Quilliance

An eccentric, asymmetric butterfly!

2012-02-14T14:24:00.000Z

When I posted the picture of this 'fantasy flower' on Facebook yesterday, a member of the Quillers and Cardmakers Group commented that it reminded her of a butterfly ... and looking at it again, I have to agree.

So today I decided to use the 'cut eccentric coil' technique again - but this time with the express intention of creating a pair of wings for this new butterfly:

To make the wings, I rolled two coils of copper, silver-edged silver and gold-edged gold pearlised strips that I had joined together at one end, gluing the centres to the edges to create eccentric coils. After the glue had dried, I unpinned the coils from my quilling board and made cuts in the outer rings just as I had done previously for the flowers - except that this time I made the cuts a quarter of the way round from the glue point rather than directly opposite it. This created the asymmetric effect of one large and one small wing section on each side of the insect's body.

I also used the technique of 'twisting' some of the cut ends using a very fine slotted tool, which I think enhances the overall shape.

The metallic-edged pearlised strips are a new addition to my stock, which I purchased recently from JJ Quilling Design - a great source of unusual speciality strips. They are white on one side and metallic on the other, with a very glitzy metallic edging that really catches the light. I'm sure it will be possible to produce lots of interesting effects with these - can't wait to experiment further!

A few eccentricities

2012-02-12T13:24:00.000Z

I'm really not sure whether I've seen this idea somewhere before, or whether it just popped out of my head ... but I wanted to see what would happen when you cut through some of the outer rings of multi-strip eccentric coils - and this little flower is the result:

I quite liked the effect of this, so I tried another one with a little asymmetric curling added in:

Then finally I lost the plot completely and created this very abstract-looking fish (the cut shape of the eccentric coils kept on shouting "fish tails" out to me!!):

Well, it keeps me amused ... and now, I really must get on with making some more cards, as my market stock is getting worryingly low!

So much to quill ... so little time ...

Tales of the sea

2012-02-07T12:57:00.000Z

Well, I have finally finished my Big Project! Now all I have to do is mount it and get it framed. It's a quilled picture that has taken me three months to complete (working on it whenever I got a chance). Unfortunately, because it's going to be a competition entry, I can't show the whole picture to you yet. However, I AM going to reveal just a tiny corner of it, because it's also provided the inspiration for the quilling on this card:

On my 'Big Project' picture, there's a small section of sea, with quilling to represent waves gently lapping on to a sandy beach. Here's the section that I'm going to show you, so that you can see the pairs of blue and white marquises that I've used to represent the tumbling wave-lets, plus the sections of 'beehive' coiled blue strips that represent the swirling water in between. The idea is that the lines of paired marquises lie in parallel to each other, just like the never-ending succession of waves that are gently rolling in.

When I completed my picture, I found I had quite a few marquise pairs and 'beehive' strips left over, so I decided to utilise them on this 'sea shore' card. You may well recognise the photo of my favourite sea-gull, and the close-up of the shell which I have used in other projects before. (Both photos were taken in the wonderful Isles of Scilly, where we often take our holidays.)

I used the 'four-square' design format that I like so much for the background printing, with the two photos complemented by blue and beige squares to represent sea and sand. Then I added my remaining pieces of 'wave' quilling down the middle ... and I hope that the resulting card will conjure up the magic of a stroll on the beach for the person who eventually receives it!

Filigree follies!

2012-02-02T11:52:00.000Z

It's been several days since my last post ... but that's certainly not for lack of quilling! In fact, I've been coiling strips tirelessly in every spare moment, working on the Big Project that I started before Christmas - but, because it's for a Quilling Guild competition entry, I cannot reveal it publicly before September!

So, this morning, I decided it was time to focus temporarily on something ELSE. At a quilling workshop I attended recently, I created a little motif featuring finger-folded huskings (that is to say: made without using pins or a board!). To challenge myself even further, I made the motif using 1.5mm strips, having first gone almost cross-eyed cutting standard 3mm strips in half!

