TANGLES BY THE SEA

September’s class at Icarus, featured the Zentangle pattern “Waybop” drawn on a white Zendala. The pattern provides its own “string”, leaving plenty of open spaces to fill with other patterns. Today we used Crescent Moon, Emingle and Orbs all from Zentangle. We included a fragment of Bales to fill the center floral shape, and lots of aura-ing!

Several options were given for shading the completed tiles … graphite, pastel chalk pencils, glitter pens, and white chalk pencil. Each person went off on their own and completed the shading, creating beautiful Zendalas by the end of class. Teri even opted to go off course and used blue ink for some of her tangling! Love them all.

Next up on the calendar is October 12th, Icarus, 1-3pm and then the last class of 2025, November 16th, Icarus, 1-3pm. Contact tanglesbythesea@gmail.com if you would like to attend either of these classes as they do fill quickly. Hope to see you soon!

EXTRA – if you’ve never been to the Bernardo Winery (home of Icarus Studio), they will be hosting their “48th Annual Fall Arts & Crafts Fair” on October 18-19th, from 10-5:00pm. With over 125 vendors, there’s lots to see, so grab a glass of wine and stroll the beautiful grounds. Be sure to visit Icarus Studio & Gallery and see all the beautiful items they have in the gallery. They feature local artists, mosaics, oil paintings, hand painted furniture, unique one-of-a-kind home decor items, and custom framing.

The recent class at Icarus Art Studio featured a “Tangled Koi Pond”. Using a white Apprentice tile and black Micro Perm 03 pen (for the bolder black lines), the following patterns were used to create the pond: Lilium/Dani DePalma-Mabanta, CZT; Lily Pads/Margaret Bremner, CZT; Ubud/Pam Signorelli, CZT; Popsicles (variation of)/Michelle Beauchamp, CZT; Damsel Leaf/Annette Rumpler, CZT; Flux and Fescu/Zentangle. These are all fun patterns to draw and … who knew … you can create a “fish” using four Flux shapes! There was the option of adding just simple orange to the koi fish with graphite shading, or full on color with pastel chalk pencils.

Upcoming classes are on the calendar at Icarus for September and October, and open for registration:

September 14th, 1-3pm
October 12th, 1-3pm

July 15, 2025 – the International Day of Zentangle! Twenty-one years ago this month, Zentangle made its debut. In gratitude and celebration of this, for the second year in a row, at all hours of the day and night, thousands of tanglers from around the world joined a YouTube Livestream and tangled together. The pattern for this year was “Huggins” – the tangle of the year for 2025.

This month’s focus was on the concept of “Map Tangling”, a style practiced by many tanglers. It consists of putting down some “blotches” of watercolor on the tile, then filling in the painted spaces with patterns. There’s a bit of preparation to get your tiles ready, using the watercolors (my choice for class), letting them dry and then start drawing.

Our tiles were white 3.5×3.5 original tiles, using black ink, embellished with graphite shading, white gel pens and a gold sparkle pen. We also did a couple Bijou’s for practice. It was a great afternoon for exploring something different on a hot summer day at the Bernardo Winery!

Next Class: Sunday, August 17th, Icarus Creative Arts Studio, 1:00-3:00pm – email to reserve your place!

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!

I didn’t have the June date confirmed during May’s class. It is now scheduled for June 8th at Icarus, from 1-3:00pm. Seating is available at this time.

Other Summer Classes:
July 13th, Icarus
August 17th, Icarus

This month’s class was all about ZenGemZ. Beautiful tiles were created by all, combining colorful gems with embellished orbs and floral patterns. Prismacolor colored pencils were used for the gems.

Next up – June 8th at Icarus from 1-3:00pm.

During my many trips to the Central Coast of California, I’m always in awe over the rocks found on many of the beaches. Actually, maybe I should call them stones – they are super thin and very smooth. I never felt compelled to draw on a rock until I discovered these!

After sharing a couple with my last class, they were eager to give “rock tangling” a go. Last Sunday found eight of us drawing multiple Zentangle patterns, using black Identipens, adding color using colored pencils, and then embellishing with white and gold Jelly Roll pens. Once all the ink was completely dry, a light coat of ModPodge was painted over the artwork. The final results were three beautiful rocks per tangler, and additional blank ones in their packets to tangle at home.

Beautiful work was created by all.

WARNING – tangling on rocks is addicting. Can’t stop with just one!

Next up – class on Sunday, May 18th, 1-3pm at Icarus Creative Arts Studio. Contact me prior to making PayPal payment to confirm there is space available.

With the season of Spring arriving this month, it was obvious a tile featuring a floral motif was the focus for March. Ten of us gathered at Icarus for an afternoon of new patterns, a bit of color, and friendship.

Tangling was done on a white original tile with black ink. Graphite was added for shading, then just hints of color to bring the patterns alive. Beautiful art was created by everyone!

Four new patterns were introduced: Joyful/Melinda Barlow; Bownus and Panziola/Angie Gittles; Bluster/Irina Wins. The tile also included Veruca/Veronica Orozco; and Printemps, Flux, Fescu, Poke Root and DooDah/Zentangle.

Upcoming – April 6th. ‘Rock Tangling’. Class is filling. Contact me prior to paying to confirm availability.

This month’s class concentrated on a few of the many “heart tangles” out in the pattern world. Tangling was done on a Renaissance Zendala. Black and red ink was used, along with graphite pencil, white chalk and gold metallic pens.

Patterns used were Diva Dance, Knightsbridge and Fescu (Zentangle), Herzlbee (Beate Winkler, CZT), Heart Beat (Cindy Angel, CZT) and a new pattern I recently created, Josephine, in honor of my 4 year old LOVABLE Australian Shepherd!

Shading of the Knightsbridge was in a style I recently picked up in a class by Danielle Mabanta. Patterns do not have to have just one style of shading. The technique of adding the white chalk down the middle of each Knightsbridge row was one I’ve never used before. It gave the pattern a very different look.

Every one of these tiles turned out lovely, and very much in the spirit of Valentine’s Day. Three of these tiles were created by 1st-time tanglers!

The next class is scheduled for Sunday, March 16th at Icarus from 1-3:00pm. The class is filling so contact me first before making any PayPal payments.