Verve is a tangle pattern from Delaware’s JJ LaBarbera. JJ has shared some very popular tangles with us — Arc Flower and Ticking spring to mind.
JJ says Verve is “really quite simple and will easily fit into a circle shape that pops up in your string.” As you can see here, Verve can actually fit into pretty much any shape and of course shading adds great dimension. When I showed Robert my example he commented, “You really love that shading, don’t you!” Yup. As I’ve said before, sometimes I think that’s my favorite part.
Verve starts “with a 6 and a 9 that wrap around the circle. You can ‘wave’ the stems quite a bit to add interest.” As you see, I made mine wavy. JJ says she has to fight to keep herself from filling every round shape with Verve, but I think you’ll all have to resist filling every empty space you see with it. Wait till you try it, you’ll see what I mean.
This isn’t one of my better examples and I wasn’t planning on posting it. For starters it has NO shading for heaven’s sake. But I decided I’d show you what else you can do with Verve, so here’s my “first draft”. I drew one circle and a few of its “stems” in a corner of the shape, then added more circles and their stems to fill it. Kind of cool all-over Verve pattern that warrants further experimentation. This is one addictive tangle! No thinking, no planning, just play.
JJ illustrates the step-by-step instructions for drawing Verve, here.
Check out the tag jjl for more of JJ’s patterns on TanglePatterns.com.
The one you have posted here, with no shading, brought to mind a Van Gogh painting. Can’t wait to try it.
Hi Linda! I just wanted to say I love this tangle, and I love your variation, maybe even more than the original version. I’ve been playing around with both versions all day, and every time I do your variation, I can’t help thinking it looks like spaghetti and meatballs, lol.
Lovely pattern for a relaxation. Very enjoyable to experiment with different ways of waving around, it can bring many diverse and great effects, with a lot of oportunity for shading. I am on a diet, so i don’t dare to think of spagetti and meatballs,lol. Thank you for this lovely pattern.
Fun, and very writhe-y (like snakes) when done is multiple! It reminds me of Dansk, Magma, Jash and others, yet it’s different. Thanks for all you do Linda!
Thanks everyone and thanks Linda. Sharing your unshaded image inspired me and I just finished a piece where I explored Verve more. You helped me see outside of the circle as it were.