What a little quilled name tag can do ...

I spent last weekend at a women's retreat organized by my church.  It ended up being a wonderful time, but I started the weekend not knowing anyone at all.  I was concerned that, what with having social anxiety, I'd be afraid to meet anyone, and would spend the time alone.

Still, I went to the event with an open mind and lots of hope to meet other local women and perhaps start some new friendships.  I noticed on the agenda that one of the first things we were going to do was "Make Your Own Name Tag" so naturally I brought along my travel quilling kit with some extra cardstock.

The name itself had been provided for us, so all I had to do was pick some pretty paper, glue things together, and then do a bit of quilling.  I chose something simple because I was nervous, and because I wanted to be sure the glue had time to dry before I put the tag on.  Flowers, can't go wrong. 

The first thing that happened was that the array of colors of the quilling paper attracted some attention. "What is that?" one woman asked, and of course I was thrilled to give a quick quilling demonstration.  Another woman walked over and said, "Oh, my mom used to do that!  I forget what it's called."  And so a different conversation got started.  By the end of name-tag-making-time, I had several people sitting around me, talking, making tags, and asking to use some of my supplies.  It was great.

The rest of the weekend people kept coming up to me and remarking on my name tag.  It was absolutely the best conversation starter.  I had no idea it would attract so much attention, but was glad that it did - I met so many wonderful people that I probably would have been too shy to approach myself.  At the end weekend one of the organizers said I should consider doing a quilling workshop for the next year's retreat!  I certainly hope I can say yes to that request - I'll have to see what my schedule holds, but it was so nice to be asked.

I will certainly be quilling more things like name tags in the future.  It turns out to be the perfect way to get a conversation going and to meet new people!

Image Credit:  My pic of my own nametag, my quilling and design.

Quilling an Iris and Modifying Kits

My little 5x7 framed iris.

This post was supposed to be about my fun time at the NAQG quilling conference - but it turns out the guild embargoes all material relating to the conference until their next newsletter comes out (after June).  I think that this policy is not good for the guild.  My reason is that I think it is important to get new, young quillers into the guild - and having a strong, timely web presence is essential for that.  It means getting updates about events out immediately, and having them on several platforms (along with nice pictures and interesting text).  But I'm not in a position to make those decisions.  Sooooo instead we get an update post about an iris!  I'll post about my time at the conference later.

The original kit design,
note buds.

My husband's favorite flower is the iris.  I've been telling myself I'd quill him a little something for quite a while, and of course an iris came to mind.  But without a lot of extra time for quilling right now, I had to quill something small and straightforward.  I happened to have a kit to quill an iris on a card, and so modified that kit to fit my little frame.  I also changed some of the leaves and buds to fit my own idea of what an iris bud looks like (the one on the card is rather stylized).  I like the final product - a little framed picture he can take into the office.

So my question for you is this - do you use quilling kits?  Perhaps in a teaching setting, or for gifts?  Do you usually follow the directions along exactly or make your own modifications?

Image credits:  Top, my own picture of my own quilling, bottom, Quilled Creations Iris Flower card kit.

Herb Sampler, Selling Your Work, and More

Lovage - My favorite herb in the kit so far!

So as I mentioned in my first Herb Sampler post, I've finally gotten down to doing serious work on this project I've been meaning to get done for more than two decades.  It's a pretty good kit, this Herb Sampler, similar to the Berry Sampler in many ways.  But there are a few differences that make the Berry Sampler superior, I think. 

First of all, the berries are more three dimensional.  The leaves and such in the berry kit are more tilted, giving the whole piece more of a living feeling.  And the second issue is that this is the first time I have run out of green paper in a kit!  I'm very surprised.  I've never had this happen before, and certainly not with the old Quill Art kits.  Fortunately I had one of those old kits around to raid, and found enough similar paper to continue.  It isn't perfect.  The color is just a smidge off, and the width isn't quite as narrow by half a millimeter, but given one thing and another, I think it will suffice.  I'm pretty picky.  I think all quillers are detail oriented by nature, so good enough is probably, well, good enough.

Kit is coming along - just three more to go - assuming
I now have enough paper ...

