Dicentra: a tangle pattern

Posted on 13th September 2015 by perfectly4med

This was inspired by the art nouveau tiles in the Royal Arcade in Norwich. I had a play about with the pattern, and once I’d turned it upside down, the name came easily. I think the swags make the hearts look as if they’re dipping into a quilt – adding shading to this one would make quite a difference to the pattern. Note the offset in step two when you’re doing the zigzag lines.

Don’t forget to leave a comment on my book review if you want a chance to win a copy of Suzanne McNeill’s new FloraBunda Style book before it gets in the shops! (Draw closes 18th September 2015).

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Lovely Blooms: a tangle pattern

Posted on 6th September 2015 by perfectly4med

This is another pattern that develops as you block it together. And it’s also a pattern that has several ways to draw it – this is how it developed from my inspiration photo of the stonework above another niche tomb in Norwich Cathedral. I removed some of the vertical lines to create the heart, and simplified other bits to the small flower circle. Zentangle and stone masonry? Perhaps not so much zen with the noise?

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Grille: a tangle pattern

Posted on 30th August 2015 by perfectly4med

This pattern is an adaptation of the wrought iron gates that are at the entrance to St Saviour’s Chapel in Norwich Cathedral. I have added the heart, but otherwise it’s pretty much the same design. I’ve drawn several iterations of the design together – it’s another of those patterns that develop something more when blocked as a group.

If you’re into zentangling natural forms, you might like to check out this book review and have the chance to win a copy before it’s in the shops.

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Sardines: a tangle pattern

Posted on 23rd August 2015 by perfectly4med

Ok, so may be they don’t look exactly like sardines, but I thought the carrot or dibber shapes were packed in like sardines! This is another pattern based on the ceiling stonework in another of the niche tombs in Norwich Cathedral. As you can see from the inspiration photo below, the pattern can be mirrored along the top horizontal axis. That said, there are lots of ways to break this one apart to get different variations.

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Cathedral: a tangle pattern

Posted on 16th August 2015 by perfectly4med

It’s been six months since I last sat and designed some tangle patterns… but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been thinking about them! I went to visit Norwich Cathedral in May, and took plenty of pictures of the interior patterns ready to work them into step-by-step tangle patterns. Here’s the first – lots of teardrops, with mirrored Ss in step 3. There’ll be another next week. I think it will go well with Liberty. The carving was on the ceiling in one of the tomb niches on the side of the nave:

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Tiling a tangled pattern

Posted on 25th June 2015 by perfectly4med

Ever had one of those moments where you’re half way through a project and wondering why on earth you started at the scale/level of detail/size of page that you did? This one is a case in point. I have wanted to have a personalised pattern on the background of my blog page for some time now, and decided to draw one in pen and ink. I wanted it to tile perfectly so that it would scroll with the page, and I did it the old fashioned way

Take a sheet of paper, and start your pattern, drawing to the edge of the sheet, but not over it. Then slice it into quarters. Eeek.

Rotate each quarter so that the inside corner now points to the outside, and stick back together on the underside. I used 160gsm card to help with the lining up, but as you can see, my cutting wasn’t all that accurate… it still worked out though.

Fill in the rest of the page, again not allowing any new drawing to go over the edges. This piece is 21cm square in real life, and drawn with a Lamy Safari fountain pen with extra fine nib using Noodler’s Bulletproof Black Ink. It took around 6 hours to do.

I then scanned in the image at high resolution, tidied up the image in Photoshop a little (mainly removing evidence of the cut edges) and it was all done. The final ’tile’ looks like this:

And just to prove it tiles nicely, here’s a sample roughly 5 wide and 2 tall…

And for my next trick, I’ll be adding some colour digitally 🙂
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‘1704’ – Quilt No. 13

Posted on 27th February 2015 by perfectly4med

Notwithstanding a minor burn injury caused by not having my arm far enough away from the iron whilst folding the binding for this quilt, I’ve finished my sampler quilt for the workshop I am running at Quorn Country Crafts in Loughborough on 17th April. As you can see, it’s a nine 10×10″ panel quilt-as-you-go with contrast joining strips featuring continuous line free motion quilt patterns that I have adapted from my tangle patterns.

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70’s Cup B – a tangle pattern

Posted on 7th February 2015 by perfectly4med

Here’s the second tangle pattern developed from the geometric surface design on an old 1970’s cup recently obtained at a house clearance.

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70’s Cup A: a tangle pattern

Posted on 1st February 2015 by perfectly4med

It’s been a long while since I’ve found inspiration for some more tangle patterns… but this week, while doing a house clearance, I came across a small earthenware cup with geometric patterns reminiscent of those from the 1970’s. This is the first of two tangle patterns based on the cup.

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Fancy a book of tangle patterns?

Posted on 24th January 2014 by perfectly4med

Encouraged by my recent publication, I have spent most of the last three days typesetting a book with 112 of my tangle patterns in ready for my Zentangle Inspired Art workshop next weekend. I think it’s turned out rather well… which got me to thinking – would anyone else be interested in a copy (especially since several loyal followers have requested such!)?

Here’s a sample page:
As you can see, it’s mainly the information already published on my Tangle Pattern Gallery and blogs, but all in one place with a handy cross-reference. The patterns are arranged alphabetically, with a gallery/quick reference at the back.

There is a CD wallet attached to the back cover to keep tiles in and is wire-bound so that it lies flat when open, and also has room within the wire-o to keep your pen handy. It is A5 in size and printed in full colour, with a total of 66 pages (112 patterns) and stiff glossy cover. (Hard copy no longer available).

UPDATE 25-FEB-14:
For those requesting an e-version…
I have a formatted PDF version which is designed to print onto A5 paper and get wire-bound as well as being useable on most [colour] devices. This is available for £3.50 and payable through PayPal – you can pay in your own currency subject to PayPal conversion rate. Once payment is complete, you will be emailed a link to the file which you can then download. If you don’t receive an email, please check your spam folder. This will be sent to the email address you use for PayPal. Please do not share the file with anyone else – sharing deprives me of a much-needed income and is against copyright law. Please note that on greyscale screens, e.g. non-colour e-book readers, the formatting means that the book does not show up well.

By clicking on the download button, you acknowledge once payment is completed you are not entitled to cancel the order or receive a refund (Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 – digital downloads).

UPDATE 16-JAN-15:
IF YOU ARE IN THE EU (non-UK), this e-book will be affected by the new EU VAT rules for digital services. This means that from this date if you are in the European Union anywhere but the UK I can only provide you with a personally sent link. Please request a copy via my email in the sidebar.

Hard copy versions:
I’m sorry, but I am no longer producing hard copies of the book.