Sunday, October 31, 2010

Zentangle Haiku


I have written two haiku for this piece.

#1:

Stark tranquil beauty

frozen patterns, black on white:

Nature sets her stage


#2:

Calming mind and soul

a string with five, seven, five:

Zentangle Haiku


This has been one of my favorite challenges out of the 50 so far. I love Haiku poetry, and have written several over the last week and a half that I plan to use for inspiration in future quilts. I was sitting all day with my daughter after her back fusion surgery, so had lots of quiet time!

I am also in love with drawing Zentangles, it is a perfect way for me to meditate and relax...sort of a physical 'ohm'. I have created a Zentangle haiku...devided into 3 sections ( upper left- first 'verse' five repeats of pattern; mid section- seven different patterns ; right side and bottom-five feather patterns.) I drew the patterns on white silk dupioni using a pigma pen, then the patterns are all hand embroidered quilting to batting as I stitched, using single ply's of cotton, metallic, rayon,

and feathers are machine quilted. This was a lot more labor intense than I thought it would be, but I loved doing it. Hand appliqued entire piece to black velvet and quilted, beaded.

This is a real departure from my usual...although, I'm not sure what my 'usual' would be...LOL I love trying new stuff :-)


Thanks Kathy for a terrific challenge!

I would love to have any comments, as always...thanks in advance

Cherie

12 comments:

:Diane said...

The second haiku seems to fit your art quilt better. The first would make a wonderful piece as well - but it conjures up another kind of image in my mind - not a zentangle.

The feathers give a lot of light space and when I squint, I see a lot of mid value grays. The three patterns in the diagonal middle read more as black and white patterns.

I'll bet you do some more zentangle quilting as this one looks to have been so much fun. I would suggest leaving a little more white space in some of the patterns.

:Diane - yarngoddess

Nancy Schlegel said...

I love your idea of stitching the zentangles and think this one came out fine. I like the white just on one edge-makes a good contrast. Hand stitching one must be time consuming but I always like to have something to work on by hand. Our art group just did a demonstration on zentangles but I haven't gotten into them yet. Your's is an inspiration.

Jan said...

Great piece! Both Haiku are wonderful and depending on how you look at your piece both fit well. I personally like the first. I like the stitching in the white area to bring in nature setting her stage like winter going into spring from all the bleak and dark days of winter.

Wendy said...

Wow, Chere.... this just jumped off the screen at me.... love it. Very dramatic!
I wonder what it would be like to do this technique with fabric instead of ink.... and how would color work?
Very fun....

Art by Rhoda Forbes said...

This is so unusual and so fabulous. You have done a great job, I have never tried z entangles, you certainly sparked some interest with this piece.
It really does fit the second Haiku, the stark grey that we have just before winter comes (the white in the right hand corner) I love it!

Joni said...

Cherie, congratulations on a very well done zentangle and a well done quilt. I saw your entry posted on the zentangle blog as well. I've been into zentangles for over a year now, and they have worked their way into my quilting. You embraced both in this quilt. It was very clever to work the tangle into the haiku with the repetitions of the patterns and the diversity of the tangles. Great job!
Joni Feddersen,CZT 3

fastfriday said...

I liked your zentangle quilt. I did one using Jude Hill's weaving technique. My art quilt group had put out a zentangle challenge,. It took a long time, just as you said. Rosemary in St. Louis

Carole said...

Cherie, I love this!!I have been playing with zentangles but never thought to put it to Haiku, very clever, very well done. I like it as it is...

Cherie in Del Mar said...

Thank you you all for the thoughtful comments.
Wendy, I'm not sure I understand what you mean using fabric instead of ink? The patterns were drawn in ink on fabric, then all embroidered with threads. How would you suggest to use fabrics??? I am sure color would be lovely, however, the 'Zentangle' as copyrited by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas is traditionally black and white.

Cherie

Pam Harris said...

I had to look up Zentangel. What an iteresting process and you showed us a wonderful example. This is something to explore. You did a fantastic job matching it to your haiku and the embellishments added to the piece. Thanks for sharing this technique. Hope all went well with your daughter's procedure.

Ann In Fallbrook, CA said...

This is a great quilt and an intriguing use of Zentangle. I like the use of shading and shape. What is the size?

Cherie in Del Mar said...

Thanks Ann...
The overall size is 11"x11". The size of the zentangle is 7"x8"
Cherie