Review-'Tangle Starts Planner: Tangle Through the Year (Artangleology) (Volume 2)' by Alice Dean Hendon, CZT #AliceHendon #TangleBooks #TanglePatterns

It's a New Year, and Alice Hendon has published her latest book, Tangle Starts Planner: Tangle Through the Year (Artangleology) (Volume 2).  Though set up for easy bullet journaling and tangling, the book is freeform enough to use as a tangle journal, art journal, workbook, lesson book or diary.

I apologize.  I had intended to do a few pages of lay-outs but time got away from me.  Since this is the prime time for people to look for planners, I didn't want to wait longer to do my review.  I'll post my layouts as I do them.

Specs

Format: Paperback

No. of Pages: 242  

Binding: Glued

Cover: Cardstock

Language: English

Size: 8 x 0.6 x 10 inches

Weight: 1.4 pounds 

Look & Feel

This is large book, 8 x 10 inches with 242 pages.  It is a softcover with cardstock covers, and the usual paper that you get with Amazon's Create Space books. The largest portion of the book has pages in a quarter inch dot-grid format.

There are 106 tangle patterns included, 92 of which have never been published in a book before and only a few of those have been posted online.  Many people may want to purchase this book just for the patterns.

The size and thickness make this a little bulky for carry. I won't say it's light, but it's lighter than I thought it would be. There is some slope because of the number of pages so double-page spreads will be difficult, but the pages will lie flat as you work on each side.

The glued binding is sturdy.  I held one page in the middle and shook the book with no sign of tearing or loosening of the pages.  The paper wrinkled a bit but only where I held it.

The paper is an off-white with grayish dots spaced at quarter inches.  

The book is divided into sections and each section has a suggested use - a future log, weekly spreads and so forth.  But these sections are largely free-form dot-grid pages. There is a two-page spread with monthly calendars for 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020.  Beyond this nothing is dated. You can add your own dates in whatever format you wish or just use the book as a think-book or workbook.

If used the way suggested, you have everything you might need in a bullet journal, but if that ain't your thang, you can use it for something else entirely different and it will still look good.

One of things I like about the look of a bullet journal are all the stickies hanging out, so I immediately glued down colored sticky notes and labeled them so I could easily find the beginning of each section. 

With CreateSpace on Amazon, the author has no control over the paper used for printing so there are pages designated for you to try out your pens, markers, and pencils.  In all the CreateSpace books I've used, the paper handles most dry media but is not fountain pen friendly.  Some markers or 'wet' ink pens may bleed through.  

I believe the quality is competitive with similar books of this size at this price.

The future log is a two-page section with dot-grids, and then there are 12 double-spread pages for monthly entries.  These have a title section in the left corner of the left-hand page...

...where the weekly spreads have a straight branch, and...

...at the bottom of the right-hand page there are quotes to inspire you.  They come from a wide range of individuals - such as Theodore Roosevelt, John Keating, Yoda and Batman!

Some sections already have labels, such as Websites and Passwords, Important Dates, and more (see List of Contents below).  If you should want to use these pages for something else, it would be easy to tape or color over the titles and add your own.

The last quarter of the book contains the tangle patterns, a pattern index and a section of thumbnail boxes that you can use to draw examples of your favorite patterns. Twelve of the new patterns are mine!

There are 14 Tangles that have previously been published in other books.  These are: all boxed Up, arrowhead, blox, caught, corn rows, crete, dayz eaze, golden, kort, pax, skinz, SO, spool, tootsie moon, veez

The other 92 patterns have never been published, though a few have been shared at Alice's blog.  They are: 4 spool, spool, 4 stroke, insects, 5 petals, 6 star, aim, a meer leaf, banded,bare stix, bar harbor, barz, bolt petal, boxfleur, box kite, chalice, conk, corset, crossbar,  curlz2,  diagonal2,  dream dancer, dropz2,  fab,  Fargo,  fire wheel,  fleurelle,  fly wheel,  fringe,  gettin' buggy,  got stars,  hached, helical, hole in the hedge,  imperfection,  i-wear, jump rings,  kiwi,  konnect,  linneus,  long leaf,  marimekko,  matahari,  mix it up,  mookafill,  'n the round,  nebula,  netz,  octafleur,  optical,  oscillate,  over and under,  paddle pedal,  pinwheel,  pinz,  pipez,  podz,  quadrant,  ripped screen,rokwall,  rush, sailin',  scoop,  sea wall,  seize,  semaphore,  shuri,  spidey,  sprocket,  square gear, stack,  stained glass,  stamen,  star gear,  starry pete, starshine, star wall, supplize,  swirling tides,  tear drop,  tennyson,  tinker toys, tophat, turbine,  wave runner,  waves,  whirly bird,  will-o-the-wisp,  windfleur,  windmill, yxbox, zeplin

Even though this is a tangle-oriented book, I already know that I'm going to use it for planning and organizing my Fun & Easy Landscapes.  I'll use the tangles for decoration and some of my landscapes.

Contents

Copyright Page

How To Use This Book

Pens, Markers and Pencils

Bleed Through?

Tangle Basics

2017, 2019

2018, 2020

Future Log

Monthly Spreads

Weekly, Daily

Important Dates

Skills/Techniques to Learn

Tangle Projects

Websites/Passwords

Collections/Lists of Your Own

Contacts

106 New Tangle Patterns

Tangle Quick Reference

Favorite Tangle Blanks

Additional Pen Test Area

Author Bio, Contributors

Alice Hendon is currently holding a giveaway for a copy of 'Tangle Starts, Planner' at her Facebook group, Zentangle All Around, where she has weekly challenges and prompts for tangling.  In 2018, many of these will center around her planner.

When Alice's giveaway ends on January 10th, I'll be starting a giveaway here at Life Imitates Doodles.on January 11th!  Want to get started using your planner right away?  You can order yours here on Amazon.