Sweetwater Cats creates handcrafted wooden frames designed specifically for Zentangle® artists. They currently have frames for regular, Bijou, and Zendala tiles. And I hear that they'll soon be expanding their selection to include Apprentice, Phi, and 5xPhives tiles!
In this review, I'll be focusing on the frames for a regular and Bijou tile.
My wooden frames arrived beautifully wrapped in pretty teal and white soft wrapping paper, with the Sweetwater Cats sticker sealing them closed.
When I unwrapped the first frame, these gorgeous little pieces greeted me:
I was not expecting extra wooden pieces, but it's these little touches that really make purchasing from a small business all the more special.
Laura is the creator of Sweetwater Cats, and her goal in creating these frames is to make people's tiles and tools a place that feels as considered as the art itself. She is a Certified Zentangle Teacher (CZT), just like me and I think that's why she understands the needs of tanglers so well.
The little trinkets that have "inspire" and "breathe" burnt into them would make lovely bookmarks, gift tags, or even tree ornaments.
Laura made it a point to include a spare wooden square so that her customers can test out their pens on it to see how each pen would look on the wood. So ingenious!
The wood is sanded smooth and is a soft beige that complements most tile colours that I have. Each frame also comes with a little segment that allows for you to hook the frame onto a nail that you put on your wall, and two extra wooden pieces that you can slot together to make a table stand for your frame.
I love cats, so the little paw print and Sweetwater Cats' logo are just precious. Plus, we get an additional encouraging word on the frame stand - "grateful", and truly, there is so much to be grateful for.
Here's how the stand looks like after I slotted them into each other:
I'm very happy with the frames that I received, and I'm currently working on decorating one of my frames with tangles. I'll update this post once I've completed it. :)
Laura also offers a very interesting 6" Tangle Compass that seems like a fun tangling tool to try, and even a Decorate-It-Your-Way toolkit. So if you're looking to get a gift for a fellow tangler (or to treat yourself to something special!) please check out Sweetwater Cats via this link: https://sweetwatercats.com/
