Zentangle — Bijou Be Well 2026

What does it take to be well”? That is the question I asked myself as I began working on the “Bijou Be Well” project (sponsored by Zentangle.com) in May of 2026. Some of my answers are predictable; a few surprised me. Watch the video to see what they were. The hope of this 21-day challenge is to find time for oneself, and to experience the mental and physical benefits of creativity. It worked! This year, I decided to work on white 3.1 x 5 inch Phi tiles, drawing a few of the daily suggested Zentangle patterns on each of the tiles. I started by drawing a border and a random string on each of six tiles. Then I drew one or more small areas of Flux on each of them. As thoughts about what it takes to be well occurred to me, I picked one of the tiles and wrote the words along the string. Drawing daily, in a calm, contemplative way, I added the 21 patterns to the tiles wherever they seemed to fit. At the end, I used General’s chalk pencils to shade and color my drawings. Since they pleased me, I then decided to make a “Be Well” book with them. To construct the book, I used the drum leaf method designed by Timothy Ely. First I made a hinged folio with each drawing paired with a blank tile. I glued the folios together along the spine, and then reinforced the spine with woven fabric. The last steps were to add a floating, cloth-covered spine and the covers.This is a fairly easy book construction method, requiring no stitching. Working on the drawings and creating this book gave me much pleasure and took my mind completely off these troubling times during the process, giving me hours each day when I was well indeed! View “Inktober 2025” and “Flying Creatures” to see two other books I’ve made using the drum leaf method of construction.