Zendala Magic

Boy was I ever excited to see that the challenge this week is to create a Zendala!  I am working on a piece inspired by India and I needed some more inspiration.  This challenge couldn't have come at a better time.  All last night I was looking at sari patterns on line and an India pattern book to help me with the next direction on my piece.  Finally I just put it away, resolved to come back today with some fresh eyes.

After I was up and fully caffeinated, I pulled up the Diva's Challenge to see what was in store for this week.  Awesome! It's zendala's!  Also, this week is guest hosted by Genevieve Crabe, a super talented CZT.  Genevieve shared with us a zendala template to get us started. 

I ran to the printer and printed out the template and got it transferred to my paper and outlined it with my micron.  I was really moving and then it came time to add the patterns.  STOP!  I was frozen not knowing what to add first.  What pattern would work?  I've only done one other zendala before and it was a very simple design.  So, I paused, checked out flickr and flipped through my books and sat some more.

I always do this.  I am often stymied by blank space.  What to fill it with? Which is the "right" one? Finally I decided to use keeko around the outer edge.  I like how keeko looks as a border.  I've used it before with good results and said "Hey! Go for it!  You won't finish if you don't start."

As I was working, I used the printout of the template to test tangles to see if I like them first.  I know it isn't very "zentangle" of me to do that, but it saves me some regret later.  Here I can erase and do again.





Finally, I got everything all worked out and got to tangling.  Here is the final result, unshaded and shaded.

Thank you to both Laura and Genevieve for another wonderful challenge!