Living the Zentangle Life

Last year, I started with a zentangle project to kick off Art I. Why? I don't know. Let's be honest, I had no idea what I was doing. I just wanted something simple, relatively quick, and something everyone could do without too much struggle. Hence, the zentangle idea stuck. Some kids loved it, some hated it, and some insisted it was their favorite project even at the end of the year. Either way, it left a lasting impression, which is my mind makes it a keeper. 

Here's some examples of my kids' work last year. Some of them turned out really great!

When it came time for planning lessons for Art I this year, I decided to stick with the zentangle. It's a "no fail" project that everyone can get into (at least in one way or another), it's a great project to establish simple craftsmanship standards, and it gets kids thinking in more abstract ways that can be applied to and enhance some of their future projects. Being my second time around with this project, I had to go big this time!

Thus, this zentangle dress creation just HAD to happen! Now I'm not even gonna lie about it, I can't sew. I've hand sewn a number of skirts and even a couple dresses from old clothes, but the machine totally baffles me. How the heck do you get it to sew the middle part without sewing it to the other piece? I realize this question sounds totally ridiculous to some of you, but you have to understand the only sewing machine I ever had the chance to play around with was ancient and might work for a minute or two before breaking the thread or coming undone if you're lucky. It wasn't worth the frustration! Nevertheless, learning to sew on an actual working machine is on my ever growing bucket list that I have no doubt will some day be accomplished!

Because of my lack of sewing ability, I started with a blank white dress. I chose one from Forever 21 because they have a ton of cheap stuff and every piece I've purchased fits me very well, but you can find basic white dresses just about anywhere. Unfortunately I don't have any in progress pictures of the dress, but there's really not much to it. I used Tulip brand fabric paint (the kind that comes in the squeeze tubes). I think I had to buy 3 of the large bottles to finish the dress and shoes. Thank goodness for that JoAnn's teacher discount card!

I thought about just attacking the dress with the paint and winging it, but I wanted to make sure it would still turn out really well, so I did a basic sketch. I started by coming up with a number of patterns I knew I wanted to use, and I divided the dress up using lots of diagonal and straight lines in a way that would be somewhat symmetrical. The hardest part of this dress was not smearing any of the paint while it was drying!

Once you zentangle all over a dress... (well, just the front - because I didn't want to over do it or my hand just hurt too much; I'll let you decide) you just have to do it to a pair of shoes. Because you can't have a complete outfit without matching shoes!

For the shoes, I took to Pinterest first to look at zentangle shoes other people have already done. I took some of my favorite patterns and designs and mixed them with my own. Again, I used the same black Tulip fabric paint. 

The last thing to complete my outfit? Earrings of course! Now I'll be totally honest right now and say that I didn't make these. Could I? Absolutely! But I was lucky enough to find these babies on Etsy and decided they were well worth it. Plus the patterns just perfectly matched what I already had going on everything else!

It took all my kids a little while to realize that my entire outfit matched like it and that I was wearing it for a reason, but they're still getting used to me and my ridiculous ways, so I'll let it slide for now!

I'm happy to report the zentangle lesson was once again a success. Which is really good since it gives me more excuses to wear my dress and shoes! Student work / displays to come soon!