It’s been a while since Rick and Maria posted a Kitchen Table Tangles (KTT) video.
But the drought is over!
Background: The KTT videos are available in the Zentangle Mosaic app. Although most of the KTT videos are only available to the subscribers of the paid version of the app ($2.99/month, or $24.99/year), occasionally Zentangle makes a KTT video publicly available and I also add it to TanglePatterns as we’re doing today.
In this latest video (19:08), “Rick and Maria explore Tessellation possibilities with the paradox tangle on a Flower of Life string.”
Rick writes in the latest newsletter:
This video shows how the paradox tangle elicits new curving tessellations from any arrangement of tessellated straight- or curved-edged shapes.
I also appreciate the metaphors of this exercise. By tangling paradox within any tessellation pattern,
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- You can transform that previous pattern into an entirely new one
- Depending on how you draw your paradox you create different meta-patterns and meta-shapes
- The original pattern remains. But it is nearly invisible as it part of a new pattern.
- The new pattern incorporates previously separate elements into this new meta-pattern.
- (And in this example, it’s all based on the matrix of the flower of life, something quite special to Maria and me!)
After he uses a compass and pencil to create the Flower of Life “string”, Rick uses a Blue Sakura Micron 01 pen on a Zentangle Gray Opus tile.
For those new to Zentangle, and for those who might need a reminder, I’d like to point out that watching Rick tangle is the best definition for the Zentangle Method™’s “deliberate strokes“.
The other thing to note is that Rick worked on this large piece over a few weeks, not all in one sitting!
This full video can also be found on the Paradox page on TanglePatterns.com.
For a list of all the KTT videos with links to the publicly-available ones, visit the ZENTANGLES > ZENTANGLE KTT VIDEOS page on the top menu bar of any page on the site.
Check out the tag zentangle for more Zentangle®-original tangles on TanglePatterns.com.
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FREE PRINTABLE FLOWER OF LIFE STRING DOWNLOADS
These free printable downloads of Flower of Life Strings PDFs are generously provided courtesy of CZT Linda Dochter in response to Dessie Arnold’s comment/request below.
Linda writes,
Attached are Flower of Life strings suitable for Zentangle Inspired Art as requested in the comments to the latest Kitchen Table Tangle by Rick Roberts. They can be used with tracing paper, with a light box, as stencils or any other purpose you may imagine.
I wrote the program to produce these pages and the result is not copyrighted as some of the other items on the Internet are. Enjoy.
Linda has provided three versions of the printable PDF. Right click (or long press) each of the links to save the file to your device.:
- Flower of Life – Black String
- Flower of Life – Grey/Graphite String
- Flower of Life – Photo Blue String
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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
- For lots of great FREE tutorials on TanglePatterns, click on the TUTORIALS link in the pink alphabetic menu bar below the tangle images at the top of any page.
- Strings! Have we got STRINGS! Click on the STRINGS link in the pink alphabetic menu bar below the tangle images at the top of any page for 250 different (free) Zentangle-starters. More than enough for any lifetime!
- Never miss a tangle! FREE eMAIL NEWSLETTER - visit the SUBSCRIBE page on the top menu bar of any page on the site and sign up to get notices delivered free to your inbox.
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March 22, 2020 | 
More like this: 
I am very challenged when it comes to using a compass – and setting up the Flower of Life “string” for this is beyond my ability. Do you or does anyone else know if there is a graphics file somewhere that has these compass-created flowers on it that could be used to print the string? I would probably be doing mine on a US standard 8.5 x 11 inch paper/cardstock.
When I saw the word Paradox in the title of this KTT, I got very excited, but the video seemed to me to be more about examining and taking pleasure in the hidden pictures that emerge when you tangle Paradox, than it did about a new take on Paradox. I do still want to try it just so that I can experience it on my own, but the compass part is going to be very difficult (my compass keeps slipping).
Hi Dessie, you can find an answer in an instant to just about anything with a quick Google search. Search for “flower of life” and click on the images option at the top of the page. Et voilà. Without even leaving your home 🙂
Doh. Thank you Linda!
In response to Dessie’s request in her comment (above), CZT Linda Dochter has generously provided free printable PDF downloads of Flower of Life Strings. (See the post for the download links.)
Linda notes, “They can be used with tracing paper, with a light box, as stencils or any other purpose you may imagine.
I wrote the program to produce these pages and the result is not copyrighted as some of the other items on the Internet are. Enjoy.”
Thank you Linda Dochter for making the Flower of Life templates available to us!
I just printed these out, and they are going to be PERFECT! I had done as Linda Farmer suggested and gotten some online, but the lines were too thick, and the circles too small (even though I could have edited them to make them bigger. Linda Dochter’s patterns are very fine, lacy, and in three colors, which essentially translate to medium, light, and very light. These will be perfect for playing with Paradox as Rick did in the Kitchen Table Tangle video.
Thanks again, Linda Dochter for your thoughtfulness in making these available to us!
Wonderful video and images!
I couldn’t find my compass and don’t own a printer to download the pre-made tracings, so I constructed the flower of life string with a 1.5-inch circle punched out of cardstock with a scrapbook punch, a pencil, and a ruler.