“Otomi Fish” …

I recently took a class that featured the Mexican embroidery art of “Otomi” in a class taught by Danielle DePalma-Mabanta, CZT. This class is just one session of a year-long, international, continuing education art program for Zentangle teachers called CZT: Artifex Eruditio 2025.

While I was drawing Dani’s class, I was reminded of the beautiful Mexican blouses and dresses we wore back in the 70’s, with all the bright colors and beautiful embroidery work. It had me reminiscing of summertime back then, hanging at the beach with friends, swimming in the ocean, just living the So. California lifestyle. Great memories!

I chose to teach this as my June class. While reading about this art style, I found that most times these panels were created on muslin cotton. I had 6×9 muslin bags on hand, so we used these as our “tiles”. I changed up the patterns from Dani’s class, and concentrated on an “ocean theme”, using Zentangle patterns that resemble sea life.

We used a fish for our focal point, then added the following patterns: Angelfish/M. VanBeek; Eau/Christina Carroll; Urchin/Loretta Botticini; Popsicles/Michelle Beauchamp; Heart Vine/Laurie Howe; Indy-Rella, Flux and Orbs by Zentangle. The patterns were drawn with Pentel Fabric pens and the color was added using Koi Brush markers.

They all turned out awesome. These would make fun little gift bags, for those looking to make something to share with a friend.

Thanks Danielle for the inspiration and education of this art form.

Next Class: Sunday, July 13th at Icarus, 1:00pm-3:00-pm. Contact tanglesbythesea@gmail.com to reserve your seat!