Sharing the tangling process with others enhances your enjoyment and expands creative possibilities. I was traveling recently and met up with a group of fellow Zentangle instructors in the San Diego, California area.

We had a wonderful day of sharing, tangling and of course goodies! I learned cool techniques new to me and as a result have started working on a few class ideas. One of the projects we worked on was a friendship tangle. More on that later.....

Southern California CZTs

The So Cal group teaches all over the southern end of the state from San Diego to Pasadena. They are warm, friendly and freely share ideas for tangling and teaching. Best of all, I have made a few lasting friendships that I cherish.

The host, Charlotte Carpentier has a very nice “brick and mortar” shop with tangling and various other art supplies as well as a generous teaching space. You can check out her website for more information - www.charkatcreativeinsanity.com. I tend to purchase some of my art supplies for my own classes from her due to price and I don’t have to pay shipping when I pick up in person.

Sakura and Zentangle headquarters contributed to a goodie bag of supplies that we all enjoyed. Char also generously gave out door prizes. I even won a door prize!!!

Goodie bag from ZT, Sakura, Deb and CharKat

What is a Friendship Tangle?

After greetings and a bit of “show n’ tell”, we launched into our project for the day. A friendship tangle is when you share the tangling process with your table mates. Each member does one tangle on your tile. Then you pass the tile to the next person at the table. You end up with a finished project with a little bit of art personality from each participant.

Friendship Project

Step One - Draw String Boundary

Char started us out with a set of blank Zentangle tiles. We put them together in the middle of the table and using a Compass drew four gradually larger circles until we were at the half way point of the tiles. This created our “string” boundary just like any other tangle process.

Step Two - Tangle the Sections

We each took back our tile and chose one section to add a tangle. In my case, I drew Puf and added Tipple in the center oval. We were also encouraged to add shading. Not everyone enjoys the shading process though.

Then we passed our tile to the next person at the table. This process continued until all the sections of the string were completed. This is how my finished tile looked. Pretty cool!

Step Three - Mosaic Picture

No matter what Zentangle drawing class you take, you will always end with taking a picture of all the class finished projects. It is so much fun to see how everyone did with the same set of instructions - similar but different in an artist way.

Step Four - Complete the Remaining Tiles

This is of course an optional step, but I enjoyed completing each of the remaining tiles with tangles that seemed to fit the theme. I shaded the ensemble to resemble the new Zenbuttons concept. I just love how the circle rows pop when shading with this method.

Final Thoughts

Hopefully, I have encouraged you to find a local group to share tangles, ideas and have fun! If you are on Vancouver Island you will find several groups that meet regularly in Parksville and other towns.

And..... drumroll please .... my studio in the Courtenay - Comox Valley area is ready for classes and visitors. I’ll be sending out a newsletter soon with new class dates and tangle drop-in sessions through the end of June 2018. Make sure you are on my email list so that you get all the latest news.

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful tangly day!