I was about half way through the herb kit when a friend visited and saw my completed berry sampler up on the wall in the kitchen.  She liked it, but it was when I showed her my still-in-progress herb sampler that her eyes really lit up.  She asked me to make her one, and said she'd pay for it.  I was (an am) a bit baffled as how to handle it.  I'm more than happy to make her one, although it may be a while before I manage to get through another entire sampler after 23 years of waiting :)  But more, it is the idea of selling this kind of work.  It is impossible to actually get the work value out of quilling, assuming you pay yourself an hourly rate that reflects your expertise at the craft.  Even say $20 an hour, which seems very low for such work, means I'd be charging hundreds of dollars for this piece.  I'm not going to ask a friend to pay that.  So what is the answer?  Ask for less?  Ask for nothing and give it away?  That last is certainly how I've dealt with this issue in the past.  It has always seemed strange to get paid for quilling.  How do you deal with this issue?

Form with filled quills for petals.

So I've placed a picture of the "Lovage" herb front and center on this post.  The Lovage is my favorite so far.  I really love the way the flowers look, with the graceful curls all the same size.  I did not use a mold or form to make these.  I simply eyeball the size, and get very consistent results.  I rarely use the forms and molds, since I find them sort of distracting.  Still, I did use them recently to create my "Pantone" flower, ensuring all the petals would have the same size, in spite of the different weights of the paper.  How about you, do you use forms, and when?

Image Credits:  My pictures of my own stuff, and my own work.  Herb Sampler kit is 1993 Malinda Johnston.

Ideas for Quilled Flowers and Plants

I've blogged before about how much I love books with different kinds of design motifs.  Well now I've found a wonderful resource for ideas on plants and flowers.  This is "5000 Flower and Plant Motifs" by Graham Leslie McCallum.  I'm surprised I missed this one; it was published in 2011, and I only spotted it late last year.  Yet this is exactly the sort of book I have my eye out for when seeking ideas for new designs for quilling, and more.

I had been originally looking at a number of possible other books, but read many comments suggesting that this was the real source book to buy.  So even though it was a bit pricey for me at about $24 I gave it a chance.  I was pretty impressed when it showed up, the book is an absolute brick, heavy, and filled with pages and pages of densely depicted designs of all types, drawn from a variety of cultures.

There are a number of versatile types of borders, for example, that could be adapted for use with cards, or used around the edges of matting for other designs, pictures, and invitations. 

Other pages show flower after flower, from the view of directly above the bloom.  Many of these are adaptable for quilling, and give a new way to look at centers and petals of flowers, rather than many of the typical quilled flowers we are used to seeing. 

The pages go on to show flowers in a variety of perspectives, including potted.  If you enjoy making floral miniatures, these would be excellent for new ideas.

One feature of the book is that it goes into incredible detail of some plants.  For example, there are two pages that just deal with the strawberry, showing the exterior, interior, leaves, flowers, and all the rest.  If you are planning to quill strawberries, this would be a fantastic resource to help consider all the different perspectives that these berries might be viewed from, and how they might be represented with paper.

A last feature of the book, is that all the designs also come on a CD, so you can get them into your computer for adjustment, color, or whatever.  I haven't tried the CD yet, since I'm still browsing this volume manually, but I look forward to trying it out.

Image Credits:  All images are my own, from my own copy of 5000 Plant and Flower Motifs by McCallum.

Arts and Crafts Color Inspiration - Pantone Spring 2016

A bright quilled flower made using the colors
from Pantone's Spring 2016 palette.  Some
of my color matches are better than others ...

I always have my eyes out for inspiration for my various arts and crafts - I'm sure you do too.  Especially in dreary wintertime, I look to bright spring colors to give my work some needed lift and pop.  And to just lift my mood, in general.

So every year I take a look at the Pantone seasonal colors to see what inspiration I can draw for shades I don't often use, or for color combinations I don't usually consider.  They say that their colors this year "focus on a desire to breathe and reflect, then play" which sounds pretty good to me.

This spring's colors have some unusual shades in them.  I know this because I had a really difficult time creating my quilled flower, here.  My quilled flower is made from my best attempt at matching the Spring 2016 colors from paper I already had in my 'extras' box.

The color names are as follows:  Rose Quartz, Peach Echo, Serenity, Snorkel Blue, Buttercup, Limpet Shell, Lilac Grey, Fiesta, Iced Coffee, and Green Flash.  I was able to find very good matches for the first four colors on the list in my piles of paper.  I use a lot of blue shades, so I expected to have these on hand.  I was more surprised that I had an appropriate peach shade, although not much of it.  This is a very different color for me, I rarely work in any orange shades at all.  But I have a few collections of 'country colors' that have this shade.  The yellow was difficult.  This pantone color has a hint of orange that my yellows don't have.  It makes it tough to match. 

