5th Blog anniversary! 300 posts! 2000 comments! Homework instead of Zentangle Class...

Man muss die Feste feiern, wie sie fallen / Today any reason to celebrate is a good reason.

Gerade als ich einen neuen Blogpost schreiben wollte, ist mir bewusst geworden, dass dies mein 300. Beitrag wird/ist!! 

Nicht nur das: außerdem feiert mein Blog „SimTangle“ bereits seinen fünften Geburtstag - unglaublich!
Als ich mit Zentangle und diesem Blog angefangen habe, hätte ich mir niemals träumen lassen, dass es auch fünf Jahre später noch so viele tolle, und regelmäßige Leserinnen und Leser gibt - dafür bin ich euch sehr dankbar!! 

Im Blog konntet ihr alle meine Zentangle-Stationen miterleben: 

Der erste Beitrag hier Anfang 2015, meine Reise nach Providence um CZT zu werden 2016 und auch meine ersten eigenen Workshops in Dresden, 2017. 

Immer mit dabei: ihr! Dafür möchte ich mich ganz herzlich bei euch bedanken!!

Für fast 180.000 Besuche auf diesem Blog aus 117 Ländern dieser Erde und (noch ein Jubiläum!) für 2007 motivierende Kommentare!

Für eure Begeisterung, die ich bei all meinen  bisher 38 Zentangle Kursen erleben durfte und dass sich viele von euch immer wieder zu meinen Kursen anmelden!

DANKE.

Just now, when I started to writing this post I realized :

This is my 300th post on this Blog!
Additionally it is the 5th anniversary of my blog "SimTangle"!

These last 5 years and 300 posts show my way on the Zentangle journey.
I did my very first steps at the beginning of 2015,
I went to Providence to become a Certified Zentangle Teacher in 2016 and 
I started teaching Zentangle in my hometown, Dresden, in 2017.

I am happy about the almost 180.000 visits on my blog from 117 countries all over the world and  2007 comments full of motivation. 

Until now I have taught 38 classes up to now and I am very proud to have many students who come to my classes whenever they can...

This is the time for me to say THANK YOU to all my students and blog readers.

Kommen wir zur Gegenwart / To the present

Wir erleben derzeit ganz komische Zeiten. Das Coronavirus hat das öffentliche Leben auf der ganzen Welt lahm gelegt, soziale Kontakte sind weitestgehend verboten. Und doch: ich habe einmal mehr realisiert, was für ein unglaubliches Geschenk die internationale Zentangle-Community ist. Denn: zwar dürfen Workshops nicht mehr stattfinden, aber online können wir uns dennoch täglich treffen und austauschen. So haben z.B. einige spanische CZTs angefangen, täglich bei Instagram einen Zentangle-Unterricht zu streamen. Alle können teilnehmen, egal wo auf der Welt, entweder live oder innerhalb von 24 Stunden nach dem Stream - das ist eine Entwicklung, die mich wirklich begeistert!

Nachfolgend drei Tiles, die bei einigen dieser Livestreams entstanden sind (siehe unten)

The earth seems to stand still at the moment. Due to the Corona virus all social activities have been banned, our lives take place at home and in social isolation in order to slow down the pandemy.
During a Riis like this you realize which kind of gift the Zentangle method and the Zentangle  community really is: we stand together and stay connected through social media such as Instagram.
Some Spanish CZT have organized DAILY online Zentangle classes via Instagram. Everyone can join this online classes and people from all over the world meet there and tangle together.
What a story!
Even if you are not able to join the lessons live they stay online for 24 hours to watch and tangle later. 

The following three tiles were inspired by such online classes:Attached I show you three tiles which I created inspired by these classes:

1. online class taught by Maria Tovar (Instagram: @elultimotangle)

2. online class taught by Pilar Pulido (Instagram: @zentrarte)

3. online class taught by Os Bursan (Instagram: @erix702000_czt)

Hausaufgaben statt Zentangle Workshop / Homework instead if Organic Class

Eigentlich hatte ich für gestern meinen eigenen Workshop vorbereitet. In sechs Stunden wollte ich mit acht Teilnehmerinnen wunderschöne, organische Tiles erschaffen. Leider, aber vernünftigerweise, wurde der Termin verschoben. 

Um die anderen dennoch ein bisschen zu inspirieren, habe ich ihnen „Hausaufgaben“ aufgegeben: ich habe sie gebeten, mein neustes Tangle „Tulipa“ zu nehmen und ihre eigenen Kreationen zu erschaffen. Hier seht ihr einige der Arbeiten, die sie mir zurück gesendet haben. Ich bin unglaublich stolz, wie toll sich alle in das Muster eingedacht haben, und freue mich unglaublich, dass auch hier wieder so viele tolle, individuelle und unterschiedliche Ergebnisse rausgekommen sind. 

Yesterday I was supposed to teach a 6hour's class with 8 students.
I had some beautiful organic tiles planned. Obviously the workshop had to be postponed.
Instead I asked my students to do a little homework.
As my tangle TULIPA has been released on TanglePatterns.com two weeks ago I asked them to get creative and draw one or more Tulipa tiles themselves.
Here are some of the tiles the others created:

Elke: wunderbare grafische Bearbeitung!

Elke: ganz zart im "Lagenlook"

Elke: zart, blumig, Frühling!

