Many of you who are familiar with Zentangle® have already found Linda Farmer’s TanglePatterns.com. If you haven’t, whether you are new to Zentangle® or old hand, you need to check it out.
Linda’s site is more or less the mother lode of Zentangle® information. You’ll find more about official tangle patterns at the official Zentangle.com website, but Linda provides examples of tangle patterns created by other Certified Zentangle® Teachers (CZTs) and Zentangle enthusiasts (such as myself). She provides beautifully drawn examples of the tangle patterns and most cases, she provides a link to the pattern steps. She also has steps to her own tangle patterns, and those of a few others, who don’t have blogs or websites. You can search for tangles by title, by artist or by tag. I believe it is the largest repository of tangle pattern examples to be found. Furthermore, there are tutorials, and reviews and downloads available.
As you can imagine, TanglePatterns.com has many visitors. In October of 2011, the site had almost 7 million hits and over 1 million page views.
As you can imagine, it takes a lot of time and effort…and money. She’s had to hire a software engineer to help with serious technical details to keep the site running, and upgrade the server substantially to handle the traffic.
Linda has had to ask for donations to help keep the site running and open to everybody. And even though the Tanglepatterns.com provides so much value, she’s come up with a very cool gift for those who donate $10 or more, subscribe or buy an Official Zentangle® Kit from the TanglePatterns store.
A Tangle Guide 2012 Edition eBook in PDF format. 14 pages.
The Tangle Guide is a reference at-a-glance with beautifully drawn examples of 300 tangle patterns. The steps to the patterns are not included in the PDF, but they are almost all linked!
You can print the Tangle Guide, and probably will, because it is a fantastic way to look up patterns as you tangle, but the beauty of this reference happens when you use it online. Found a tangle that’s new to you? Can’t remember the steps to a tangle? Then just click on the example in the guide, and you are taken to the appropriate entry at TanglePatterns.com. It’s like having the whole TanglePatterns website on your desktop!
There are a few exceptions to the links. If the steps to a tangle pattern have not been published online but have appeared in a book, you will be taken to information about the book. If the pattern is one of the Official Tangle patterns that have never been published online, Linda has left a blank square for you to fill in yourself. (Note: Some of these patterns can only be found by taking a class through a CZT or by becoming one yourself.)
The cover page of the PDF features a beautiful Zentangle® done by CZT Michele Beauchamp and the second page explains how to use the guide, has a brief introduction to Zentangle®, links to various resources, and Thanks to those who have donated.
The patterns are laid out in alphabetical order for ease of reference.
This isn’t a ‘how-to’ zentangle book, in and of itself. It’s truly a pattern reference. If you are new to zentangle, this PDF won’t get you up and running. But the website, itself, will help with that, and this eBook is meant to be used with the website.
How can you get one of these gems? Donate $12 or more at TanglePatterns.com (not to me!) or subscribe for a yearly donation or buy an official Zentangle® kit through TanglePatterns.com.
I think this eBook is an incredible value, and can only marvel at how much work Linda has put into it, and into her website.
Here is a Zentangle-inspired drawing that I did in Carole Ohl's Tangle-A-Day Calendar using tangles from just one page of Linda's guide.
Usually, I can't remember all the patterns names because there are so many, but because I had Linda's guide, I can tell you that I used Michele Beauchamp's Wist, Carolyn's Worms, Official tangles Xircus, XYP, Yincut,Ynix, & Zander, Margaret Bremner's Yabbut & Zedbra (credit shared with Laura Harms), Linda Farmer's Zin, JJ LaBarbera's Zuan Shi, Daniele O'Brien's Zen Bud & Zenplosion, and my ow Zanella.
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