Canadian tangler Cyndi Knapp bookends this month’s tangles, with Jaxstar our first tangle of the month and today’s Jester the last tangle of the month.
And indeed Jester is the last new tangle of 2017. Thus my work begins creating the 2018 edition of my TanglePatterns.com TANGLE GUIDE. Naturally I will let you know when it’s ready, sometime early in January assuming all goes as planned.
A couple of weeks ago we had Canadian CZT Bunny Wright’s Jesterstick tangle, and a comment contributed by Dessie Arnold pointed out the fascinating related annual tradition of the Boar’s Head Festival.
What else can we learn about jesters, you ask. Well, just a small sampling from the wonderful Wikipedia:
A jester, court jester, or fool, was historically an entertainer during the medieval and Renaissance eras who was a member of the household of a nobleman or a monarch employed to entertain him and his guests. A jester was also an itinerant performer who entertained common folk at fairs and markets. Jesters are also modern-day entertainers who resemble their historical counterparts.
Jesters in medieval times are often thought to have worn brightly coloured clothes and eccentric hats in a motley pattern and their modern counterparts usually mimic this costume. Jesters entertained with a wide variety of skills: principal among them were song, music, and storytelling, but many also employed acrobatics, juggling, telling jokes, and magic tricks. Much of the entertainment was performed in a comic style and many jesters made contemporary jokes in word or song about people or events well known to their audiences.
… Early jesters were popular in Ancient Egypt, and entertained Egyptian pharaohs. The ancient Romans had a tradition of professional jesters, called balatros. Balatrones were paid for their jests, and the tables of the wealthy were generally open to them for the sake of the amusement they afforded. Jesters were popular with the Aztec people in the 14th to 16th centuries.
If you’re interested in pursuing more about Jesters, there’s a book called Fools Are Everywhere, The Court Jester Around the World by Beatrice K. Otto. An excerpt can be found here.
About her tangle, Cyndi writes,
Jester is a super easy and fun pattern to draw. It reminded me of the fabric of a jester’s costume with both structured and whimsical elements.
There are so many possible variations – only a few of which could be illustrated.
I agree, Jester is super easy, and fun with limitless variations. And a pretty ribbon-style tangle. You can also get interesting variations depending on how fat or skinny, short or tall you make the strokes in Steps 1 and 2.
Cyndi illustrates the step-by-step instructions for drawing Jester below and she demonstrates several of many possible variations in two lovely Zentangle tiles including an in-the-round version.
Image copyright the artist and used with permission, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Please feel free to refer to the steps images to recreate this tangle in your personal Zentangles and ZIAs, or to link back to this page. However the artist and TanglePatterns.com reserve all rights to these images and they must not be publicly pinned, reproduced or republished. They are for your personal reference only. Thank you for respecting these rights. Click the image for an article explaining copyright in plain English.
As you enjoy any of the tangles on the site, please leave a comment of thanks and encouragement to show the artists you appreciate them for sharing their creativity to inspire yours.
Check out the tag cyndik for more of Cyndi’s tangles on TanglePatterns.com.
I’ll be back tomorrow with one more post for your entertainment that wraps up the Twelve Days of Zentangle and to wish you all a wonderful holiday season, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and a marvelous 2018 … until then …
Related Links
- Looking for tangles by Artist or Type? For details visit the ABOUT > HOW TO FIND TANGLES BY ARTIST OR TYPE page on the top menu bar of any page on the site.
- What is a Zentangle? — if you are new to the Zentangle Method, start here for the fundamentals.
- Zentangle terminology — a glossary of terms used in this art form.
- How to use the site — an excellent free video tutorial showing how to use the site as well as pointing out lots of useful features you might have missed.
- Linda's List of Zentangle-Original Patterns — here is the complete list of original tangles (aka "official tangles") created and introduced by founders Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas, including those not published online. If you are new to the Zentangle Method I highly recommend learning a few of the published Zentangle classics first.
- "A Zentangle has no up or down and is not a picture of something, so you have no worries about whether you can draw a hand, or a duck. You always succeed in creating a Zentangle." Thus patterns that are drawings of a recognizable naturalistic or actual object, figure, or scene, are not tangles. A pattern is not always a tangle — here's what makes a tangle. TIP: tangles never start with pencil planning.
- Un motif n’est pas toujours un tangle — Qu’est-ce qu’un tangle ?
- Un diseño no es siempre un tangle — ¿Qué es un tangle?
- How to submit your pattern deconstruction to TanglePatterns
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December 22, 2017 | 
More like this: 
Linda, I am certain I am not the only one who wants to thank you for ALL YOU DO to make tangling such a joy. Your hard work and dedication shows in every posting you put out, and your postings are are a key component to making my tangling experiences just the best! Thank you again for everything you do and I don’t think any of us take you for granted.
I fully agree with Judy’s words and I’m grateful to have learned so much thanks to Linda’s site.
Nice pattern to end the year, I like especially Jester, drawn in the round.
Thanks for a great and fun tangle to end the year. And an even bigger thanks to you, Linda, for all you do for the tangle community. Here’s wishing everyone a great holiday season, no mater how you celebrate. And a wonderful New year too.
Linda, just wanted to say Thank You! I have days where I am not able to even draw but coming to your site let’s me keep thinking about what’s next and I am able to get lost looking at all these lovely patterns till I am able to lose myself in drawing one stroke at a time again!