Monday, March 05, 2012

Zentangling

When I was 13, I had a run-in with my Art teacher. The assignment was simple, draw some shapes ( circles, rectangles, triangles), overlap a few and then paint them in 3 primary colours. Let's just say I failed. In hindsight I remember my piece to be extremely hideous, didn't follow the lines, splotches and smudges everywhere.

Needless to say, my art teacher used my piece as an example of what not to do. She went on and on about how we may not think art is important and that creativity was a necessity in life.

Being a silly rebellious teenager, the only thing I took away from that lesson was that I was hopeless in art and never really tried again.

Craft was a different matter, I followed a proscribed method and pattern and my creativity was expressed in the materials I choose. But to let go and try to use my brain to create something originally "mine", with a specific signature look was something I didn't attempt until I took up stamping and collages.

Again I felt I had failed. I could never tell when one collage was finished, how much more to add and how much more to embellish. More importantly, I never took away the need to discipline my creativity with preciseness. Which is why my work always had the smudges or that crooked line or the messy stamping.

A lesson I should have learnt at 13.

Lately I have been taking comfort in the freeform crochet and knitting, which is a lot more forgiving than the fine art of drawing. And with the great discovery tool that is Pinterest, I discovered Zentagle®.

I will talk more about this doodling art form method in forthcoming posts but just thought to show a few photos of the process...

Start with some Strings
Start with the String


Fill up some Bands - decide which ones you want to be on top and do that one first

Fill up the bands

Do some Swirls

Adding Swirls

Add some Fills

Adding fills

Finish with some shading
shading complete


I am still practicing on normal A4 printing paper and some markers before I progress to proper 3 inch tiles ( tiny!). I am still struggling with preciseness but hey, I have all those years to catch up on, so I am not going to be too hard on myself.

Monday, February 27, 2012

Scrumble Beginnings

I have always loved colours and textures.

When I first started knitting, I loved those fun and funky sweaters Cliff Huxtables for the Cosby Show wore.

When I was doing quilting, crazy patchwork intrigued me.

When I was stamping, collages mesmerised me.

When I started knitting and crocheting again, I had affairs with patterns with scrap yarn like the sock blanket pattern -

or Moorish Mosaic Afghan in my previous post while I knitted the lace and the sweaters.

Plain coloured yarn bore me, I adore ribbons and slubs.

But it is a gradual process. It takes confidence and courage to break out of the grain and I struggled with whether a piece needs more embellishment, whether that fringe in that yarn is too much or whether that colour looks off.

Most of all I struggle with whether anyone else will want to have that thing as a bag, wallhanging or something they can abide being near with.

I suppose a true artist would not care.

Last year, I had the great opportunity to take a class with Prudence Mapstone and was challenged in the most artistic core of myself (which is not that deep and not that talented). And so I present to you my scrumble beginnings.







How it all looks put together - well that is another creative process. Here's an idea:-