Process

How a Tangled Monk piece is made

Aug 13, 2026

Every drawing starts as colour and ends as line, in that order. That holds for all 48 wall pieces made at the Tangled Monk studio in Joo Chiat.

The ground

The background is built first with inks, gouache, sprays, stains or watercolours — usually on a small medallion, occasionally on a 78 x 62 cm canvas. There is no sketch underneath, and the ground is finished before anyone knows what will be drawn on it.

The line

Then the tangles, drawn over the dry colour in ink. Preetie Kohli came to the method in 2020, after the 2008 financial crisis had already pushed her back toward painting and pottery. She is a Certified Zentangle Teacher; the patterns come from the sea and from floral forms.

Two passes, not one

The three Tangled Letters tiles take an extra step. At 10 cm across and S$60 they are the smallest things made here: the raw clay is hand-painted first, then hand-drawn in ink over the paint.

Symmetry of Silence broke the sequence differently — the first work drawn on a black base, where nothing could be softened afterwards. It became a modular mosaic that can be rearranged rather than a fixed image.

Made to order

A commission adds a consultation at the front and an agreed concept before drawing begins: two to six weeks, from S$500, framed.

The exception

Coasters, bags and totes are not drawn individually. A finished drawing is printed onto ceramic over a cork base, onto washed denim, or onto 12 oz natural canvas — 10 coaster sets at S$25, 6 bags and totes from S$20 to S$75.

The studio runs a 90-minute Zentangle workshop for two to four people at S$50 each. You leave with the piece you made, on an acid-free tile, pencils in a pouch.