Color swatches for Pantone's Spring 2016 colors.

Tougher was the Limpet Shell color.  I figured I'd have plenty of this sort of washed turquoise shade.  I was wrong.  Maybe I have used it all up, since I love this color.  In the end, I had to use a related blue shade, which didn't match too well.  Again, I was surprised to find I had the two neutrals, the Lilac Grey and Iced Coffee easily matched.  I don't work much in neutrals, and I think I had a lot of extra paper from old kits in these colors that I simply never took a second look at.  The Fiesta color, again, was a shade I just didn't quite have.  This orange-red is rather unique, and I had to make due with a happy red shade.  I also had trouble with the yellowish fern green of the Green Flash color.  I had a lot of green shades, but none were quite right.  Had to wing it.

The combinations that I'm thinking of are the Rose and Peach shades - nice flowers.  I like the neutral Lilac Grey color thinking of stones, and might match it with the Iced Coffee and Green Flash, that make me think of soil and growing things.  The blues like Snorkel and Limpet naturally bring to mind the sea, and seashells.  A lot of inspiration in this Spring's lineup of color!

Image Credits:  My pic of my flower, and Pantone's 2016 Color Swatches from their site.

Book Review: Quilled Flowers

Quilled Flowers by Alli Bartkowski.  Published by Lark Crafts, Sterling Publishing Company, 2012.  126 pages.

I rate it ... excellent!

4.5/5.0

See my post about book reviews for details about my review criteria and biases.

Quilled Flowers is subtitled "A Garden of 35 Paper Projects."  It starts with a solid tutorial and introduction to quilling supplies, then moves right into the flower projects.   There is no history section nor gallery. 

What I liked:
First of all, I was not expecting new ideas about flowers in any quilling book, given how overdone the subject is.  BUT I was pleasantly surprised by Quilled Flowers.  There are plenty of new ideas and designs in this book.  And this is a very pretty quilling book, with tons of color images all laid out very well.  In many cases there are close-ups of the finished work so you can see exactly what you are doing.  The quality of the quilling is generally good throughout the book (see below).  The finished projects are all quite aesthetically pleasing, and make you want to try them right away.  I think this book does well at achieving its goal.     

What I liked less:
I wanted the tutorial to be longer, more detailed, and just generally meatier.  And of course I wanted a gallery of amazing flower projects at the end ... I always want a gallery.  I was not impressed by the use of chalk and ink to change colors - this is just a bias of mine, where I like color variation to be achieved by the use of different kinds of papers, not inks.  I did note some inconsistency in the quality of the quilling (some flowers with larger open centers, large 'tags' in the center, etc.).

I think anyone will be able to find a project they like in this book, from beginner to advanced.  But I think it is more suited to the moderate level of quiller.  The paperback is going for less than $12, which I think is a fantastic price for what you get here.

Book Review: Great Paper Quilling

Great Paper Quilling by Mickey Baskett.  Published by Sterling Publishing Company, 1999.  128 pages.

I rate it ... very good!

3.7/5.0

See my post about book reviews for details about my review criteria and biases.

Great Paper Quilling starts with a brief section for beginners - a tutorial on how to quill and an explanation of necessary tools and supplies.  Then the book quickly gets into the projects, designed by a host of different quillers.  The projects include: frames, motifs, flowers, insects, jewelry, letters, miniatures, snowflakes and more.  There is no gallery at the end.

What I liked:
The book is well produced with lots of nice color images.  The projects are well presented (and given the nice pictures, the projects are, for the most part, easy to follow.)  There is something for everyone here.  Since a number of designers are represented, the book does not get repetitious.  

What I liked less:
The tutorial section is quite small.  I can see a book like this opting out entirely, given this is supposed to be 'great' paper quilling, but if it is there, then I have a bias that a tutorial be substantial.  Some of the projects seem basic, again for a book of 'great' quilling, while others, like the quilled church, are quite large in scope.  There is no gallery at the end, and I expected to see more quilling inspiration there.  Because the quilling is created by different designers, the quality and nature of the quilling isn't consistent throughout the book.  Overall, I don't think the book quite hits its intended mark of 'great' quilling.

