Zentangle® Project Pack #04 Summary – The Twelve Days of Zentangle, 2018 Edition – Making a Zentangle Spinner

The Twelve Days of Zentangle is an annual year-end holiday tradition from Zentangle HQ where Rick and Maria and the HQ crew lead us through twelve consecutive days of tangling together.

This year’s Zentangle Spinner event had two extra days, one on each end of the series. It began Sunday, December 2nd with a preparation lesson and the series finished earlier today, Saturday, December 15th, with a lesson on how to assemble and use the spinner. The 12 Days of videos tangling the Spinner came between those two.

The theme for 2018 is explained:

Maria always has these fanciful ideas she comes up with in the middle of the night. One day, months ago, she told us about an idea to create a spinner covered with tangles. This would help people choose what tangles to do next.

Well before we knew it, there were spinner parts and prototypes all over the dining room table. It was obvious that this would be our next project pack. What a fun way to create something beautiful, useful, and that would also serve as a way for us to learn some new tangles and revisit some familiar ones.

This year the “12 Days of Zentangle” coincides with Project Pack #04. This project includes a custom made template* designed by Zentangle HQ and printed on the same paper as our white tiles. It also includes the mechanical spinner parts to make it come alive. 

Note: it is not necessary to follow these videos in sequence, they can easily be done in any order you like.

While it certainly is convenient, it isn’t necessary to have Project Pack #04 to follow along with this year’s series. Simply use your own supplies:

• a large piece of watercolor paper on which you’ve constructed a circle divided like a pie into 12 equal wedges. You can find instructions online: hint 360°/12 = 30° wedges.
  • *The Spinner card is copyrighted and may not be reproduced.
• watercolor pencil or paint
• watercolor brush
• vessel with water, paper towels
• Sakura Micron pens
• Game spinner

The following chronology includes the links to the Zentangle blog posts with commentary for the video demonstrations. Either click the Day #’s title link or the image itself to go to the Zentangle blog to view the full video.

NOTE: For future reference, the video clip for all 54 tangles included in the “Twelve Days of Zentangle” series can be located on each tangle’s page on TanglePatterns.

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December 2 – Preparation Lesson

This video lesson (not on the Zentangle blog) demonstrates how to use watercolor pencils to add optional color to your Zentangle Spinner.

It’s totally okay to skip this if you prefer to have your Spinner black and white.

In the video (10:17) Maria Thomas and her daughter and CZT Molly Hollibaugh demonstrate how to add background colors to your Zentangle Spinner in Project Pack #04. They recommend letting it dry overnight before tangling, but you could also add color at any stage of this project if you prefer. Or not at all, your choice.

Be sure to watch the whole video through before you start your project because at the end you’ll see a variety of ideas for adding color to your spinner, including the example above on the left. Patterns, always patterns!

At about 08:30 in the video Maria shares a way to flatten your Spinner once it has dried if the watercolor has caused a little buckling.

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Day 1

Monday, December 3. In Day 1’s video (24:44), Maria’s daughter and CZT Martha Huggins tangles the first slice of our Zentangle Spinner pie and gives tips about each tangle.

Martha also points out that it isn’t necessary to watch the Project 04 videos in sequence, you can skip around if you wish.

Working from the inner ring to the outside, Martha adds Jetties (01:35), then Flux (6:00), at 10:30 she adds Zander, and at 13:45 she adds Well.

From 19:15 on Martha adds shading as the finishing touch to the four tangles.

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Day 2

Tuesday, December 4. In Day 2’s video (18:58) with Rick and Maria, Rick fills the second wedge of the Zentangle Spinner.

He begins with Diva Dance, then adds Hurry (02:46), Knase (06:54), Cadent (09:42) and IX (11:55).

At 15:35 Rick adds shading to the tangles to finish up the wedge.

