Zendalas a way to loosen up.

Hi all,

Thought I would share with you something I have discovered whilst surfing. I saw Zentangles (These are the same as below except rectangular) noted on Gail Burton's blog Thanks Gail, these have really inspired me, I often find myself doodling whilst on the phone. Afterwards I look at what I have produced whilst my logical brain has been too busy to notice and I am usually amazed. There is a theory behind this, it goes like this. If you say "I am going to draw a door" Your logical brain says: " I know what a door looks like" so you end up drawing a symbol of a door, not a particular door. Your creative side of the brain should say shut up I need to study a door before I can draw it properly. Well, it's the same theory when you doodle. You release your creative side to do what it wants to do.

For a long time now, I have been trying to find ways to inspire pattern in my stitching. I have various up to date books on free stitching but have never really got to grips with it. I absolutely love stitch and pattern together. Now as you can see my first attempt was nothing special, I was just getting into it.

However, I do believe the next one is showing more promise.

The last one below I gave it a theme that I am often thinking about because of the symbolism in a trinity being so strong in Early Christian/Celtic Art. I think I can run with the ideas with this Zentangling or Zendalas ( I would call it Zen doodling if I had my way) in as much as I can use the lines to inspire my stitch. It will be a challenge to find ways of stitching to copy some of the patterns. So this will be were I will be going next. I feel sure it will help to loosen up my art work just what I have needed for so long. Wish me luck and Watch this space. (Thanks again Gail) Oh and you can see it demonstrated on You Tube, great fun to watch Bye for now Tricia .

A new start for me

Sometimes you need to clear the way to make a new start. I have done this today by closing the two online forums I used to run. This will leave me more time to concentrate on what I want to do. I have lots I wish to achieve and although this is not the new year as we normally like to think of it. It is in Pagan terms. We look towards the dark gloomy days and wait for Spring but Winter can be a very productive time especially for those with nimble fingers. I am a bit of a Pagan myself. I believe in Mother earth and her constant renewal that we have all in some way taken for granted. Much of my work in the past has had Green themes. Especially when I was studying for my degree, I wrote my thesis on Green Art in our times.
Anyway, as I was saying a new start. To celebrate this I have revamped the blog a little and added a link to my flickr site to celebrate much of the work I have already made. The image at the top shows many pieces of work that you can see at Flickr and to get there all you have to do is click on my picture to the right. Then you will be able to see all these pieces of work full sized.
A few of these are no longer in my possession as the smaller postcards I swapped with other artists from around the globe. I hope the artwork gave them lots of pleasure. As does the work they sent to me in return.
Well, I am not going to say too much more now as there are no images in this post but do pop over to flickr if you would like to celebrate with me the achievements which have made me just a little proud. See you all soon Bye for now Tricia x