first time for everything.

I LOVE artsy group projects. I love to be around other creative people who inspire me. People who spark new thoughts and ideas... people who are a lot like me, and yet so different than me that there is no end to their interestingness. 

I started this blog in March of this year, shortly after my exhilarated return home from CZT 8 in February. Prestrung zendalas were brand new and unreleased right up until seminar started, so they were met with a great deal of enthusiasm. My first group project as a CZT was to release one set of zendalas out into the wild and then blog 'em upon their return. *counts months on fingers*  Well... better late than never.

This took me forever to finish. You can see why. I didn't know anything about mandalas. I thought it was way too busy and chaotic to be pretty, because I didn't realize it was common to repeat patterns in different sections. Didn't even occur to me.

Fortunately, everybody else that was in on this project knew better! Caren used the same tile I did, and you can see how much more 'together' it looks with the pattern repetition around the tile. 

Caren Mlot • South Carolina

Cheryl Cianci • Connecticut

Elaine Huffman • Massachusetts

Meredith Yuhas • Connecticut

Amy Broady • Tennessee

Ellen Darby • Ohio

Ellen Gozeling • Netherlands

Joyce Block • Wisconsin

Sandhya Manne • Texas

Carolyn Boettner • Wisconsin

While we're on the subject of round things... here are a few mini-dalas I was funning around with a while back. They're three inches across. I found them to be much more challenging than smooth-edged circles because I felt like I needed to start on the outside to get the border right and then work inward. I suppose if I had used pencil guides, I still could have started in the middle. Hmm...I'll have to play around with them a little more. 

I would love to see a random grouping of these on a black background in a simple frame, like lily pads drifting on a pond.

I have seen so many incredibly great zendalas since they were first released, including several from Sandhya Manne and Suzanne McNeill, who just released a book called Zentangle 7: Inspiring Circles, Zendalas, & Shapes. I attended a watercolor zendala workshop with Suzanne during Angie Vangalis' CZT marketing retreat a couple of months ago. All of us had fun... some of us had wine. Hilarity ensued. That's all I'm sayin'.

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Maybe I just have it on the brain because I'm wearing snow boots with my nightshirt right now (don't ask, it's boring), but for those anticipating winter and counting down the days 'til Christmas... you definitely will not regret clicking here.