I'm glad to have the book on my shelf, and do flip through for inspiration now and then.  I think it is best suited for moderately experienced quillers, not beginners, since the tutorial is so short.  Advanced quillers may find the designs too basic.  Current prices - new at about $15, the book may be just a tad pricey, but used for less than $4 is a steal.   

Book Review: Quilled Borders and Motifs

Quilled Borders & Motifs by Judy Cardinal.  Published by Search Press, 2008.  48 pages.

I rate it ... good!

3.2/5.0

See my post about book reviews for details about my review criteria and biases.

This is a sturdy little (48 page) quilling book that introduces a host of small designs in many themes (i.e. baby, wedding, holiday) for use in a variety of situations (i.e. cards, frames, ornaments).  I do not have a long review for this book - regrettably, as I'll note later, the publisher made a bad decision in reproducing much of the content within another book.

What I liked:
The huge variety of little projects and designs that can be used alone or together to make wall art, greeting cards, frames for invitations and announcements, and so much more.  I think this would be a good book to show to children to get their ideas flowing.

What I liked less:
As noted, the publisher made a bad decision (in my opinion) and included ALL of the motif section inside of another book (Beautiful Quilling Step-By-Step, which I'll review another time.  It has material from several books, in fact.)  This decision by Search Press makes me nervous when looking at any of their books.  I have to ask myself, "Do I already own this in another form?".  The work is reprinted exactly, page for page, materially damaging the usefulness of both books.  It's a shame since it robs each book of originality and usefulness.  Another issue with the book is the uncertain quality of the quilling - for example, the quilled heart within the tutorial on page 14 shows uneven tension (visible in several of the projects in the book, as well.)  The book has few actual patterns for the designs, making more difficult for beginners, and a bit less intuitive, I think.

As a collector of quilling books, I am happy to have it in my collection.  But for the current going price of $10 or so, I'd probably go for the larger Beautiful Quilling book instead of this one, were I choosing between the two.

Quilled Holiday Ornaments for the Charity Project

In the end I quilled three ornaments for the "Quilled Ornament Charity Project" (even though when I made the poinsettia, I said I'd only make two).  I knew from the beginning that I didn't want to make snowflakes, since I am assuming Carie is going to get sent a ton of snowflakes.  So I concentrated on other designs that I thought would look good in a green tree.

The candy cane idea came to me as I was considering how I could use white paper for something other than snow.  I made the entire candy cane out of white, and then for the stripes, I just wound one long red strip around the piece and glued the ends down.  To add some interest, I embellished with a sprig of holly.  The star is made only from triangles, circles and eye shapes in white and yellow.  Hopefully it doesn't look too much like a snowflake :)  I didn't want to make it solid yellow, though, since I thought that would been a little boring to look at ...

So off they go to their new home, to be placed on a tree and auctioned off for charity.  Remember that the deadline for ornaments is October 15!  There is still plenty of time to quill a piece or two and send it off.  Shipping is cheap because they hardly weigh anything at all :)

Image Credit:  My pic of my own ornaments.  Designed by me.

Quilled Lotus Flower Earrings with Pearls

Of course, while I was supposed to be working on dragon, I was instead taking breaks to quill other things.  I always find myself doing this ... I just can't stay focused on a single craft project at one time.  I always have multiple projects in the works.  I'm going to chalk it up to my ADD, which certainly helps one be creative, but can interfere with staying on task sometimes.

Anyway, I got the urge to make lotus flowers, even though I've never done it before.  I have a lot of books on meditation, many of them with different depictions of lotus flowers on the cover.  I decided to do something simple, and used a five petal design to mimic the flower.  To add some depth to them I used pearlized paper in two colors for each of the petals.  So the colors are white/grey, blue/green, and pink/lilac.  You can see the colors better in the inset images.

The pearl paper gave me the idea of making earrings using Swarovski pearls.  I make a lot of gemstone jewelry, and this seemed like a perfect way to use the flowers.  Except for that post I wrote earlier where I said I don't like to make quilled jewelry.  Well, I'm eating my words, here.

So I added an open circle to the bottom of each flower and used that to attach color coordinated Swarovski pearls in pink, purple, and white.  All the findings are silver or silver toned.  I really like the way they came out, very light and graceful.  I used a great deal of acrylic spray on them, hoping they will be able to stand up to some wear.  Now I just have to choose which pair I'm going to keep and which I'm giving away.

