Thank You!

Hello and welcome to the first non-email to all members of ArtyZen @ www.annietaylorczt.com

I decided against sending out emails on a regular basis, so I will not be writing to you every week nor even every month but there are a few things I wanted to share with you – and the very first thing is to say a huge THANK YOU! I had no idea when I trudged home in some despondency on 13 March 2020 that my life would be turned around in quite the way it has been since Covid-19 struck us all. I have been incredibly lucky to find a like-minded group of people from whom I have learned an enormous amount. Even more lucky to find an audience for my great pleasure in life – teaching Zentangle – and to have been able to carve a little niche in the booming interest in this amazing art form. So THANK YOU for being part of my journey, not just a part, the very river on which I have been sailing on my fairly fragile but resilient little raft!

Secondly, I need to let you know that you can, at any time, unsubscribe either from the website or from my emails. I have your email address because you wrote to me originally back in the early days, or you have joined the website through your own choice. This is important to say to ensure you know that I have your data, will protect it and only use it to contact you with information relating to Zentangle, my classes, promotions and my online blog. Please let me know if you wish to unsubscribe.

I wanted to list here all the workshops that I have offered – most of them multiple times – and which I will continue to offer from time to time, either as a repeat for new people or with extensions to create an advanced class. In addition to listing them here for you to see all together, I also would like to suggest that they could make a rather interesting Christmas or Birthday (or just anytime!) gift for a friend or family member if you didn’t have anything else in mind. Book in your own name, tell me who it is for in an email and I will send a special invite to the recipient. You can do this with any of my classes if you wish – Anything is Possible (one email at a time!) All the workshops can be watched on the video recording if live attendance is impossible, but you must book the workshop in the usual way.

Workshops include:

HIDDEN WORDS – a lovely, gentle class where we use words themselves as the string. Lots of repetitive lines, a ZenGem or two and always a beautiful outcome. You may still be able to see the words after you finish but the whole idea really is that they are hidden! This is a special class for me as it was the very first one I taught online back and I was overwhelmed by the response which gave me such confidence to continue. I have now done 8 of these classes and taught the technique to a lot of tanglers!

DINGBATZ – wow! What a fantastic response I have had to the Dingbatz Workshops. A total of 9 workshops so far with more to come, without doubt once we move into the new year. This is a class that I would love to offer a second version of for people who have done the first one. So, if that interests you, now is your chance to tell me! Just send me a message saying DINGBATZ 2 – yes!

(And it would definitely include colour as you can see how wonderful they look from the picture…)

One of my students actually wrote and suggested that a Steampunk workshop would be a good idea! Thank you so much Kathy, you were absolutely right!!

Always fascinated by the style and how easily the ZENTANGLE patterns can be ‘STEAMPUNKED’, I really enjoyed creating this workshop and I think it will also form part of my workshop options for time to come. As with the Dingbatz, there is great possibility for an advanced class if you’re interested!

And after all that spike, metallic, nuts and bolts sort of tangling, I needed something gentler! This is my TANGLED LEAVES Workshop – which again, proved really popular, so thanks to all of you who attended one of these!

I first did this design about four years ago and played with it in my little workshop in Alcala la Real with my tangling friends. It was a very relaxing and ‘Zen’ time and it seems to still hit the spot. I recently did an Autumn version of this at a particularly poignant international workshop. Thinking still of Caroline MacNamara, who we lost tragically earlier this year.

Next came TRANZENDING! A fascinating set of techniques and possibilities that have been developed by Rick and Maria, by Anica at ZenLinea and others. I took the approach in my workshop that mixing and matching the different approaches created a personal and individual result. I particularly like the effects of adding an unexpected water droplet, veiling part of the tile with a ‘see-through’ curtain or transzending a black and white tile with a touch of colour. And don’t start me on how amazing the effect is on a Renaissance tile! These workshops will start again in January 2021 – interested?

MAP TANGLING! What an amazing response I had to this recent workshop! It was the most challenging of all the ones I have offered and I have been told on more than one occasion that my workshops are a ‘bit challenging’! (Well, for me too!) Everyone had to pre-prepare their untangled maps so, of course, I had no idea how these had turned out or what they looked like! And no pressure that the first one had the most attendees of any class I had ever done! Such fun and such fantastic results! Thank you if you joined me – you were definitely sailing in uncharted waters. If you haven’t done it, I urge you to give it a go – discover your adventurous side – it’s a great journey!

And last, but not least, my next workshop is called ‘BLACK MAGIC’ – not an original name by any means but sort of right for this magical, mysterious and lovely technique that has endless possibilities. If you haven’t joined up and want to, the link should take you to the sign up page and there are two dates – be quick for the one on Thursday! Black paper/tile and chalk pastel pencils essential!

Black Magic Workshops

And what can I say about NowZen and NowANDZEN? Another huge THANK YOU!!! I have a delightful group of subscribers who have stuck with me through thick and thin; through technical failures, invasive mice, three different locations, my amateurish mastery of equipment, my constant chattering in a mixture of English and Spanglish…..thank you again and again. It has honestly been your support that has helped me through a turbulent and crazy time as my daughter and I have uprooted from Spain and moved to the beautiful Wirral in North West England. (That’s nowhere near London for y’all who are a long way from the UK although it is all comparative!) I have found stability and focus in our weekly classes and I love talking to each and every one of you as I am tangling. It’s been great getting to know you as well – either through the Monthly NowANDZen workshop or at one of my other workshops – and in some cases, both! I urge you to let me know what you would like to do and why. It is so nice to offer something back to you in the form of personally focusing on something for you! It was lovely to offer the ZenGem and Epor classes as responses to special requests. So please, do say if there is something you’d like to try, to improve, to understand….I’ll give it a go!

I hope that the new format is working for you. If you think I have been neglecting you, I do apologise. My intention was to simply upload each week’s new video onto the Subscribers page on my website so that you could log on and do whichever video you wanted, when you wanted, without having to trawl through your emails to find the YouTube link. How do you like it?

Again, if you have any comments, suggestions for improvement or ideas, please let me know. Now I have clever nephew on the job, I may be able to deliver something even better! To repeat, I am not going to bother you with weekly emails. Please go to the Subscribers page on my website, log in and do the latest class, repeat a favourite, start at the beginning – whatever! You should see all the videos that you have subscribed to, forever or as long as there’s an internet and no limit on times watched. You have, after all, paid for them and I am truly grateful for that.

On 21st and 22nd November, there is a second international workshop following on from the Autumn Treasures. Two half days with six workshops led by CZTs and covering a range of lovely ideas for festive tangling. The idea came from Caroline MacNamara and again, she will be in our thoughts now and on those days. I will be offering a ‘Bling your greetings card’ workshop on the first of these half days.

More information on this can be found on Facebook by searching ‘Festive Tangling’ in the search bar.

This year, all our festivities at Christmas time will be somewhat different throughout the world. I have no idea where I will be or what I will be doing but I have every intention of tangling to keep me focused and calm. Lots of cards will be made and sent this year, with even more love and attention than before because there will definitely be a lot less personal contact. With so many online classes now available, I strongly suggest that one of these would make a great gift to someone you know. An Introductory class would be ideal but a place in a workshop is good fun too. Just a suggestion…

It is a little early for me to be sending out my own festive greetings, so I promise now that there will be another email before we get to the end of the year. Until then, keep on keeping on. We have had some very positive news in the last few days (and I am speaking about the vaccine…) so let’s hope we can beat this virus in the near future and get back to hugging friends, family, just about everyone.

A big virtual one from me.

Annie @ ArtyZen