Zentangle and Mandalas

It's been over a month since I last posted any mandalas. I believe I'm up to 45 out od 100 now. I know that I will continue with creating these mandalas and zentangles long after I reach 100. I have certainly slowed down, but I still find it rewarding to create them. My goal of wanting to learn more about mandalas and zentanling and how I can do something professionally with them, continues. I can't wait to get back to having a little more time to create once the holidays are over. I am so looking forward to Christmas this year, but will be happy to get back to normal. Here are just a few of my recent mandalas/zendalas.

Amy

5 Day Mandala Workshop

I signed up for this free online 5 day mandala workshop. Today was the first day and it was great. It confirmed one thing for me, I don't care for straight lines. They are ok in a zentangle pattern, but I still prefer curves and circles. I attempted to make a hexagon mandala and hated every second that I was drawing it. I found that really interesting, since in quilts, I love hexagons. I love English paper piecing hexagons and other straight shapes, not so much the curved shapes for quilts, but when it comes to drawing, I find the idea of circles and curves much more satisfying and relaxing. I am having a hard time with things not being perfect in my mandala practice, but I am making sure that I continue to share and hashtag pictures of my mandalas, even when I'm not thrilled with the outcome. The funny thing is, people will comment sometimes how much they like ones that I'm not theta fond of. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder is very true when it comes t art and design. Tonight, I am sharing my drawing of playing with circles. I believe it is my 35th mandala. I am really enjoying learning about this and have wanted to learn for a long time now. I have also, finally, learned what zentangles are, due to this challenge. I have seen the books and never knew what they were. This challenge forced me to look at things that are outside my comfort zone. I can't wait to do more and learn more.

circle exercises

circle trinity

Day 33 and 34 of the 100 mandala challenge Looking forward to sharing day 2 of my mandala workshop, Amy

More Mandalas

I've been pretty good a working on and even completing one mandala a day. I've been playing with zentangles and zentangle inspired art as well as s different mediums. My next goal is to use yarn, cloth, maybe some clay inspired drawings, and maybe even jewelry as mandala inspired art.

Here are my latest mandalas:

Coloring With Markers

This week's theme for 100 mandalas is color. I have been loving working with color and even attempting to shade my mandalas.  This challenge has been so much fun and I am learning so much. I do at least one mandala a day. I usually want to do more, sometimes I give in and sometimes I try to not get to obsessive about it. I know that this is going to continue beyond the 100 mandala challenge.  I want and need more books and supplies. I am starting to realize sewing and paper crafting are to 2 mediums that I really enjoy working with. I love many crafts, but if I had to choose it would be be fiber crafts and I would include paper crafts in this.

I've included a few other mandalas I've been working on. I'm loving black paper, but I need to find markers that I like that give good color and yet have a fine enough points.

Check out http://collagediva@typepad.com

Happy creating!
Amy

#14 and 15 mandalas

At this point I'm at #15 out out 100 mandalas. I'm thinking this is going to be a practice I continue even after the 100 mandalas are complete. I added a rock mandala to my album. I want to do more once I get better rocks. I wish I had a desk to keep it on.

I really want to get zentangle certified.

Amy

More Mandalas

I have shocked myself in the fact that I have been keeping up with the 100 mandala challenge. I am on day 13 and have made a mandala pretty much every day. One of my Facebook friends mentioned how this could be my morning meditation. I am so not a morning person and tend to stay in bed as long as I can, so there is not always time for morning meditations or morning mandalas. I am however, seeing the benefit of getting up a little earlier and having a little more time to myself before the kids get up and I hate to get my morning going. That may be the next change in my mandala practice. I have been doing a sugar detox and have definitely notice I have more energy until recently when I started being lax and adding more sugar or sugar like foods in my diet. I think this is something that may affect my mandala practice by me not having enough energy of motivation to complete them. I am back on the sugar detox as I think this may be how I need to live my life. I am hoping that I will continue to have more energy and become a more morning person when I am sleeping better throughout the night and have more energy through the day. I need to start working on a community mandala and get a rock to create a rock mandala which is the theme of this weeks mandala challenge, as well as finish Halloween costumes for my kids. Here are my latest mandalas as well as the start of my Halloween costumes.

Check out my friend Kathryn at http:/collagediva.typepad.com and try your hand at mandalas, zentangles, or just plain old fun doodling. Amy

7 of 100 mandalas

This is #7 of 100 mandalas. I have been having so much fun creating these. My 5 year old twins have been getting into it too. I added my daughter's mandala so people can see even a little kid can do it. I want to learn more and maybe even add certified zentangle teacher to my name.

Zendala

I'm on number 6 of my 100 mandala challenge.  This week the theme is zendala or a zentangle in a circle. I've always wondered about zentangles and what they were. Now I am learning and I'm loving it. I just bought a couple of books to at to my craft book collection and can't wait to add more zentangle and mandala books. They will hopefully become part of my professional library too. I love creating these mandalas. I feel like and artist, like I can draw. I'm try not to allow my perfectionist issues to make an apperarence as I create my mandalas and my zentangles. I hope you look forward my creations and you check out the links to other mandalas at http:// collagediva@typepad.com.

Enjoy,
Amy

Mandalas

My friend Kathryn Costa at http://www.collagediva.typepad.com is doing a 100 mandala challenge and I'm joining in. I have to say that I am having a blast creating these mandalas. I'm hoping to learn more about them and at some point use them in my social work career. I plan to post them often. As I learn more, I plan to write more about mandalas and their meaning. I am hoping to use my drawings in quilts as time goes on. I am even thinking that I can use crayons on fabric to help create the colors that I drew instead of trying to find the right colors and shading.

Amy

Quilting Thoughts

In my last post I mentioned how I bought some new quilting books. One of the is "Quilting Modern", by Jacquie Gering and Katie Pederesen. Prior to this, I never paid much attention to the modern quilting movement. I was a little interested, but really thought I was only interested in the historical quality oh quilts and quilt patterns. After reading just a few pages in this book, I fund myself more and more interested in learning about modern quilting.

Now, don't get me wrong, I still love old, traditional quilt patterns, but I there is something about the large print, colors, geometric shapes, in modern quilting that I absolutely love. I have started to realize that I need to use more black and grey in my quilts. I want to use more color. And, after reading the beginning of this book, I want to be more of a designer than just following traditional quilt patterns.

I am hoping that this book may help me to see myself as more of an artist and less as a home crafter. There is absolutely nothing  wrong with being a crafter, but I want to see myself as an artist too. I'm looking forward to reading more and actually making some modern quilts.

Amy

My Latest Project

I took my kids to Barnes and Noble a couple of weeks ago. I decided to take a look at the quilting section and bought myself a few new books. One of them was,  "Creative Quilts from Your Crayon Box". I had a blast learning how to use crayons on fabric. The first 3 pictures show a couple of the tutorials that you are supossed to do to learn the techniques.  I then decided to move ahead and make an actual picture quilt. This was so much fun and while I admit to tracing the shapes, all the coloring and shading was all me.  I felt pretty accomplished at the end and can't wait to do more.

Amy