Image Credit:  My pix of my own quilling work, designs by me.

Artist Interview: EverAfter Artisanry

Today's interview is with the talented force behind EverAfter Artisanry.  These lovely wire and bead flowers are her work, and she has agreed to share her projects, ideas, history, and more! 

When did you get interested in wire/beading art, and how did you learn? (books, youtube, other artists, etc.)

I was first interested in the aesthetic of wire-wrapped jewelry a very long time ago, probably over a decade ago, but it wasn't until the last few years that I actually thought I could attempt to do it myself. Probably I started first working with wire in a hobby way about three years ago. I would wrap large crystals with wire to turn them into Christmas ornaments and give them to friends as gifts. Around a similar time I was separately learning some beading techniques, just using plastic beads and elastic cords, as there was a stretch of time when I was going to raves and making what they call 'kandi', which is the word for the large colourful bracelets that a lot of kids wear at those parties. I learned some basic beading techniques from my friends at what we called 'kandi sessions', where we would go to someones house, sit around, and make those bracelets. At some point along the way I became interested in beaded embroidery, to embellish fabrics. Two years ago was the first time online that I saw a picture of a 3d beaded flower. I was looking for 2d flower patterns/techniques to bead flat onto fabric, but seeing these 3d ones fascinated me. I did a lot of learning through looking around for free articles on the web, and from watching youtube videos. When I am developing my own patterns for beaded flowers I will hunt around on the internet for articles regarding how to make those kins of flowers out of paper, and then adapt it to make the same shapes from my wire. Sitting down and just practicing has been essential to learning. Finding wire that is thin enough to get the seed beads onto, and strong enough to hold shape, using different gauges for different purposes, has been a trick of experimentation. I made my first bouquet at the end of last year/beginning of this year. I have made eight bouquets in total now, and I learn more each time.

What is your favorite project that you have made?

I would say that this piece is my favourite one, as it stands:  everafterdesigns.deviantart.co…  I am one of those artists that tends to dislike their older work as mistakes become more apparent or I prefer my newer techniques, and, I think in many ways some of my newer pieces are better than this one, but, this is my favourite. I spent a good bit of time designing it through sketches after looking at calla lilly bouquets on pinterest, I was throughtful about my choice of colours as well. In this one, I also taught myself how to make calla lillies without a pattern, and I just have not done anything else on this scale. Its so large!

What do you like best about wire and beading art?

I think its a very expressive medium, though to be honest most forms of art have a wide range of expressive capacity. Honestly, the thing that I like best about it might just be that I seem to have some talent and that I authentically think I am producing good and creative work. I've messed around with other mediums, but, I think the stuff I'm doing at the moment is really bringing my skills together. I like a sense of accomplishing something.

Where do you get your ideas for new projects?

Well, I'll take inspiration at the moment by looking at bouquets using real flowers. There are a number of classic bouquet types, such as circle bouquets, cascading bouquets, even sheath bouquets. I have not made a sheath bouquet yet! I want to be able to create varied arrangements of flowers, arrangements in different sizes and different shapes, conveying different moods - so I'll find inspiration by trying to widen my portfolio, essentially. I also look into wedding trends, what flowers, colours, styles and shapes are popular. There is a website called Style Me Pretty that always posts the most beautiful floral designs, so, I find that very inspiring to look at.
www.stylemepretty.com/

What makes your projects different from other people's?

Well, in the scheme of things, there aren't actually all that many people who seem to make whole bouquets out of seed beads and wire, so, being in an area with so few artists working in the medium makes it easier to stand out, I think. I'm relatively new to this area, as I said earlier, I have only made eight bouquets - but I think my research into floral design helps me to create unique designs. Also I don't work from other peoples patterns, I develop my own. I don't do that by looking at other beaded versions of the flowers I am trying to produce, I'll do it by looking at the actual flowers themselves, and my looking into construction techniques for flowers in other mediums such as paper - to help me get realistic shapes. I think that kind of innovation might help me to stand out as well. At the moment I am really focusing on providing a wide range of colours/sizes and shapes, but into the future I think one thing that will help me stand out is I pay attention to fashion trends. I'm the sort of person who keeps up with couture runway designers, so, I think taking influence from couture catwalk trends will also help my work have a little something different.

