Saturday, August 15, 2015

Finding Quilling in the World

Quilling design on the cover of a catalog!
I don't like sorting through the mail.  I'm not sure why, but I think it is because my mail generally consists of too many catalogs, the usual bills, and a plethora of general junk mailers.  So imagine my glee when I rifled through the mail and found this!  Quilling in the 'real' world!  (Note I'm not promoting the catalog in question, I'm just thrilled with the quilled cover!)

I absolutely love to see this.  I've been quilling for almost forty years now, and there were long, long stretches where nobody else I knew was doing it.  Nobody even knew what it was, nor had ever seen a single piece of quilling.  It was so out of vogue that I had trouble finding places to buy paper - no one was carrying it, and the companies I used as a kid were all going out of business.  The craft stores stopped carrying supplies.  It was fortunate that I had bought so much paper when I started, because it literally got me through years where I was unable to find any source at all (unless I wanted to make my own, which I was starting to consider).

Then things changed.  It was slow at first, but more companies popped up selling paper and quilling supplies.  More quilling books showed up in the bookstore.  And thank heavens for the internet.  I love the internet.  Suddenly I could find supplies in odd, niche places. And I could find other quillers.  There weren't many at the beginning of the net, but now there are so many more.
And the craft is really taking off in Russia, India, and Japan, just as it has always been around in places like the England, the Netherlands, and Australia (as far as I understand it.)  I'm so keen to see all the new ideas and techniques that come of this quilling renaissance.  Amazing pieces of work are being created all over the world. 
  
So I'm thinking seeing quilling on the cover of a catalog is a really good sign.  I think it shows the growing health of quilling as an art and a craft, as well as a new way to illustrate and design.  I hope to see more, and my eyes are always wide open and looking!

No comments:

Post a Comment