How to draw FLEZ

Flez is a tangle pattern created by Lori Howe.

Lori’s name on flickr is lacefairy1 which is most appropriate as she also runs the “world’s largest lace and lacemaking website” with over 1,000 pages of lace information. The extent of Lori’s knowledge on the ancient craft of lacemaking is astonishing, check out her Beginner’s Guide for a start. I’m boggled.

Lori’s Flez tangle has possibilities for variation and embellishment and it’s very flexible (flezible?). A little shading gives it great dimension.

This tangle and others with “orbs” in them give you excellent practice at really focusing on each orb as you draw it. Mine all started out nicely the same size until I added a black “background” around them and they became a tad wonky. Apparently I forgot the lesson I learned when I drew Corn Rows.

In case you’re wondering what an orb is, to quote Zentangle® founder Maria Thomas it’s Zentangle’s word for circles. Thinking of them as orbs gives an appreciation for the potential three-dimensionality of the shape you’re creating in one dimension. It’s amazing how the name ‘orb’ can change how you feel about the shape as you make each stroke. They get plumper and juicer!

Lori illustrates the steps for drawing her Flez tangle pattern here.

Check out the tag lorih for more of Lori’s patterns on TanglePatterns.com.

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