Hi and welcome back to the Chrissie Murphy Designs Blog. Today marks the start of another blog post series. This first post is about the beauty of filler tangle patterns. But over the next few months, I’m going to look at different types of tangle patterns and share my thoughts about them. So let’s get into it and have a look at why I think filler tangles are so awesome.

What are Filler Tangle Patterns?
If you have attended any of my Tangle Index Time Live Events you’d know what I consider filler tangle patterns to be.
This is my definition of what I think they are:
A filler tangle pattern is any tangle pattern that is able to fill any space of any shape. Crescent Moon and Tipple are great examples of what I consider Filler Tangle Patterns to be.
Chrissie Murphy

Why I love Filler Tangle Patterns
If I had to pick one reason why I love them, it would be their versatility.
To give you an example, in the Magnified Fragments Project Part 1, our G2 fragment had an enhancer where we used filler tangle patterns only. What was interesting about this, is that the fragment itself was more inclined to ribbon type tangle patterns.

But this is the beauty of Filler Tangle Patterns. Even though ribbon tangles would have been perfect, filler tangles worked just as well because they can fill any shaped space.
I wanted to really push the limits of my testing and beliefs about this type of tangle pattern. So I decided to see if I could complete a Tangled Abstracts tile using just filler tangles. I put some shapes down and then started tangling with fillers only.
Would I be able to get the definition I needed? Would I be able to clearly define shapes where I needed to and be able to blend others? And would there be enough variation and contrast in the tile. You judge for yourself. I think the filler tangles performed beautifully in this test.

Having them categorised in a Tangle Index helps
If you have come along to my Tangle Index Time Live Events, you would be aware we try to work on different types of tangles each week.
Filler tangles is one of the tangle types we work on. I’ve been collecting Filler Patterns for my index for a while and I have quite a collection.
Having sections like this in a Tangle Index helps when you want to create a tile using particular tangle types. This is because the patterns are handy and you can generally find something to tangle with quickly.


What’s next?
In this blog post series, I’ll be looking at Ribbon Tangle Patterns next. I’ll be blogging about this in a few weeks. My aim is to look at one different type of tangle pattern each month. I hope you’ll join me.
Perhaps you might like to leave a comment about how you feel about Filler Tangles. I’d love to hear your thoughts and maybe share some of them on my stories.

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Until next time, listen to your heart and sharpen your coloured pencils. A masterpiece awaits!
Bless you my friend
Chrissie xx
Hi Chrissie,
What a great idea to make separate sections in your Tangle Index. I’m already working on an index in a journal for a while (after having used index cards in a box, which didn’t work for me). I started to catagorize the tangles by alphabet, each with a step-out. But I find it’s not always easy to find the kind of tangle I’m looking for. I have a bunch of pages left. So far I didn’t have an idea what to use them for. You put me on the right track Chrissie. I’m gonna ad catagory-pages. Thank you for your inspiration.
Love
Paula van der Zwaan
It’s wonderful to hear that this has given you an idea for how to sort your tangles Paula. I have mine sorted by tangle types and this series of blog posts over the next few months will focus on the different types I use. I hope the rest of the posts provide you with some ideas too.
🙂😘