Do you have favorite tangles? The ones you refer back to again and again, especially when you’re stuck and can’t think of a tangle. Your comfortable go-to tangles. Maria Thomas calls those her “mac & cheese tangles” 🙂 Some of my favorites are Poke Root, Printemps, Tipple, Flux, Hollibaugh, and Rain (created by Zentangle®). You will see these tangles in many of my tiles! I’m taking a break from classes this summer because when summer starts in Alaska, people are outside fishing, camping, hiking, traveling, gardening, etc. So this is usually the time that I put a fall class schedule together but this summer Jake and I bought a small motorhome and have been camping a lot. I’ve been away from technology and tangling is perfect when camping! All you need is an ink pen, pencil, and paper!
I admit that I don’t do well with change and so I have a hard time with structured challenges. I have to force myself to try new tangles and I tend to fall back on my “mac & cheese” tangles. But since I have time and I’m off camping, it’s the perfect time to challenge myself. I’m starting out small and doing mono tangles (one tangle) and I’ll choose different tangles that I’ve never done before! Yikes, be brave! I’ve always wanted to do Mak-Rah-Mee tangle, by Michele Beauchamp, CZT. This tangle has always intrigued me because it’s so pretty and I love how it flows, but looks hard to do. But I actually found it easy when following the step out at www.tanglepatterns.com It looks similar to a craft knot like you’d find in macrame. I love fiber art! I added some Tipple and finished the border using Curly Q, by Diane Lachance, CZT. All were really FUN tangles to do! Sometimes we just need a little push…in my case, a BIG push!
So I’m challenging myself to do a new tangle every week until classes start again in Fall. Why don’t you join me!
❤️ Donna
Dream catchers are arts and crafts of the Native American people. Traditionally dream catchers were made from willow branches bent into rings or oval shapes and sinew for the web. Feathers decorate infants and children’s dream catchers, but all dream catchers are embellished with totem animals, beads, and small stones. (I love to embellish!) The ring is believed to represent wisdom, strength, and unity.
One legend tells of an elderly spiritual leader who had a vision of Iktomi, the great trickster and searcher of wisdom. He appeared in the form of a spider and spoke to him. As he spoke, the spider picked up the elder’s willow ring and began to spin a web. He spoke about the cycle of life and and many lessons. The ring represents the cycle of life, for as we come into life as infants and grow into adults, as elderly adults we must be taken care of as infants, thus completing the cycle of life.
When the spider finished, he had spun a web inside the ring and told him that when the dream catcher is hung above ones bed, good dreams will float through the web’s holes and down the strings of beads and feathers, placing good dreams into your head while one sleeps. Bad dreams are caught in the web and tangle up in the web & beads and stones and with the first rays of daylight, they evaporate and disappear. Pretty awesome don’t you think!
Wishing you good dreams and peaceful sleep.
