This pretty and very versatile grid tangle is named Window Grilles and it’s from tangler Mei Hua Teng of Taiwan. She also goes by the name Damy and this is her first on the site.
Damy is a student of Taiwan’s mother-daughter team of CZTs Laura Liu and Diane Tai, both of whom have tangles on the site too. Damy, who is also a patchwork quilter, writes that she and her daughter Hsiuna Hsu are registered for this year’s November class to become CZTs themselves.
Many lovely patterns are inspired by the beautiful decorative wrought iron that can be found throughout the world serving sometimes-overlooked utilitarian functions like window grills, garden furniture, gates, chandeliers and so on.
Window Grilles is just such a pattern. It could be a cousin of my own tangle Rosé, but the swirled strokes are drawn from the opposite corners of the grid. And Damy explores her pattern and takes it in a lot of directions as you’ll see below.
Damy has provided steps for the basic way to draw Window Grilles and a variety of examples with even more ideas for playing with this lovely tangle. Window Grilles and its variations will keep you busy for a while!
The Basic Window Grilles
This version definitely requires turning your tile with each stroke if you want to stay on top of it. This is the version I used for my example above.
All images copyright the artist and used with permission, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Please feel free to refer to the step outs to recreate this tangle in your Zentangles and ZIAs, or link back to this page. However the artist and TanglePatterns.com reserve all rights to these images and they should not be pinned, reproduced or republished. Thank you for respecting these rights.
More ways to experiment with Window Grilles
All images are copyright the artist and used with permission. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
How about a Window Grilles version of Betweed?
And now here are three lovely tiles with Damy’s white-on-black examples of her tangle.
All images are copyright the artist and used with permission. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Something a bit simpler …
And lastly, something more complex …
Check out the tag damyt for more of Damy’s patterns on TanglePatterns.com.
Related Links
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- 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?
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April 2, 2014 | 
More like this: 
Love this!
??Amy??????????????!
This is a lovely tangle but I like the simplicity of the second to bottom black tile variation the best. It’s already in my Tangle a Day calendar.
I am enchanted by your examples, Damy! I can’t wait to work with these beautiful tangles.
Wow! I love love LOVE this tangle. My in laws lived on the island of St Croix for several years and I have always loved the decorative wrought iton work and block works found on all the buildings down there. Thank you for sharing such a wonderful tangle. And the directions and variations are excellent! Just another tangle to remind me of my favorite island. Although I gotta say, I was working on some wrought iron ones as well so I feel like she beat me to the punch! haha. but her directions and examples are much more beautiful and clear than anything I had in mind. Thank you again. This one is going to go on my list of favorites.
This is a beautiful tangle. Thanks for sharing it with us! I can’t wait to try it.
Love this tangle. I have only been tangling for a few months, but have done several cards for family birthdays. I have been devoting my time to making jewelry, but am now going to start doing more tangling. We live full time in a motorhome and travel all summer, so it will be nice to sit in the evening and relax with tangles after a long day of sightseeing or traveling. Will be on the lookout for new ideas for tangles
Beautiful pattern! I especially lit the white on black tiles. I have not tried it yet, but this would be a great pattern to try out. Thanks so much for sharing!
Very happy to share this beautiful tangle pattern! Thank you to everyone!
what a wonderfully versatile tangle.
I love this idea, I will need to try this tonight! Very beautiful.
I liked this tangle very much. I tried doing one. Different but good. Thanks for sharing.
I love it!
Recovered comments that were accidentally deleted:
6/27/2014
Stacey Dieck – This is my new favorite tangle! Love love love! Thank you for having this website. Everything about it is just wonderful.
6/28/2014
Lisa Scholler – I love window grills! One of my favorites.
Cindy Lear – I love wrought iron grilles and am constantly taking pictures of them. Now you have given me a way to make one! Thanks.
I love this tangle is so many ways to interprete, I am new at Zentangle and I have join the website trying to learn more and I am hooked.
Thank for the help.Ana
Oh my goodness! Thank you so very much for sharing this tangle! I love the alternating directions that this tangle has. It is so very pretty and relaxing to draw!