Timeless Tangled Facets – An Online Series

Tangle outside the border and expand your creative horizons with Team 7F5R’s newest tangle technique – Tangled Facets! Discover how to turn your tangled art into 3D masterpieces.

One of the great ways to incorporate the Tangled Facets technique with your daily tangling practice is to repurpose old tiles into something fresh, or take tiles that didn’t quite go according to plan and utilise them in a new and unexpected way.

We’ve also created printable content specially for this series, so that you can create colourful tangled art similar to those you see on this page.

Watch a complimentary preview of the course and download a set of tinted tiles here: 7f5r.thinkific.com/courses/tangledfacets

Pairing Tangled Facets with Techniques You Know and Love

The introduction video starts off by introducing you to terminology that we will be using throughout the series. We then show you many wonderful examples of tiles that we’ve created using the Tangled Facets technique. Lastly, we run through the list of materials you will need to draw alongside our tutorials.

You will then be brought through four full-length projects. The videos show us drawing in real-time so you can tangle along, just as you would in an in-person class. The tutorials slowly increase in complexity to end with a beautiful postcard-sized tile that has three layers.

Love the gorgeous tinted tiles that we offered with our preview video?

We’ve included many more printable tinted tiles in our paid course! These printable pages are exclusive to this series, and we’re looking forward to seeing what you create with them.

On our Thinkific page, there are discussion boards available for you to ask any questions you might have. You may also reach us via email 7f5r.thinkific@gmail.com, if you have any queries for us, even before you purchase the course.

We hope all that inspiration has got you excited to learn more about this marvellous technique. Visit https://7f5r.thinkific.com/courses/tangledfacets to purchase the course and get started on a new tangling adventure today.

Team 7F5R
Debbie & Stephanie
Certified Zentangle Teachers
Singapore

A Very Merry Unbirthday

I wanted to gift this tangle to my best friend, Debbie. I really like the tangle, and I thought it’d act like a physical representation of our friendship.

But the issue with every new tangle that we deconstruct is… What will we name it?

“Debbie” means “bee”. So my initial thought was to name it “abeille” which means bee in French. But I’m quite sure people wouldn’t pronounce it the French way… I tested it on my husband and he did pronounce it phonetically.

Then I thought about the root word for “Debbie”.. which is “D’vora”. I thought that was cute so I asked Debbie what she thought.

She asked if the tangle was her un-birthday, post-birthday present. I said, no. That it was a just-because gift. She laughed and said, “Un birthday. There you have a tangle name.”.

So this is Debbie’s Unbirthday. hahaha

Here’s another version of the same tangle. Double Unbirthday:

I’ve used it in my art recently. Here it is as a duotangle in my sketchbook:

Hidden amongst these gems:

And here it is featured in a Tangled Facets tile. The blue fascinator is from the printable that comes with our Tangled Facets course. If you have not watched the free preview of the course, do pop over to our Thinkific to do so: https://7f5r.thinkific.com/courses/tangledfacets

 I hope you enjoy using Unbirthday in your art as much as I do, and that the little story that came with it made you smile.

If you would like us to feature your work on social media, tag us on Instagram @7forests5rivers or use the hashtag #unbirthdaytangle

Until next time, keep tangling!

Stephanie Jennifer, CZT21
Singapore

Playful Purkbit

Sometimes, you mesh two tangles together, and it ends up looking great. This was one of those times. Purkbit is a tanglelation of Purk by Zentangle, and Cabbit by Debbie New.

It was near the end of 2018 that Debbie and I started playing with with Purkbit. We joked about its name and we would use it in our tiles every now and again. We’ve finally gotten around to publishing its step-outs. It really is such a cute tangle, and we hope you enjoy playing with it just as much as we have.

Here’s a tile featuring some Purkbits wrapped in ribbon.

I’ve even taught an Embedded Letter class that featured Purkbit. The tangle adds a bit of whimsical charm to the tiles.

This is a card that Debbie created, featuring a cat version of Purkbit.

Here’s another tile with the kitty version of Purkbit.

If you would like us to feature your work on social media, tag us on Instagram @7forests5rivers or use the hashtag #purkbit.

Until next time, keep tangling!

Stephanie Jennifer, CZT21
Singapore

Cabbits In a Pod

Debbie and I hope you had fun with our previous tangle, Purkbit. Here’s another tangle that we created. This tangle is a mashup between Cabbit by Debbie New and Inapod by Carole Ohl.

Here are the step-outs to “Cabbit Inapod”:

Here are some of my tiles that feature the tangle:

Here’s a tile by Debbie that features Cabbit Inapod:

Debbie was fostering three kittens at that point in time. One of the kittens ended up nibbling on this tile. Debbie joked that it had become Cabbitenapod.