During the video Rick and Maria encourage you to look for the steps instructions in their newsletters for variations. But of course you can always find the links to those steps for every Zentangle-original tangle here on TanglePatterns AND it’s much faster/easier to find the tangle you’re looking for than searching through the newsletters. Just sayin’. IMHO.

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Day 3

In Day 3’s video (11:14) Rick joins Maria as she fills another Spinner wedge beginning with Florz.

Then she adds two tangles from the very early days of Zentangle that haven’t officially been presented online until now, first Festune (01:22) then Wadical (04:38).

Wadical was introduced in the “Beginning Zentangle” booklet included with the Official Zentangle Kit.

And lastly Maria adds Tripoli (05:38) to this section of the Zentangle Spinner and adds shading to the four tangles.

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Day 4

In Day 4’s video (18:15) with Rick and Maria, Maria tangles the fourth wedge, beginning the first section with the tangle Static.

Then she adds Molygon (01:18), Noom (03:43), Umble (06:51) and Mooka (09:27). Beginning at 12:28 Maria shades all five tangles.

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Day 5

In Day 5’s video (13:27) with Rick and Maria, Maria begins today’s wedge with Bunzo.

Next she adds Quabog (01:55), Zenith (03:38), and finally Ing (6:02). Beginning at 08:44 Maria shades today’s tangles.

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Day 6

In Day 6’s video (29:40), Maria’s daughters Molly and Martha take turns tangling and shading the next wedge. Martha begins with Swarm (1:03) and she adds shading to it.

Next for Molly’s turn she adds Pokeroot (6:04) and Bronx Cheer (11:03). Martha adds Huggins (14:33), and lastly Molly adds Pepper (24:03)

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Day 7

In Day 7’s video (14:25) with Rick and Maria, Rick begins the video tangling Printemps.

In the next section he adds Rain (02:26), he skips to the outside section to add Fracas (04:09), and then adds Avreal (08:05) in the thinner border section. He adds shading to the four tangles (10:26).

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Day 8

In Day 8’s video (27:32) CZT Julie Willand of Zentangle HQ tangles the eighth wedge of the Zentangle Spinner.

Julie begins with the classic Crescent Moon (00:56), she then adds Bales (04:05), Shattuck (08:40), Marasu (10:43), and Indy-rella (16:11). Julie finishes by shading all five tangles (20:04).

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Day 9

In Day 9’s video (12:32) Rick tangles the day’s wedge with Maria keeping him company with their conversational exchanges.

Rick begins with Hollibaugh (00:32), he then adds Cubine (01:31) XYP (03:54), and Arukas (06:15). Finally, Rick shades all four of the day’s tangles (09:13) to complete the ninth wedge.

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Day 10

In Day 10’s video (23:23) Molly tangles today’s wedge starting with Jonqal (01:00).

From there Molly adds Munchin (05:34), Centipede (08:27), ‘Nzeppel (12:01), and Sampson (14:43) in the remaining sections. She finishes Day 10’s wedge by shading (18:41) all five tangles.

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Day 11

In Day 11’s video (12:35) Rick joins Maria as she begins today’s wedge tangling Knightsbridge (00:37).

Int he second section she adds Scena (1:54); in the border section she adds Purk (03:51), and in the outside section she adds Betweed (05:00).

To finish off Day 11’s wedge, Maria adds shading to all four tangles (07:42).

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Day 12

In Day 12’s video (23:54), the dynamic sisterly duo of Martha and Molly team up once again to finish up the last wedge of our Zentangle Spinner.

They begin with Tipple (00:50), then add Zinger (03:50), Vega (06:53), Verdigogh (10:10), and then Rixty (14:21). They add shading to the wedge’s tangles beginning at (18:01).

 

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Celebration Day & how to use your Zentangle Spinner

My scanner isn’t wide enough to capture the full size image, but here’s what I managed to get of my completed Zentangle Spinner.

