Trying on a new size

A long time ago I picked up some artist trading cards at the craft store.  At the time I didn't know what they were.  I just thought the little 2 ½ X 3 ½ inches cards were cute.  They also come in a variety of papers so I thought it would be a great way to try out paper without a big investment.  Last week I tucked a package into my purse along with a micron.  My thinking was that I could pull them out at work when/if I get caught up and need something to keep busy.  I am interrupted often at work so an ATC is great.  A smaller size gives me smaller sections to work on, so I can fill them quicker and not worry about forgetting where I was.

So far I have finished one and am halfway through another.  I love these little tiles because they are a great way to practice patterns, or try out new ideas.  I know people trade these with each other but I have no idea where.  If you would like to trade or can advise me where to post for trading, I would love to know!

Fortune Teller Challenge

How to make a string on your tiles.  This is a constant challenge for me.  I always feel like I am making the same string or at the very least, a variation on the same one over and over again.  This is why I like when The Diva puts out a string challenge.  I get stuck in a rut and it's nice to have a new way of looking at strings.

This week the Challenge is to divide the space in a uniform way.  The challenge is called Fortune teller as the tile is divided much the same way that paper is folded for making those little fortune teller games we played with as kids.  Click the link for more on what the string looks like.

At first I was going to blur the lines in this challenge.  I tend to make a string and then confine myself to the sections drawn as if I were coloring a coloring book picture.  I didn't get very far.  I started with Chainging up the center but that is as far as I got.  Habits are hard to break but I carried that thought to a piece that I am currently working on. You'll see more on that later.

I decided to explore the triangles a bit instead.  You'll see on the right where I didn't "close off" the tangles there and instead allowed the tangles to spill over the edges.  I don't think this is a great tile.  Don't get me wrong, I'm happy with it.  It just didn't end where I thought it would go.  But that is the way of art isn't it?  My professors in college never accepted the idea that art could get messed up or go wrong.  Instead they advised to keep working and turn the mistake into a "Happy Accident".  I always try to keep that in mind when I hit a part that I don't like.  I try to push on through and see what kind of happy accident I can make.

Time Lord Tangle

Another blog post, another gift!  This, as the title may imply is a Dr. Who inspired tangle.  I have a very dear friend that is a big Dr. Who fan.  She has turned me into a fan as well.  I'm not as versed on the lore as she is so I was walking a bit in the dark with this one.  I kept checking my self though so I hope that I didn't get anything wrong.

The symbol in the middle is the Gallifreyan symbol for either Gallifrey or the symbol for the head of the Time Lords.  (For anyone who doesn't know, Gallifrey is the planet that Dr. Who comes from.)  I found several different notes on the internet as to what it is exactly.

The language of the Time Lord is most often shown as being circular.  It is quite steampunk looking and really cool.  Because of the circular language, I decided to use a lot of circular patterns as well as other patterns that look "spacey".
After I got Rain done and took a look from a far I was so excited that it reminded me of bow ties.  The angle that I made the triangles look like bows to me which is great because the current Dr. often wears a bow tie. (Bow Ties are cool!)

I hid a TARDIS (Dr.Who's ship) up in the top with Strircles. You can't have the Dr. without his TARDIS so I wanted it to be there but to blend in as it were.  :)

Over on the right side, I wanted to further involve the TARDIS but from the inside.  In many versions of the TARDIS, there are the great panels on the sides of the wall that have circles in them.  So I created a pattern to call this to mind. My 11 year old says that it reminds him of the Daleks body (the villains in many an episode).  I confess that it does a bit so I guess this pattern will have to pull double duty.
To frame the finished piece, it is 10X10 (I think.) I picked out some scrapbook paper in "TARDIS Blue", mounted the drawing, and then put it all in a 12X12 frame. 


I am happy to report that Kara got it all in one piece and is quite happy with it as well.

Biggify

This week the challenge from The Diva was to make our tangle patterns larger than we usually do.  I had been thinking of this very thing for a little while.  I really love the tangle Tripoli yet when I go back to add embellishments to my triangles, I think that sometimes they become muddled.  I seem to be afraid to made a bigger design though.  Why?  Who knows.  It was nice to get "permission" this week to stretch out the patterns and to give them the room to grow.

Funnily enough, I didn't use Tripoli in my tile. I started with Rain.  I like the graphic quality of it and as I have just started to use it, I wanted to explore it more.  I chose Fife because I need more practice with it.  Making it large makes it easier for me to create it.  Bigger gives a lot of negative space behind the pattern which almost begs for more pattern there but I stopped and just shaded.  I thought about blacking the background but I was afraid that I would lose Rain.  I next tried SOCC.  This is a new pattern and is quite striking I think.  I am really looking forward to using it more in the future.  Lastly, I added Umble.  I love it's curves.

I will try to work a little bigger in the future.  I confess I get stuck with the same size patterns and to break that pattern will be a challenge but a fun one.  Bigger will be fun when it comes to adding layers of tangles to a tile or ZIA, and I look forward to the challenge.