Hi there! So nice to have your company again …
Today we’re exploring another tangle from Minnesota tangler Mollie Zauner. Benand is a ribbon-style tangle and recently we explored her orbs-in-a-grid Roblyn tangle.
Molly shares how she got her inspiration for her deconstruction,
It sounds strange, but I was actually inspired by my dining room furniture. Several pieces of it feature a gothic tracery design I really liked.
When I got the idea for a ribbon tangle, I thought it would be complicated and difficult to draw, but it turned out to be rather easy.
While the tracery designs of the old gothic churches had very deliberate measurements that were extremely precise, this pattern has no need for that kind of precision. I really liked drawing it and I hope others will enjoy it too.
Not strange at all, Molly. Tangles are found just about anywhere you pause to observe, to actually see. Potential tangles are everywhere just waiting to be discovered and deconstructed so they can be “drawn as a tangle”. Non-representational, of course!
Benand can have the personality of a St. Patrick’s Day tangle with the three-leaf shamrocks (Irish clover) added in Step 4. We might even change the architectural quatrafoil shapes in Step 3 to trefoils to make it even more St. Patrick’s Day-like.
Shamrocks symbolize St. Patrick’s Day because St. Patrick was a Christian missionary who used a clover to explain the Holy Trinity of Christianity, which is God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. He said the three leaves stand for the three beings of God, and the stem shows how they are united into one. ~ source
For my example of Benand I inked in the spaces around the small trefoils and it resulted in the appearance of a bold outline around the quatrafoils. Perhaps just due to the small scale.
Mollie illustrates the step-by-step instructions for drawing Benand below. She demonstrates it in a Zentangle® tile with some familiar Zentangle-originals: Msst, Crescent Moon, Jonqal and Paradox.
Image copyright the artist and used with permission, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. These images are for your personal offline reference only. Please feel free to refer to the images to recreate this tangle in your personal Zentangles and ZIAs. However the artist and TanglePatterns.com reserve all rights to the images and they must not be publicly pinned, altered, reproduced or republished. (Small side note: if you look at the legalese in Pinterest, you are legally responsible for obtaining permission to post every photo that gets ‘Pinned’. Giving credit or sharing the source link doesn’t count.) Thank you for respecting these rights. “We must all face the choice between what is right and what is easy.” ~ Albus Dumbledore
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Check out the tag molliez for more of Mollie’s tangles on TanglePatterns.com.
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Share your tangle on TanglePatterns
Everyone is invited to share patterns on TanglePatterns.com, you do NOT need to be a CZT. In order for patterns to be considered for publication they must be submitted to me by email. In other words you have to let me know about them.
For a submission to qualify as a tangle it must be a genuine pattern (“a repeated decorative design”) and not “a thing to draw”.
From The Book of Zentangle:
“Keep it Non-representational. Zentangle artwork is intended to be non-representational. Zentangle’s elemental strokes are also non-representational.
We don’t teach complex elements such as hearts, stars or flowers. Tangles are also non-representational.”
Remember that tangles never start with pencil planning.
"A tangle has no pre-planning with pencil guidelines, grids or dots, no erased lines."
If you need a refresher on what makes a tangle, read the A PATTERN IS NOT ALWAYS A TANGLE page on the ZENTANGLES menu bar at the top of any page.
For details on how to submit your pattern for consideration visit the SUBMIT YOUR PATTERN page on the top menu bar of any page on the site. On that menu you will find these two pages:
The first page includes instructions on how to prepare and send your JPGs. (Please save me time and do not send PDFs). It also includes a link to this PDF submission form.
When your examples include additional tangles from the site, please list them in your email. (This saves me time and my memory some wear and tear.)
If your pattern is posted on your blog, attach your steps and tile JPGs to your email and be sure your email includes the direct URL so I can link to it.
And remember, to quote Zentangle's co-founders Rick and Maria: tangles should be "magical, simple and easy to create", non-objective patterns of repetitive strokes that are easy to teach and offer a high degree of success to tanglers of all ages.
"Keep the tangles as little like 'drawing something' as possible."
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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!
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- If you have questions about the TanglePatterns.com TANGLE GUIDE, visit the BOOK REVIEWS tab on the top menu bar of any page on the site for COMPLETE details!
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January 17, 2024 | 
More like this: 
Thanks for sharing. Looks like a fun ribbon to play with.
Was trying to find a new ribbon type tangle to play with this afternoon and this was the perfect fit! It grows very easily around my tile <3
This is a pretty boarder pattern! Thank you for sharing.