Was it a coincidence I ended up with “716 Helioptrope” (TanglePatterns’ signature Fuchsia/magenta color) as one of my General’s Kimberly Watercolor pencils? The second color in my Project Pack #04 is 712 Light Blue.

I’m wondering about laminating … it could also be turned into a pretty stunning clock with the addition of a clock movement mechanism.

“Assemble and Play Day … join Rick and Maria as they assemble their spinner and have some fun.”

Rick and Maria assemble the Spinner by adding the game spinner to the center. Maria has also added several tangles to the outer corners of their Spinner.

They explain several ways you can use the Spinner to select tangles in addition to the arrow spinner including using the numbers and letters, AND a way to use the spinner with pages 31, 32 and 42 to 43 from the Zentangle PRIMER Vol 1.

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And that’s it for the Twelve Days of Zentangle, 2018 edition!

I hope you enjoyed this recap which will also make it easy for you to find all the Zentangle Spinner videos for future reference.

Remember, each of the videos is also included on the TanglePatterns page for the relevant linked tangles. (For future reference you can locate this post on the TUTORIALS tab.)

The Twelve Days of Zentangle, Past Editions

For those who just can’t get enough! The Ghosts of Christmas past …

• 2017 — Twelve Days of Zentangle, 2017 Edition – “a stroll down Zentangle memory lane. Each day in the series we revisit moments in Zentangle history as we reminisce about the tiles, the tangles, and the techniques of the past while creating things completely new.”
• 2016 — The 12 days of 3Zs “celebrates the fun new three-sided tiles”
• 2015 — The 12 days of Christmas with Bijou
• 2013 —The 12 days of Christmas with ATCs

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Zentangle Project Pack Summaries on TanglePatterns

For your convenience here are the links to all of my Zentangle Project Pack summaries:

1. November 2017: Introducing Sakura’s White Gelly Roll Pens
2. December 2017: The Twelve Days of Zentangle, 2017 Edition - A Stroll Down Memory Lane
3. June 2018: A Zentangle Ensemble
4. December 2018: The Twelve Days of Zentangle, 2018 Edition – Making a Zentangle Spinner
5. April 2019: Zentangle Cartouches
6. August 2019: No Mistakes
7. December 2019: The Twelve Days of Zentangle, 2019 Edition – Light and Shade
8. March 2020: Dancing in the Moonlight
9. April 2020: Spring has Sprung
10. July 2020: The Legend of Zentangle
11. September 2020: Fee-PHI-Fo-Fun!
12. December 2020: The Twelve Days of Zentangle, 2020 Edition - Zentangle Renaissance
13. April 2021: Layers and Transitions
14. May 2021: Accessing the Artist Within
15. September 2021: Alphaborders, Letter Forms, Alphabets and the Birth of Zentangle
16. December 2021: The Twelve Days of Zentangle, 2021 Edition - Keeping Score
17. March 2022: The Kaleidoscope of Our Lives
18. August 2022: Introducing Zentangle's new Translucen-Z Tiles
19. December 2022: The Twelve Days of Zentangle, 2022 Edition - Zentomology
20. March 17, 2023: Blossoming Tangles
21. August 4, 2023: Organic Tangles: Tangles of a Botanical Nature
22. December 2023: The Twelve Days of Zentangle, 2023 Edition - Exploring the Spiral
23. March 15, 2024: The Birth of the Zentangle Method
24. August 9, 2024: Crescent Moon & Aura
25.  December 2024: The Twelve Days of Zentangle, 2024 Edition

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These are the links to my Zentangle Apprentice Project Pack summaries:

1. January - February 2021: The Basics of the Zentangle Method

NOTE: You can always find the Project Pack Summaries by clicking on PROJECT PACKS on the pink alphabetic tangle menu bar. OR by looking in the left sidebar under TANGLES BY TYPE for the tag projectpack. OR on the ZENTANGLE PROJECT PACKS page on the ZENTANGLES tab on the top menu bar of any page on the site.

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