Zentangles and Beads... what do they have in common?

Hi There. Its been a little while since I've posted here. Fun things are going on in the studio. I am still working on getting comfortable with my new torch. I don't get as much sit and torch time as I use to. Due to my day job. When I do though, look out it is hours of playing!

So what are Zentangles? It is a company that is promoting the artistic endeavor of doodles to an art form... it is a great way to put designs on paper, to meditate , to experiment.. Some days the doodles are intricate, or very loose and large. Here are a couple I tried to do on my own to see what I could come up with. Its FUN... i personally like to do this while watching tv. It has the same quality as sitting an knitting or needlepointing.. very relaxing.
So what does this have to do with bead making? WEll... let me tell you scroll on down.
I mentioned it would be cool to do a doodle bead exchange, Tami so kindly offered to hosting this exchange on wet canvas.



A bunch of us have signed up and will do our own doodle beads(zentangles) on glass. :-) Once we come up with half decent beads, we send in our picks to tami who will divide up the beads and send out the same number of beads sent to all the participants.. so what I will recieve is 3-4 doodle beads from other bead artist.. This gives us an opertunity to work with design, stringer control.. which is a thin rod of glass... so drawing on the molten bead...
so below are my first try's at this fun exchange. Still working on that stringer control... I'd like to make the stringer even thinner and try to do more designs... we'll see... i've got till april 1st to perfect...