Paisley Par-Tay

(from top-left to bottom-right) floo, flux, opus, and ennies.

plain Jane

I didn't have school today (teacher workday), so I was able to complete my submission to the Diva's Weekly Challenge #142: "Comfort/Danger Zone" early in the week. The goal was to push our boundaries by doing something that we usually shy away from. I don't usually feel comfortable using organic shapes—paisleys, teardrops, curlicues—so I used tangles with those elements and now feel much less intimidated by them. I found it interesting that each of the tangles has the same basic motif and format as another. Opus and flux branch from a stem while floo and ennies branch from a border; opus and floo use a spiral while flux and ennies use teardrops.

For shading I gravitated towards watercolor pencils to amp-up the volume. Not having a paintbrush handy, I actually used bobby pins to add the water and smooth out the color! After I had finished the adding pigment, I followed my mom's advice and weighted the rounded end of the flux-bulbs.