The 
Oskie tangle pattern from tangler Antonine Megger, who recently shared CO2 with us, has a fascinating genesis. I loved learning about its background … this beautiful Earth is endlessly marvelous indeed.
Inspired by CZT Leslie Crumpler’s Fungees, Antonine looked to nature for a new pattern. “I spotted an image for a Petoskey Stone, a fossil stone which is found in northern Michigan, and can be easily collected in the water of Lake Michigan at Traverse City.”
Petoskey stones, I learned from Wikipedia, are pebble-shaped rocks of a fossilized coral (Hexagonaria percarinata) found in Michigan’s upper peninsula. The rock, Michigan’s state stone, looks pretty spectacular when polished and “the distinctive mottled pattern of the six-sided coral fossils emerges.” Antonine sent along this image for an example of her inspiration.
Beautiful, eh? 🙂
Antonine writes:
“The pattern is very unique, and has a regularity without requiring absolute perfection.
Oskie (from ‘Petoskey’) requires only three design elements – hexagon, loops and a circle, and a little shading adds dimension. It starts out with a series of connecting hexagons. They don’t have to be perfectly drawn – they aren’t all the same size or shape in nature – which leaves the tangler freedom to fit the pattern into their design as they wish. While it is formed from loops and a circular center, it isn’t like a floral design. I like the mineral crystal effect.”
When I drew my example I found it helped me to do the circles in Step 5 after Step 2. That made a guide for drawing the loops in Steps 3 and 4 without having the tips end up all munched together in the middle – which is what happened on my first couple of goes.
Here are Antonine’s step-by-step instructions for drawing her tangle and a completed Zentangle® featuring the lovely Oskie.
Image 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.
Check out the tag antoninek for more of Antonine’s patterns on TanglePatterns.com.
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January 9, 2013 | 
More like this: 
Petosky stones!!!! I used to collect them off the beaches of Lake Michigan in the lower peninsula in a town called Petosky!! They’re perfect for a tangle pattern. On the beach they often looked like plain stones but when you’d get them wet the pattern would be exposed.
This is great! I live in Michigan (and have for most of my life, saving my young adult years out adventuring to Texas and Colorado) and love this connecting pattern to the petosky stone. Makes me want to take a road trip up there soon.
Hello fellow ‘tanglers;
I’m a lifelong resident of Northwestern Lower Michigan, and there are a few things about Petoskey (I’ve spelled it correctly) stones that anyone looking for them should know:
1) Check with a DNR official to find out if you can even keep the stones in the first place. About ten years ago we were informed that any DNR officer can confiscate the stones if he/she deems a stone hunter having “too many,” because Petoskey stones are disappearing rapidly (probably due to my parents and me picking them up all along Lake Michigan’s beaches by the hundreds each year :-)).
2)They’re not as easy to spot as anyone initially thinks; the stone in its natural beach environment looks no different than any other pale gray stone lying on a beach–and they’re all pale gray stones until water is thrown on them. Once polished–a process that takes much work and many days in order to achieve the product in the photo someone included here–they show that beautiful patterning. However, the stones also have elongated cells, which creates an even more beautiful pattern, and makes it more difficult to identify as the desired stone sought.
3) Be prepared to have a seriously aching back (a true hunter walks many miles down a rocky beach, all while bent over, moving very slowly, eventually ending up with a very heavy bucket or bag full of the stones–which has to be hauled back up a 150 foot high cliff (where I can go to find them, that is). One’s legs are shaking with weakness and fatigue once the top is reached, if one is able to carry the stones all the way back up.
4) It’s vastly easier, more cost effective, and for “newbies,” much more rewarding to find and purchase one piece of polished stone in a jewelry store first. It’s just so much easier to find the “raw” stone if one knows what to look for in the finished product (kind of like hunting mushrooms)–the stones are lying “right there,” not hidden, but you have to know what to look for initially.
5) Be prepared to put up with many thousands of spiders–yes, arachnids–if you go to a really rocky beach; there’s a certain type of spider that likes and lives among the rocks, not just Petoskey’s. No beach is comprised of just Petoskey stones. Where I go there are literally hundreds of thousands of the skittering spiders, and if a person sits down on a very large rock, or a boulder, to rest–one immediately has many little “friends” walking on her/him.
None of this is meant to discourage anyone from “hunting;” it’s very satisfying to find that perfect–but getting much harder to find now–Petoskey stone. Just know that if you find one, you’ve found a real (but not financial) treasure.
Hey Joyce, thanks for the updated information. I was one of those “long-ago” collectors who just stepped into the shallow water and found the stones right there. Now I’m glad I made this pattern to remember the stones – sounds like things have changed (they always do!).
Amazing stone! Amazing replication! I had never heard about these stones. Each day I aspire to learn something new so thank you for providing today’s new knowledge. Nature is so cool. Thanks for sharing the tangle and thanks to Joyce for all the information.
Yea! I love the petosky stone, what a nice design for you to replicate, good job!????
I really love this pattern. Although it looks complicated, I memorized it immediately. Amazing stone and amazing pattern,thanks!
Thanks for sharing this interesting and beautiful tangle. I am a rock person and I love all kinds of rocks and crystals. Grew up in Cleveland – never heard if these before.
These are just beautiful stones! Their story reminds me of a rock that we find here in Australia but only in the Kununurra (Kun-un-urra) region in north west Western Australia. It’s called ‘zebra rock/stone’ and is now hard to come by unless you know how & where to find it, mainly in Lake Argyle.
http://museum.wa.gov.au/research/collections/earth-and-planetary-sciences/rock-collection/zebra-rock
Maybe there’s a tangle in this pattern somewhere!?!
I was so excited to see this new pattern ! I should have thought of it! I also grew up in Michigan and spent many beautiful summer days with a sunburn and a stiff neck and usually a few choice treasured Petoskey stones to take home. good job and thanks.