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Saturday, September 21, 2013

Bordering on . . .

. . . inZanity?

Maria writes:

I realize I have an obsession with any kind of border.

So yesterday I walked around our house with my phone camera to show you a bit of what I see. Imagine what you could find if you were JUST looking for borders!

Wallpaper, Fabric, and Furniture 


Upholstery 


Pillows 


Frames

 (Maria when she was about eight with her younger brother, Tom.)


Mats 


Musical Instruments

Rugs 

Shelving


Jewelry

Furniture



Dishes

Table Linens

Chocolate Boxes


Bed linens

Glassware 


Lamps 

Books


Vases 


Towels

Clothes

Houses 

And even our Kitchen Stove (!!)

Rick adds: That stove used to burn wood, then coal, and now it uses gas. It's also our primary heat source in our living space. Check out the floor. It was our inspiration for our tangle florz.
Well, you get the picture(s). Anyone who is familiar with our house has seen my obsession. Second only to tassels. (!)

What can I say . . . (except I even have tassels with borders!)
(Rick adds:  . . . and borders with tassels! :-)
They instantly attract my eye . . . Guide me around . . . Keep me even-keeled. Maybe it's their ability to keep things together (I can be haphazard with most things) and perhaps I depend on borders "holding" things in place.

Borders provide their own "elegance of limits" to inspire and support.

Perhaps it is the border on your ring or bracelet . . . or the tooling on your leather shoes, or a book binding, or the table runner under the flowers, or the gingerbread on an old Victorian house on the corner, or the elegant gold pinstriping on that old Singer sewing machine, or the multicolored piping around the pillows on your favorite chair, or maybe . . . maybe it is in your memory, of places warm and comfy.

So I have morphed a few of these borders into the world of tangle for you to contemplate.






Rick adds: Take a moment to enjoy matching Maria's tiles with their inspirations. For instance, part of that second to last tile was inspired by the industrial shelving in our shipping area.

Now take another moment to look around you right where you are at this moment and become aware of border tangle inspirations. From where I am right now, a small sampling of what I can see:
  • Coiled wire on a telephone land line
  • Stitching on leather
  • Shadows cast by my computer keyboard keys
  • UPC code wrapped around a pencil in a cup nearby
  • Scales on a dragon on the picture frame holding Maria's picture
  • Grain pattern in the oak wood of my desk
  • Interlocking zipper teeth on my back-pack
Next, in your mind's eye, play with how you might deconstruct these images into the fewest and most easily recombined elemental strokes (see page 1 of our book).

Finally, put on some water for tea, grab your tiles, pencil and pen, and enjoy!

We consulted our magic automated number generator and . . . Our winner of the tangled toast tongs blog is . . . drumroll please . . . Anne's Tangle Blog.

Congratulations, Anne, and thanks for your heartfelt story.

Thanks again for taking your time to visit.

Let us know in the comments below what borders you find that inspire you to tangle and we'll choose a commenter to receive one of these tiles. 


Click images for larger views.

20 comments:

BarbaraW said...

Another really inspirational blog. All of the border tangles are awesome. However,I think I should get out my black tiles since the two black examples really caught my eye.

Joanne said...

Thank you for the inspiration. I'll be taking a peek around my house and looking at things in a different light. As I type, I can see plenty of inspiration....borders on plates, borders on mirrors, borders on baskets. Oh my!

Ann said...

Thought my living room was rather plain until I really looked around: CDs in a linear case; stitching on leather chair that would make perfect strings; patterns on cushions; mantle on fireplace; curved lines on lamp stand; then the carpet! - old style with 5 borders and animal/flower motifs; and more. Thanks for waking up my eyes.

Sarah Stainback said...

WOW - Now I see borders on everything! I can see some of my quilt borders going into my tangles.
Thanks for your post.

Unknown said...

Beautiful and inspiring as usual Maria, I now want to add to my page on border patterns. Rick your suggestion to look around 'right where we' are is so right on. The world near and far is full of inspirational patterns. If we take the time to look and another bit of time to deconstruct and get it on paper.
Thanks again.

Anonymous said...

There sure are a lot of borders in my space too. Thanks for making me ponder them! Maria, I love the last tile with your "mark" escaping the border! :)

Linda said...

Rick and Maria!
Since learning about Zentangling, patterns now seem to jump out at me from all over the place! My challenge is to deconstruct them! Thanks, as always, for your beautiful inspiration!

Francie said...

Really inspiring...as you always are!

Ginny Stiles said...

Maria,
I would like permission to use the photo of your stove as a painting resource. Ginny.stiles@gmail.com
Ginny

Ginny said...

My bed has a border of decorative ironwork at the head and foot. I'm also seeing a lot of undecorated borders that I could tangle!

Anonymous said...

Borders are everywhere! On a ceramic mug, lampshade, on my shoes, on a coaster all waiting to become tangles or inspire tangelations. Great post thanks for reminding us to open our eyes wherever we are...
Melissa
mwcahn@ptd.net

gobarb26 said...

I am looking around my studio and I see things! Very cool...I love all of the borders that Maria has done on the tiles above. I am going to be in your class next month and can hardly wait! :-)

Mirawyn said...

I love borders, too; they're so fun!

All Maria's tiles are very cool, but I think the first and last are the most intriguing. That first one reminds me of lobster claws! :) As for the last one, I lvoe the simplicity: one intricate band, with just one simple pattern used on each side, in different ways.

Thanks for the inspiration!

Anonymous said...

This is a lovely post - how the ''ordinary" can be a source of inspiration and creativity. Lovely to see how your tangles evolve from the thinking to the making. Would make an interesting book, a new angle to existing zentangle books, encouraging people to deepen their connection by looking at the beauty of things around them. Thanks for sharing, inspired me!

crotnem said...

OMgoodness, the first tile and the last tile are my very favorite ones. I was sitting here trying them out! I sat looking down at my rug in my bedroom and finally got it de-constructed. I call it Rugz!
Thanks for alway being so inspiring for us all!

Anonymous said...

Great inspiration! I love the pattern on the last tile. Now I'm taking my iPhone and going hunting for border tangles :)

Beth Skipper said...

I think I am most inspired by the first tile, the black one. I think it was based on what seems to be a fireplace mantel. I like that the design is curved in the ZIA.

Beautiful work--as always!

Unknown said...

Ahhh, borders, they are fun. Directly in front of me are many options but the one that looks like the most fun is the valance over the window...off to tangle... catch you later. Thanks for the inspiration!

Unknown said...

and to think...it was the making of a border that sparked the "method."

Lesia said...

Seeing unborn tangles everywhere!

Need to say, as much as I enjoy seeing all the ZIA's out there, two days ago, after scanning some blogs, became very disappointed and very sad to find out people were doing Tangles & Zia's then photoshopping them to perfection. I thought it was my imagination, but it seemed like the human element was 'not there', in a way I was right, they photoshopped the human element out of it.

Sorry to all for downer comment, but I would very much like to know Maria and Rick's and all of your opinions about leaving the Authentic Zentangle, paper, pen, pencil, to what seems like 'anything goes'. I also feel Zentangle is too young to be pushed into the background.

Thank you Maria and Rick for bringing Zentangle to us all!