Maike: mit den neuen Gelly Rolls auf 3Z - das ergibt ein tolles Mosaik!

Manja: starke Farben! wie das leuchtet!

Manja: Mit Diva Dance und Crescent Moon: Tanz in den Frühling

In diesem Sinne: Bleibt gesund und danke, dass ihr mein Herzensprojekt „SimTangle“ schon so lange und so fleißig unterstützt! 

On that note let me close this post by saying:
Stay safe and healthy and thank you again for supporting me during the last five years

Relaxagons!

Here is the documentation of my Zentangle class with "Relaxagons" which I run end of January.

Relaxagons are hexagonal shaped tiles. 

Marguerite Samama, CZT from Netherlands, introduced these tiles. You can get them and belonging tutorials on her Etsy shop ("Happytangling").

You can create amazing mosaics with Relaxagons. 

I have created some of them virtually (copied one and arranged in a mosaic).  

In my class we had enough real tiles to create beautiful mosaics.

As a service for you I attach here the list of used materials and some advices and step outs - so you can tangle them if you like.

We used the following materials:

2 Relaxagon tiles, w

white, by Marguerite

1 hexagon tile, cut from a grey Zendala tile

Sakura Micron "PN" (dark blue, burgundy, black)

Charcoal light blue, burgundy, white

The first tile:

The second tile:

 The third tile 

Some more of my Relaxagon tiles , with virtual mosaics

Zentangle Class "Grey Tiles"

One of my last classes as a CZT  before the Corona Epidemic knocked down our social life was a class of Grey Tiles.
I wanted to introduce the new tiles by Zentangle with grey surface to my students.
My preparation was inspired by the Project Pack #7 and the series of videos by Zentangle.

As an inspiration for you I attach some hints, and step outs here:

We used these materials:
Sakura Microns "PN" (dark blue) and "01" (blue) . Sakura Gelly Roll pens white and gold,
Charcoal pens in white and light blue.

First tile : Zendala

Here you can see the step by step description how I created this Zendala.

 And here you can see the final mosaic of all my students. I am proud of them!

Second tile : classic grey tile 9x9cm:

This is a duo tangle of DEX (Original Zentangle) and ELEGAN (by Tangle Dream) which is one of my favourites:

The mosaic of my students:

Here is another version of this tiles with MySwing  in the center, combined with DEX and 'Nzeppel

I wish you all the best - take care!

KEEP CALM AND TANGLE ON!

Living and tangling in times of Corona ....

We have Sunday, March, 22th.
The crisis of the Corona virus is the hardest challenge in our lives we could imagine so far.
We are not allowed to leave our homes without any good reason anymore.

The whole world is affected and all humans need to cope this crisis as good as possible.

The most important thing is to stay calm and to follow the rules of our government and to stay healthy!

The social life takes place online. Thanks to the digital possibilities we can meet online, we can give each other motivation and inspiration.

I wish you all that you stay healthy! Take care for yourself and your beloved people.
I am sure that we will manage this crisis!

Thanks to the Zentangle Method we have the possibility to calm down with pen and paper, to create beautiful things, to learn some new techniques or tangles and so I can not imagine that this will become boring sometimes!

I am going to revive my blog here (I posted very seldom during the last months).
In this post I show you some of my recent tiles and techniques.
In my next posts I will show you the results of my Zentangle classes "Grey Tiles" and "Relexagons" which I had End of January.
May be you take this as an inspiration for your spare time at home ;-)

First of all I am proud to have my tangle "TULIPA" on Linda Farmers website tanglepatterns.com
Tulipa can give a little feeling of spring and I hope that you will love it!
I have published TULIPA in my last post .

The next two Zendalas I drew for Annette's "Zendals Moments#15".
What a beautiful string! I was inspired to tangle one of my favorite tangles "Elegan" 
In the second tile I made a tang elation of Mooka with my tangle MySwing:

This tile I drew based on an online video class of Heidi Kay, which she run last weekend.
I could not atte nd to the class but she posted the Zendala string and so I could create this one.
Thank you, Heidi, for this inspiration!

This is a tile which I made yesterday, (almost) using the classic Zentangle method (without dots and border):
I drew a string and took three cards out of my Tangle Decks with the tangles Fassett (by Lynn Mead), Emingle and Poke Leaf (both by Zentangle).
It was very relaxing: No challenge, no task... only tangling.

Last, but not least, these two photos show some new sheets of Yupo Paper which I colored with Alcohol Inks. They are waiting to be tangled soon ...

TULIPA, refreshed

One year ago, I presented "TULIPA"as a new tangle here on my blog.
I drew it as a field of flowers and I realized, that this was more ZIA than real Zentangle.

I had some more ideas in my mind to draw TULIPA more as a tangle - non representative, without direction...- but I was too busy to realize these ideas and than I forgot them...

Now, one year later, again in the spring, I recalled TULIPA and I am happy to present a refreshed version of the TULIPA step out and some more tiles with my tangle.

TULIPA is easy to draw and has lots of variation possibilities - on white as well as on black, on classic tiles and Zendalas, black/ white and with colored pens or colored at all.

In my examples I used the new Sakura Moonlight Gelly Rolls 06 which are used in Project Pack 08.

Here is my new step out:

And some new tiles using TULIPA:

Gelly Roll Moonlight 06 on black