When Everything Happens at Once (also some art)

I.
Am.
Exhausted.
Time certainly flies when you're having fun...the last three weeks were absolutely crazy and absolutely amazing. NY Botanical Gardens. The Met. CZT Seminar 24. A whirlwind of classes (yes, already!). Buying new art supplies. Trying new art supplies. 4th of July. Hearst Castle...and all of a sudden, home. Aaaaaaah.... ^_^
Oh yeah, the Diva Challenge is gonna be at the bottom of all this. So if you don't want to look through my photos and my gushing, scroll down ^_^

Beautiful roses from the New York Botanical Gardens

The Botanical Gardens were a bit of a disappointment because nothing was in bloom...except for the absolutely spectacular rose garden at the farthest end. Worth the ridiculously long trek there and back. My mom took about 20 photos of the roses alone...I think this is the prettiest one ^_^

At the entrance to the Met

The Met was pretty darn awesome. I'm not gonna show you the rest of my photos because they're all just random works of art and I don't remember the details of most of them and really, seeing photos of a bunch of old paintings and reading a teenager's commentary on them isn't particularly exciting. At least not for me. ^_^

I also won't dump too many photos from Seminar on there...since everyone reading this either has gone or really, really should and I don't want to spoil anything for them ^_^

Me with Rick and Maria

I have to say, Rick and Maria are some the sweetest, most interesting, and most passionate people I've ever met. You could feel how much they loved what they were doing, and how much they believed in it, in every single sentence they spoke and every single piece of amazing artwork they showed us. They struck up conversations at the drop of a hat during breaks (well, when they weren't rushing around preparing whatever wonderful thing we were doing next). They were enthusiastic and gregarious and incredibly genuine, and totally one of a kind.

As for everyone else...I'll just say that Zentangle attracts the nicest people, and that despite the fact that there were people from 11 different countries there everyone spoke the same "language." ^_^

Just to remind myself it actually happened ^_^

Oh, and the store. The store...I spent, like, at least $30 more than I planned to. Aaaaah. It was amazing. ^_^

And now just for laughs...

Me and my parents

And now for the Hearst Castle pics - I actually don't have too many pictures of my own since my grandfather took a whole CD-ful, and he hasn't downloaded the contents onto my computer yet. Once he does I'll dump the ones I like into a separate blog post and put the link here. For now, you just get a tiny taste of what it was like ^_^

Also, warning: extreme opulence incoming.

The front door...seriously.

Oh yeah, William Hearst (the guy who built it) called this his "Ranch at San Simeon." Ranch.

I don't know about you, but I've never seen a ranch with a swimming pool...let alone one this big, with gold everywhere.

So. Much. Gold. And so many antiquities...and also so many patterns that will be turned into tangles in the days to come ^_^

And so there's my I-have-ADHD-can't-you-tell overview of everything that happened in the last three weeks and also my excuse as to why I haven't posted anything in three weeks right after saying I could post more often ^_^ I have, however, been using the Mosaic app pretty regularly, so if you have that you can "appreciate" me and get all my posts in your feed - my username is DanielLamotheCZT24. And if you don't have it - get it ^_^

And now, for the Diva Challenge! I really admire Suzanne Fluhr - I haven't been keeping up with her blog (or anybody's, really) as much as I want to but she's an amazing writer and a talented artist and it's really cool to see her featured, with such a timely challenge. So here's my Give Peace a Chance tile, done on the new Renaissance Bijoux, with the tangles on the inside of the peace sign spelling peace as well.

Tangles: Flux, Peanuckle, Ennies, Arukas, Crescent Moon, Enyshou

 And some calligraphy, with this frighteningly relevant quote from Albert Eintsein.

I don't really have a soapbox for this subject, so...

Enjoy and be inspired! ^_^

EDIT: So, I just realized that instead of a peace sign, my tile actually has the Mercedes-Benz logo. Sigh. I guess I did kinda divide the bottom half between Arukas and Crescent Moon? ^_^

New Tangle: Knightstar (Video!)

I finally managed to make another post! *applause and confetti* ^_^ So, this tangle Knightstar was so named because it kinda looks to me like Knightsbridge got pinched into a bunch of star shapes...I couldn't figure out how to create a nice simple step-by-step on paper, so I decided to try making a video of it. And then I decided to record some actual proper audio over it instead of my usual royalty-free music...

Here it is, in all its dubiously awkward glory ^_^ Please excuse the horrible audio quality. And the fact that I clearly don't know what I'm doing. And the weak attempts at humor. I am so sorry. But I'm too lazy to record it all again.

EDIT: Margaret Bremner (and perhaps some other people I wasn't aware of) mentioned that Knightstar bears an extreme resemblance to Knightspeek, by Donna Lacey, CZT - I do think mine is just different enough in execution and end look to perhaps deserve a separate name, as hers is a single star and mine is constructed from an underlying grid, in individual fragments. Thoughts on this? Either way, thanks to Margaret for bringing this to my attention ^_^

Enjoy and be inspired! ^_^

Tangleation Vocation #9: Pokeroot by Zentangle

I finally got my hands on some color Microns! Yay! As expected, they're fabulous...although my color shading really could use some work ^_^ This was the first thing I did with them - a Bijou tile featuring a fairly simple tangleation of Chocobox.

Tangles used: Chocobox, Opus, Msst

Moving on, the tangle to play with this week is Pokeroot, one of my favorite official Zentangle patterns alongside Pokeleaf, Mooka, and Opus. Enjoy and be inspired! ^_^

Diva Challenge #204 - Valentangle

So...again, I don't really have anything to say about this challenge tile. But here it is. Yaaaaay.

Tangles used: Heart Box, Pinweel'd, Copada, circles and linework

I'm pretty sure Pinweel'd (the pattern inside the bottom left heart) is unique, but if you've seen the pattern or name anywhere else, please let me know.

I also have a few Just-For-Fun tiles - 2 regulars, 1 black, and 2 Bijous.

Tangles used: Crescent Moon, Lizzier, Tipple

Tanlges used: Knightsbridge, Mooka, Tipple, Opus, Chuchu

Tangles used: Mooka, Opus, Dooleedo, Tri-Dots, Allium, Printemps, Pokeleaf, Echoism, Baton

Tangles used: Assunta, Zinger

Tangles used: Flux, Purk, Hollibaugh, Vitruvius, Amaze, Jetties, Crescent Moon, Striping, Opus, Paradox, Betweed, BeeLine

Also, putting the links to all the instructions is a lot of work (as you probably noticed, I gave up in the middle of the black tile)...I think I'll just post links to ones you can't find on tanglepatterns.com.

Diva Challenge #197 Takes 1 & 3

That's right, 1 and 3. Why? Because take 2 was so absolutely hideous that I just don't have the guts to post it.

Take 1                    A fairly simple 3-Aruka arrangement on a Bijou tile.

Tangles used: Arukas, Hurry

Take 2  On this one I took Arukas's natural weave and used it to create an Auraknot in the center.  

Tangles used: Arukas, Auraknot