How do you stay current with new techniques and trends in wire and beading?

To be completely honest, while I do produce good work (I feel) - in many ways I feel that I have a lot of 'mastering the basics' to go, when it comes to techniques. I'm not on the cutting edge of wire-work or beading techniques, not at all! I'm starting to get better and have subscribed to some mailing lists for beading websites, but this is an area I don't feel on top of, to be honest!

Do you have any special or long term goals for your art? A contest, or major project, or producing a certain number of type of pieces, or some such?

Well, I am an aspiring professional. The proper long term goal would be to sustain myself doing this, as my full time job. Shorter goals to get me to that point are going to include coming up with reproducible jewelry lines for sale. Also I've got some special projects lined up in the form of some planned styled photoshoots. I want to make matching jewelry and accessories for some of my bouquets, and have some photoshoots with models. One of these major projects involves making an embellished black veil, jewelry and bouquet for a gothic photoshoot. I'm going to incorporate swarovski crystal skulls into the bouquet, I think thats going to be something special.

Is there one aspect or technique about your art that you really want to learn?

I want to get much better at basic beadweaving techiques. In the future I also want to get into glass blowing and glass work, so that I can make my own beads, and so that I can incorporate my own glass flowers into my bouquets. I think that could be really special.

Where can people go to view/buy your art, and do you take commissions/do custom work?

I'm really only in the setup phase of turning this into a professional gig, and, I have not opened a shop yet or started selling my work yet. I want to come up with a jewelry collection before opening up some sort of shop. That said, I would absolutely love to work on custom bouquet projects, so if anyone is interested, then contacting me through facebook to arrange talking more would be fantastic.

My art can be viewed in the following spaces:

https://www.facebook.com/EverAfterArtisanry
http://everafterartisanry.tumblr.com/
http://www.everafterdesigns.deviantart.com

Many thanks to EverAfter Artisanry for agreeing to be interviewed!  If you'd like to be interviewed, leave a comment on this or another post!

Image Credit:  All images credit EverAfter Artisanry.

Book Review: The Book of Paper Quilling

The Book of Paper Quilling - Techniques and Projects for Paper Filigree by Melinda Johnston.  Published by the Sterling Publishing Company, 1994.  144 pages.

I rate it ... excellent!

4.9 / 5.0

See my post about book reviews for details about my review criteria and biases.

Next to the last book I reviewed (Paper Art for Everyone) this is probably my favorite.  Or at least one of my favorites :)  It is one of the first of what I'd consider to be the "modern" breed of quilling books.  I have in my mind this idea that the "traditional" quilling books/kits/patterns were published in the 70's and 80's, and the "modern" quilling books generally in the 90's until today.  And there are other quilling books that I consider sort of "post-modern."  I call these "innovative."  These offer really new looks at techniques and projects (like typography, illustration, cross-cultural, and impressionistic work). 

Anyway, with that in mind, this is an excellent modern quilling book.

The book begins with a brief history of quilling, and then moves into the introductory/tutorial section.  The bulk of the subsequent pages are spent on projects and patterns, followed up by a gallery of wonderful quilled pieces.  Really, this is sort of my ideal outline for a "working" quilling book.

What I like:
First of all, the quality of the quilling the book is invariably high.  All the pieces are uniform, created with even tension and have a nice, even, lacy quality.  There are very small, regular center holes to each of the pieces.  The history section is accompanied by images of period quilling pieces, and the accompanying text includes several references, although more would have been welcome.  The "getting started" section is very well constructed, including showing how different paper widths effect the finished quill.  The "menu" of quilled shapes is comprehensive, and high quality.  Techniques include looping, husking, and weaving.  The bulk of the book, as noted, is filled with interesting patterns, each with detailed instructions.  Patterns include: wall art, wreaths, miniatures, ornaments, eggs, borders, gift tags, cards, magnets, coasters, baskets, jewelry, hats, and an incredible chess board with pieces.  At the end there are even simple motifs for kids to quill.  The gallery includes abstract quill art, as well as impressive, more traditional pieces.

What I like less:
Honestly, just the history section.  It needs a touch more of a scholarly approach with more citations and references for information.  That's it, really.

So if you like quilling, this is a must have, as far as I'm concerned.  And if you don't have it yet, you can get it used for less than $3.  With 144 pages of great quilling, it's a total steal.

