Review-'Tangle Starts Strings' book by Alice Hendon #TangleStarts #Zentangle #Tangles #ZebraPen @ZebraPen

Alice Hendon has published the third in her 'Tangle Starts' series of Tangle oriented books.  The earlier books are 'Tangle Starts' and 'Tangle Starts Planner'.

The latest book, 'Tangle Starts Strings', is now available in Soft Cover Print and as a Kindle ebook.


It has already made it as the No. 1 new release in Pen and Ink Drawing, so I hope there are still a few of you, who haven't already bought it, lol.



Alice sent me a copy to review, and I decided to share the fun and bought a copy to give away. 

Specs
No: of Pages: 120
Size: 8 x 0.3 x 10 inches
Binding: Glued
Paper: White

Look & Feel
'Tangle Starts Strings' is an activity-based book with 366 strings ready for you to tangle. There are a few basics, but that is pretty much it.  So simple, and yet this is a book that you can use every single day for a year.  Or pick up every now and then and tangle several strings at once.

For those new to tangling, strings are simply boxes with 'string-like' lines that divide the area into sections.  The idea is for you to draw a different pattern into each section.  This is an example taken from the book.  There are four strings like this to a page, with room beneath to write down the tangle patterns used.


At the back of the book, there are pages for creating your own strings and some with small boxes where you can draw examples of tangle patterns you want to remember.

Alice chose to have the book printed in color because the paper is heavier and there will be less problem with bleed-through and show-through.  Without special coating (not available through Amazon printing) you can't avoid some of that, so I did a test  on the page provided, using several different kinds of pens/markers to show what does and doesn't bleed-through.

Technical pens, ballpoint pens (and probably gel pens), and colored pencils work with no Bleed-through, and little to no show-through.  Water-based marker pens (Tombow-type markers, highlighters, color brushes) may show-through and may spot depending on how much you saturate the paper.  Alcohol and permanent markers (Copics, Sharpies, etc) will bleed-through, which is to be expected.

All told, this is just exactly what I would expect from an activity book at this price point.  And, of course, I always feel that bleed-through is just a good way to use the same color twice.


There are 10 tangle step-outs included, none new.  Just enough to help get you started.  The step-outs are for Rain, Hollibaugh, Blox, Meer, Line Dance, All Boxed Up, Footlites, Onomato, Merryweather and Airways..

There were a couple of errors-a misspelling and one of the steps for Merryweather was included with Meer. These errors have since been fixed.  I purchased my giveaway copy before the fix, but I don't think they are significant enough to cause any problem whatsoever.

The Contents of the book are:

Zentangle Basics
How To Use This Book
Pen Test Page
Tangles to Try
Traditional Strings
Geometric Strings
Layered Strings
Symmetrical Strings
Mandalas
Genevieve Crabe's Digital Strings
Create Your Own Strings
Track Your Favorite Tangles
Author Information

Performance
I did the first page of strings using a technical pen, color brush pens, highlighters and colored pencils. Recognize the string on the bottom left? That's the example that I shared above, all filled in and colored.


I deliberately used color brushes which do show spots of color on the back, because I wanted to show you how I handled that. Then I realized, I'd used a page that doesn't have strings on the back *slaps forehead*.  

So I did another two strings.  This time I used color brushes on the left - which only spotted a little - and alcohol markers on the right, which bleed-through a lot on any paper that isn't super heavy or specially coated.  

I do want to stress that I chose the two mediums that would definitely bleed-through. You should use the Pen Test Page to be sure, but most pens/markers will NOT bleed-through.  



OVERALL
Tangle Starts Strings is an activity-based book with enough strings to allow you to do a string a day for a year, or to do several strings every once in a while.  It has basic instructions for tangling, 10 tangle patten step-outs, pages for creating your own strings and for keeping track of your favorite tangles.

GIVEAWAY HAS ENDED 
Who Can Enter? Anyone with a U.S. mailing address (I apologize to my international friends - complex laws and high postage costs!) 

How to Enter?  Type, or cut and paste these words: 'I want to win Tangle Starts Strings' into the subject line of an email, and send it to me at LifeImitatesDoodles [at] gmail [dot] com. 

When does the giveaway end? The giveaway ends Saturday, June 2, 2018 at 11:59 PM PDT.
 I'll notify the winner on Sunday by responding to the email sent as an entry.  

Who is Giving Away the Prize? Me! Alice sent a copy to review, but I decided I wanted to give away a copy as well, so I bought one.

'Tangle Starts Strings', is available in Print and as a Kindle ebook.

Disclaimer
Alice Hendon sent me a copy of 'Tangle Starts Strings' to review.  I received no other consideration and all opinions are my own.

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