We would love to see what you create with this tangle. Tag us on Instagram @7forests5rivers or use the hashtag #CabbitInapod to be featured.

Until next time, keep tangling!

Stephanie Jennifer, CZT21
Singapore

Birthday Month

  August happens to be "the birthday month" in our family. My mother, mother-in-law, and I are all August babies. Singapore, the country we live in, also celebrates its birthday on the 9th of August.

  Side note: Because it's Singapore's birthday this month, the theme for week one and two of August's 7F5R Challenge is red and white. Create a tile using the colours red and white and post it in the group. We'd love to see what you create.

  Do you like birthdays? Do you celebrate your own birthday?
  I enjoy birthdays, but I prefer to spend them with family and close friends, a quiet dinner, and perhaps a yummy chocolate cake.

  I asked the same question to my students at Toa Payoh Central Community Club and some of them said they were like me, while some of them said they'd rather not think about their birthdays at all. hahaha

  Yesterday was the last day of July's classes. Here's what my students created:

  And this was what one student created in her sketchbook as homework. My students continue to amaze me, again and again.

  As for me, I've been busy, too!

  Here's the tile from Debbie that I showed you in my previous post. The gemstones on the tile are real ones.

  Whereas these gemstones are drawn. I just wanted to draw a bunch of gemstones without tangling, so this is what I came up with. I might one day add tangles to the tile.... but you know how sometimes things turn out so well that you don't want to draw more, for fear that you might ruin what nice things you've already drawn? hahaha. Yes, I feel that way for this tile.

  Here's a Zendala, also with gemstones. I have no idea why the photo is not centred. 

  Lastly, this was what I drew for this week's Tea & Tangle. The featured tangle was "Klomp".

  During this session, Debbie and I talked about pushing past your creative comfort zone and trying new things. It's good to have tangles that you like and go to often, but it's also important to try new tangles- especially ones that you normally don't draw. (For me, that's grid-based tangles.)

  What's a tangle you've recently learnt that you'd like for me to try? Let me know in the comments section.

  That's all I have for you right now. In my next post, I'll show you a bunch of Travelling Tangles Project tiles that I've completed.

  I'll see you again soon. Until then, keep tangling!

You spin my head right round', right round'...

  Last month's weekly classes at Toa Payoh Central Community Club were awesome. It was a small class of five students. This month, we've doubled in numbers and are a very full class of ten students. Woohoo!

  Here's the mosaic we had for April's first class. My idea was that the quarter circles would link up to make full circles...

  But then some of the students found that they could be linked in more creative ways!

  Here's another class we did. It was inspired by the full moon mosaic.

  My lovely friend, Debbie New, celebrated her birthday in April. I made this Zendala as a gift to her.

  I also created a smaller Zendala featuring my tangle "Eternity".

  In other news, Debbie and I have started selling pet collar charms to raise funds for a good cause. We will be donating a part of the profits to an organisation that helps foster kittens in Singapore. We deliver worldwide! If you'd like to find out more, you can click this link.

  Inspired by the blings, I created these two bookmarks:

  Lastly, I completed a swap on swap bot. I almost only completed it half-way. Bad habit from creating too many tiles for Travelling Tangles Project. hahaha

  The postcard features "Cabbit". :>

Less talk-y, more tangle-y

  Even though my daughter, Charlotte, is super cute... I'm sure most of you are here for the Zentangle art. So here's what I've been up to in terms of artsy things....

  Some class mosaics to start with. From January....

  And from this month's classes...

  I've also been slowly going through my stash of Travelling Tangles tiles.

  Here's one from a Back to Basics swap. The start was created by Åsa Vading.

And here's how I completed it:

  This one was a Zendala with a faux watercolour background and a butterfly stencil-ed outline on it, from Debbie New.... I thought about cutting out the butterfly entirely, but settled on just popping out its wings.

  Shading was added using Polychromos coloured pencils. And tada!

  A few more that I did with Debbie....

  This one was from last year. The theme was "Embedded Letters". The start was by Jennifer Moor.

  Took me a good long while to find a way to tie the tangles with the letter. But I loved how it turned out.

  This one was from Lin Laidler. Very relaxing to complete it. Reminded me of a bamboo forest.

   And this last one was from Pat Floerke.

  I liked the idea of making it into a colour wheel, but I'm not sure whether the idea worked out visually...

  I will be teaching a workshop at Jurong Town Hall tomorrow. A bunch of Certified Zentangle Teachers and I created 300 cards, each with a unique design. Here's one:

  And if you'd like to see the rest, you can visit this link.

  Like the card above says, thank you for taking time out of your day to take a peek at the creative things I've made. I hope you have a splendid weekend.