The Quilling Archive - A Gallery of Quilling

Quilling inside of real seashells - made into ornaments.

I've done so much quilling - it's hard to keep track of who I gave it to, and where it is even in my own home.  But I've recently been struck with the idea that I want to document it all, so I've been rounding up quilling projects, old and new, and taking the best pictures I can.  I've been putting up the best of them at my newly created DeviantArt Gallery for quilling.

There is so much stuff - wall art, ornaments, miniatures, jewelry, and more.  You can see the evolution of my quilling through much of it, but since I started at the age of nine, by the time I was in high school I was pretty proficient.  Pieces like these shell ornaments, done when I was about fourteen, show solid technique and an eye for fun.  They even include tiny little pine cones.  I don't think I'd even imagine filling seashells and turning them into ornaments anymore, which is a shame.  :)   I don't even recall where I got the idea in the first place.

They are a bit beat up, with a few pieces missing, and a touch faded.  But not much, considering decades of sunlight, humidity, and moving from place to place.  I'll chalk that up to using a good acrylic sealant, and maybe using a bit too much glue.  I've always used a bit too much glue - one of those technique problems I have ...

How about you?  What was your first quilling project?  How do you preserve your quilling for the ages?

Image Credit - My picture of my own quilling, designed by me.

Spiral Jewelry - Eyes Always Open

I was at a bead show, hunting through a box of sterling silver clasps when I found it - a beautiful, huge, toggle clasp that looked like a quilled, eight petaled flower.  I make a lot of gemstone jewelry, and my mind immediately began processing all the ways I could use the amazing clasp in a beaded design, with the clasp obviously meant to show in the front.

And then the more I thought about it, the more I just wanted to highlight the clasp itself.  My mind came up with simpler and simpler designs.  Until I realized what I wanted was to not use the "bar" part of the clasp at all, and instead convert the "flower" part into a pendant.  So that's what I did, and hung the pendant on a simple chain.  (The "circle " portion of the clasp is bigger than a quarter, more like the size of a dollar coin.)  I get more compliments on this thing ...

Which is great.  I have a lot of jewelry with "spiral" or "coil" themes, which is no surprise at all.  And I also have a number of findings and components with that theme, as well, for making new jewelry.  I have a few new projects in mind, so keep your eyes on the blog for when they appear.

Image Credit:  My pic of my necklace. 

Quilled Poinsettia Flower Ornament

As I noted in my last post, there is a need for quilled Christmas tree ornaments for a "Quilled Ornament Charity Project."  Click the link for details about the project, and to see if you might be interested in participating!

I have decided to make two ornaments for the project.  The first is this quilled poinsettia flower ornament.  It is a simple design, but it looks really lovely now that it is all finished.  I thought I'd present a tutorial here of what I did, so anyone could make one.  Although I've done plenty of live presentations and workshops, this is the first written tutorial I've really done for quilling, so here it goes.

Here's what you'll need ...

• Five full strips of dark red quilling paper, 1/4 of an inch wide.  
• Five full strips of light red quilling paper, also 1/4 of an inch wide.  
• One bright yellow strip, 4 inches long and 1/8 of an inch wide.  
• One full strip of green with gold edging, 1/8 inch wide, and another half of a strip of the same color.
• Glue, I use a good quality white craft glue.
• Ideally, a clear acrylic spray to finish the ornament 

Roll the dark red strips and form them into 'leaf' shapes.  Glue the ends of the petals together to form a five-petaled flower, as shown.  Roll the light red strips and also make 'leaf' shapes.  Glue these together to form another five-petaled flower.

Now, you can see my light red flower is a bit smaller than the dark red flower.  This was intentional.  My dark red paper is very heavy, making a larger coil when it unwinds, and my light red paper is light, rolling tightly and not unwinding so much.  So even though the strips are the same length, the petals for the light red flower layer are somewhat smaller.  If you are dealing with paper that is the same weight for each color, you'll want to take some of the length off of your light red strips to achieve this effect.  I've placed a quarter in the image to give a sense of scale, both so you can see the difference in sizes a little better, and so you can see the size of the whole design.  It's more than four inches across at this point.

After the two 'flowers' have dried, stack the light red, smaller layer on top of the larger dark red layer and glue them together, staggering the petals.  You might have to be clever with small dabs of glue here and there to ensure the design is sturdy enough to hang from a tree, but doesn't look like it has glue all over it.

