Greetings my tangling friends!
Our midweek muse is an addition to CZT Angie Gittles’s collection of cool tangles inspired by the beautiful pottery created by American Indians of the Southwest.
Given we’re soon going to be seeing April showers, Monsoon seemed to fit the bill for today.
If you’d like to find all of Angie’s tangles in this “series” to date, I suggest using the site search box at the top right of any page and the search term pottery. Another way is using the TANGLES BY ARTIST section in the left sidebar and looking for angieg. A third way is to use the live link on this page in the pink “more like this” section after the post and before the Comments section.
Angie introduces Monsoon,
Monsoon was inspired by a piece of San Ildefonso Pueblo pottery by potter Maria Martinez.
Pottery by Maria Martinez, sold at auction by Sotheby’s – click image for details
What I find interesting is that black triangles sometimes mean clouds/rain, and this pattern is very similar to the Zentangle® tangle “Rain.”
I named it Monsoon because in Arizona, a monsoon is a seasonal weather pattern that typically occurs from June to September and is characterized by increased thunderstorms and rainfall in the southwestern United States.
It’s fascinating learning about the creative genius of indigenous American artists through Angie’s additions. While Angie’s tangle inspiration was from a more traditional color of pottery, Maria Martinez is most well known for her “blackware”, as explained by the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum:
San Ildefonso Pueblo potter Maria Po’ve’ka Montoya Martinez (Tewa), together with her husband Julian (Tewa), gained international recognition for their elegant “black-on-black” pottery that combined matte and glossy black designs on the same surface. Martinez’s pottery appeared in art circles at the same time non-Native artists began finding inspiration in Indigenous art. Martinez sold her artwork to tourists at the Palace of the Governors, and later to collectors at the Santa Fe Indian Market. By the mid-1920s, museums had started collecting examples of her pottery.
This is one example of Maria Martinez’s exquisite blackware pieces, a jar from the National Museum of Women in the Arts:
Angie illustrates the step-by-step instructions for drawing Monsoon below, “The sample shows a Monsoon border coming out from a wave of Well on a pre-colored tile.”
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
As you enjoy any of the tangles on the site, please leave a comment of thanks and encouragement to show the artists you appreciate them for sharing their creativity to inspire yours. Your thanks helps motivate them to continue to share! And please share a link to your favorite tangles on social media. Republishing images isn’t allowed. Thanks!
Check out the tag angieg for more of Angie’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.
For a submission to qualify as a tangle it must be a genuine pattern (“a regularly repeated arrangement, especially a design made from repeated lines, shapes, or colours on a surface”) and not the repetition of “a thing to draw”.
Zentangle is not about the repetition of a drawing it's about the repetition of a stroke. "One simple stroke in many places, then a different stroke next to the others ... etc."
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 repeated 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." 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 Here's how to SUBSCRIBE button (top of left sidebar on any page) and sign up to get notices delivered free to your inbox.
- 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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March 25, 2026 | 
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