Help! I'm seeing patterns everywhere!

As you become more familiar with how to draw tangles and how the step-by-step process works, you'll begin to see patterns and potential tangles everywhere. That's another use for the notebook I mentioned in an earlier post AND for your smart phone or camera.

In my notebook I've drawn images from books on Victorian fretwork and from a linen table runner with cutwork embroidery on it. I see if I can make an image into a tangle. Many times, the pattern I see doesn't work as a tangle, or maybe it's not interesting enough to me. On the other hand, more than once I've gone back to ideas I drew months ago and abandoned to find that by trying something new with it--like leaving out some element--it does make a tangle.

So when you see a pattern that intrigues you, natural or made by humans, try making a sketch of it in your notebook OR take a picture of it for later. 

Making what you see into a reproducible tangle is called deconstructing. I'll cover that in a later post.

So when you start seeing lots of patterns, try making them into tangles. Check out Linda Farmer's detailed and helpful information about what makes a tangle: How to submit your pattern to TanglePatterns.

One caveat: be sure not to make a tangle from someone else's design, such as a piece of jewelry. You might very well be violating the creator's copyright.