Then roll the bright yellow strip into a simple open circle quill and glue that to the center of the design.  This was where I'd originally intended to stop.  I added a silver jump ring at the top so it could dangle from the tree.  But then I took another look and decided the piece needed a but more 'oomph.'  So I chose to put a pair of leaves on it.  Roll the two green/gold gilded strips and make leaf shapes, as shown.  One will be smaller than the other, of course, because the strips are not the same length.  You might need to be careful about gluing them.  I had to add extra glue to the backs (the not-gold side) to make sure that they didn't 'spring out' like, well, springs, anytime the design was bumped or dropped.  (I put it through a few tests ...)

Then I glued them between the bottom petals of the flower, keeping them flat on the work surface.  They added just the extra interest and 'bling' I was looking for.  Then I coated the design with about three light coats of clear acrylic sealer.  I use Krylon Gloss UV protective clear coating for most of my quilling.  I like the way it tends to enhance the colors while adding a bit of a sheen.  Excellent in this case, athough I use the 'matte' finish rather than the 'gloss' in some situations.

Finished!  It's about five inches from top to bottom, and has a nice sturdy feel to it.  I hope it shows up well on a six foot tree, and has the durability to survive the whole auctioning process :)

Image Credit - My photos of my new poinsettia flower ornament!

Looking for Artists to Interview!

Real flowers - always inspiring!

Are you an artisan who makes:  quilled items, origami, paper or gemstone jewelry, or the like?  Do you have a penchant for spirals and enjoy wrapping/coiling/folding?  Then I'd like to chat with you about a possible email interview!

Interviews are one feature I really want to have here on the blog.  I am looking for the opportunity to learn more about these arts and crafts as well as the people who do them.  I'm sure I'm not the only one who would be fascinated by the stories of quillers and other crafters, so what could be better than a bit of an interview, along with a few featured photos of completed work?

You don't need to be an 'expert' or have been doing your art for a long time.  I'd like to get email interviews from a range of people at different stages in their artistic careers, various ages, and in different places on the planet.

If you think you might be interested in being interviewed via email and having some of your work featured here on the blog, let me know by commenting on this post.  Make sure to give me some idea how I might email/contact/message you.  (If you are on DeviantArt you can always send a note to my profile there, SpiralArtisan.)  It would be helpful to send a link to a website/gallery/facebook page/whatever that has some of your art on it, so I know you are 'for real.'  After that, I'll email a list of questions, and request that you let me post about three pieces of your art, along with the answers to the questions.  And that's all there is to it!  I'll try to get posts up within a week of getting answers back, as long as life does not interfere.

And in the mean time, if you have a blog, website, or other resource you think I should be checking out, make sure to mention it!

Image Credit - My flowers, my photo.  A good one for a change :)

A Flowery Dilemma

Long ago I started work on a paper quilling border for a friend's wedding invitation.  It was a lovely invitation, in shades of ivory and pink, and I figured a bell and a number of flowers in the right shades would set it off nicely.  The project stalled for a while while I dealt with "life" and by the time I got back to it ... well, the couple wasn't a couple anymore.  (So this says something about the amount of time it takes me to do a project, or something about marriages.  Probably both :)

Anyway, here I show a smattering of the pieces I made for the quilled invitation.  I've kept them for more than a decade, wondering what to do with them.  It feels a little strange to use them for some other project when their original project ended so, um, poorly.  (Not that I'm superstitious.)  Still, I don't like to waste, and this is perfectly good quilling.

Ever been in this strange position?  How do you put the quilling to good use?  I'm thinking I'll break up the set completely and just use bits and pieces here and there ... it's the best idea that I have.

Image Credit:  My pic of my quilling.

Quilled Earrings, Simple Enough to Actually Wear

I don't usually make jewelry out of paper, since it is so easily damaged by moisture or crushing.  Quilling takes so much time and effort, it seems like a waste to make something that will get bashed up.  But, I do make earrings if they are of a simple design, since then if they get munged up I can go right ahead and make a new pair without too much fuss.  This pair was strengthened by an extra border of paper around each petal, as well as a few good coats of clear acrylic spray over the whole design.

Do you make paper quilled jewelry?  What are your tips for strengthening it and keeping it looking good for as long as possible?

Image Credit:  My earrings, my picture, my pattern.