Victory for quilling!!

Well, I'm so excited about the news I'm about to share!!  One of my pieces of quilled jewellery has been selected to represent the county of Hampshire in the UK Women's Institute (WI) Inter-Counties Craft Competition alongside three other winning items!  I had a telephone call this afternoon to tell me the news, and I will be attending a special meeting of Hampshire WI's in October to receive a presentation certificate.  What's more, my entry has been forwarded to the national competition, so you never know ...

Now, obviously I'm very pleased about this on a personal level, but I'm also delighted for the art of quilling.  The entry criterion for this particular craft competition was a piece of jewellery "in any medium". So, as you can imagine, my entry was up against beading, silversmithing and other more widely known craft techniques.  In the past, I have been saddened to see quilling marked down by judges in other similar competitions because they have doubted the durability of items made of paper.  To try and pre-empt this, I included a note with my quilled pieces explaining how I coat them with PVA glue and spray varnish to make them strong and waterproof.  It seems to have paid off!

I entered three separate pieces into the competition, and this pin brooch was the one which was selected:

I created this piece by winding gold-edged black strips with plain black crimped strips to make the teardrops and marquises. The centre is a plain black solid coil with gold-edged black around it, topped off with a classic folded rose. After assembling the pieces, I mounted it on a stick type brooch pin with super glue. Apparently, the judges were VERY impressed!

I also entered these quilled earrings:

and this quilled pendant which - believe it or not - has also just been voted a winner in the Creative Quilling Forum's recent jewellery challenge.

So that's two wins in the space of 24 hours ... I really am on Cloud Nine!!