the H tangles.  They were both new to me and I had a lot of fun learning them.  I practiced on a paper cup at work, so, if I remember to take pictures tomorrow I will post below.

Mumsy (the 3 large flowers in the middle) and Henna Drum

Mumsy and Henna Drum paper cup - How I practiced these 2 tangles

This was all the time I had this week for relaxing.  Other than work, I've spent my week with house inspections, and paperwork to sell our condo and buy a house.  Fun, fun!!  (not!)  :)

Challenge #177 and Triangle Repeat Stamp Carving

Challenge #177

I just finished challenge #177 yesterday (Saturday) since I had a very busy week.  We accepted an offer on our condo on Monday, and spent the rest of the week searching for the right house for us to move into.  We found it, made an offer and had it accepted Friday night!  It was exhausting, but well worth it.  We'll be moving at the end of August, and it will be so awesome to have all my art stuff back :)  In the meantime, lots of paperwork, and simple art pieces :)

So... challenge #177... use Truffle by Caroline Broady - steps in the challenge itself here.  This was a really tough challenge for me; the tangle is easy and quite fun, but I had a hard time incorporating other tangles into the tile.  I'm not sure why, but this was my 3rd try... the others only have truffles :)

Stamp Carving: Triangle Repeat

This was the last assignment for the workshop based on Julie Balzer's Carve Stamp Play book.  I'm sorry to see it end, but I know I will continue to experiment with stamp carving and to use the stamps I carved for the workshop.

So, I designed and carved the image on the top left on a small triangle.  Then I printed it and created the red pattern below.  I also wanted to make the pattern work on a straight line, so I could create frames, and such.  So, then I tried it and... it worked :).  As usual, it also looks great (and a bit more finished) when it is outlined in pen and ink (right).

And then I tried it with watercolors

Watercolors and some pen work

And then... designed, carved and printed something completely different :)  So fun!

Challenge #176 and Stamp Carving: Quarter repeat

Challenge #176

This weeks' challenge was to Bring Your Own Beverage to your tangling session :).  So, spill your drink on your tile, or paint with it, or do whatever you want, then tangle over it.  Fun, fun!!  You can see the directions here.

 

I started with my morning tea and with the stirrer, made a few marks (the lighter ones.  Then once the tea had steeped, I made a few more marks with a corner of the teabag (the darker ones in the middle).  Then added some drops around with my afternoon tea :).

This tile was spilled on the same way (at the same time) as the one above.  I ironed both tiles today, and then chose the second one to tangle on.  Here is what I came up with.

 I decided to tangle only on the "tea painted" parts, and used the tea stains as my string.  It turned out really weird, but I really enjoyed the process.

Stamp Carving: Quarter Repeat

This is the next to the last lesson based on Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's book Carve Stamp Play. :(  I enjoyed it too much!!

Here are the stamps I created for the quarter repeat.  Actually, these were just tests with a cheap eraser I got (that carved like butter!), but since our condo is up for sale all my art stuff was put away (even the little box I had separated to stay) and I have not had time or patience to go to the basement and look for it... these will have to do for now :).

I started out with a very simple one, all it has is a "leaf" shape from one corner to the opposing corner, with 2 squiggly things at each of the other corners.  When you stamp it several times, this is what you get:

Left: just the pattern printed over 5 times across and down
Right: the same piece, after being painted with H2Os and outlined in pen and ink

This pattern is also very simple: a squiggle at opposing corners joining at the center around a circle, and a V at each of the other 2 corners.

Left: stamped 5 times across and 5 times down
Right: after I played with it with H2O's and pen and ink

Challenge #175 and Stamp Carving - Mirror repeat

Challenge #175

We're in the process of putting our condo up for sale this week, so all of a sudden (while I was at work) all my art supplies were gone and packed away, all I have left are a few tiles, and my pens.  So, I feel very lucky I had put them in a nice plarn crochet basket I had made and they survived the packing :).

The challenge was to use Crux by Henrike Bratz - you can see the step outs here and Diva's challenge here.

I was trying out this new tangle at work during lunch time.  I looked at the step outs, and though... "OK, got it!" and then grabbed my pad of paper and went for it.  Hmmm... that didn't work!  OK, back to the computer to review the steps again, then back to the paper.  I must have done this four or five times, I hate to admit, I was just not getting it that you do one X on 4 grids!!  Somehow I was missing that, and obviously it was not working.  Once I got it, it was easy-peasy, and a lot of fun :).  

Stamp Carving - Mirror repeat

Continuing on with Julie Fei-Fan's book - Carve, Stamp, Play...

Mirror repeat is a bit deceptive as you cannot really print the mirror image of a stamp, but the idea is that you rotate your stamp and print it next to the one you just printed.  So, I played around with a few designs, but ended up going with this one:

Print of mirror stamp

Ugly stage - after it has been painted with H2Os

Finished

Printed the stamp in a way such that
I created 4x4 squares of each side of the stamp -
unlike above where you had alternating (1x1) squares

Challenge 174 and More Stamp Carving

Challenge 174

The challenge this week was to use two superimposed strings (here).  It felt like going back to basics, which I loved doing.  To go with the "back to basics" idea, I sat in front of my tangle display (here) and chose tangles I had not used in a long time.  It was so much fun!  I have to do this more often :)

More Stamp Carving

Continuing on with the Carve Stamp Play book by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer...

Seamless Stamp

We were to carve a stamp that when printed would connect on all sides.  Instead of going for a square or rectangle, I decided to try a triangle.  It was really fun designing it; I'm sticking to simple designs.  

Triangle carving which will connect on all 3 sides to form a pattern
and... yes, I got rid of that little sliver on the top right corner

Printing your stamp for the first time and seeing how your design works is so much fun!!  No matter how many times I do this, I'm always amazed :)

I'm now working on this one, where I printed the triangle many, many times to create a seamless pattern.  I have outlined it with pen, and painted it with H2Os, but it still needs something - probably some pen and ink work on the blues or on the purples to set them apart a bit more.

Here are a couple more prints.  I cheated on these... only printed and painted a piece and then digitally duplicated to see the pattern with different colors.

Triangle stamp printed, outlined with pen, and painted with Inktense

Triangle stamp printed, outlined with pen, and painted with H2O's