Well, as you would expect, making this motif was extremely fiddly to do! However, the end result was OK, and very delicate in appearance - which I think makes a welcome change from the chunkier look of 3mm strips.

The motif has been laying on my craft table for several weeks now, and today I finally got around to fixing it on to a card.

The process of gluing was almost as challenging as the quilling itself, because the piece was so delicate. (Mental note to self: next time, attach the large open-coil scrolls separately after the rest of the piece is affixed to the card, as they were so floppy and a nightmare to glue!!) So, I apologise for any unfortunate traces of glue which may be visible on the photo of this card, due to a slight skirmish which took place between me and those coils!!

For the background to the quilling, I have used a digital photo-mask image courtesy of Laura Boetto (Maggie May Designs), obtained via Papers and Pixels.

With regard to large open-coil scrolls, I've recently come to the conclusion that it's always better to roll these using two strips joined together at one end, which makes for a sturdier coil. Roll from the joined end, and then you can trim and glue the open end as you wish, adjusting the strips so that there is a little space between them for added visual effect. Well, that's my tip for today!

Now, it's back to the Big Project once again ...

Never say "never"!

2012-01-28T10:25:00.000Z

Regular followers of Quilliance will know that I've 'never' been much of a 'craft kit' person. Instead of utilising stamps, stickers and peel-offs for my cards, I've generally preferred creating original design elements of my own.

However ... I guess one should never say "never" about these things!!

Last week, I was honoured to discover that my blog had been featured in Let's Make Cards magazine. Naturally, I went straight out to buy the publication, and found that it came with a bumper pack of card blanks and embellishments (backing papers, die-cut images, ribbons, glitzy stick-ons, pre-printed greetings etc) plus some 5mm quilling strips and a curling tool. (This particular issue - number 48 - has a major feature on quilling.)

As you would expect, the designs featured in the magazine make use of the elements contained in the kit - and so - on a whim as much as anything - I decided to have a go!

Well, I've got to tell you, dear readers - I had FUN!! I spread all the backing papers, die-cuts etc out on the table and waited for inspiration to strike. It didn't take long. I selected a few items, and started playing around with them to see how they might look good together, and how I might incorporate some quilling. Being me, of course, I had to bend the rules a little by cutting up some of the images, and punching a few shapes of my own out of the patterned papers - but I really got absorbed in it.

Some of the die-cut pattern strips were printed on really thick card which I realised would make perfect retaining borders for a section of beehive quilling. The matching backing papers had great potential as backgrounds for quilling - and the pre-printed greetings? Well, I usually print my own, so why not mix and match some of these ready-made ones to complement the quilled motifs that I made using strips from the kit?

Here's the first card I produced:

Having enjoyed the process of making that one so much, I decided to move ahead and create a second - for this one, I decided to echo the printed motif on the side of the die-cut jug in quilling:

(Yes, I've even added a border of lace ribbon along the edge of the card, and raised up the jug image on a sticky pad!!)

So there you are ... I'll never say "never" again! Maybe there is a place for craft kits in my creative life after all ...

A simple quilled Valentine design

2012-01-25T14:12:00.000Z

As we all know, paper filigree work is perfect for creating delicate, feminine designs. But quilling for men? Well, it's always a challenge, particularly when it comes to making Valentine cards.

I sell my quilled cards at a local village market where the majority of customers are women. Every year, they come looking for Valentine cards suitable for giving to their boyfriends/husbands ... and every year I struggle to concoct a design that's appropriate for the men in their lives.

So ... here's a photo of this year's offering, showing a choice of two different colour combinations:

The main heart is an embossed die-cut shape which I produced using the versatile new 'He Loves Me' folder for the Cuttlebug machine. Having mounted this on to a printed panel background, I've simply added a tiny quilled heart and a small two-strip open coil flourish. The result is a design which is not too flouncy or frilly, but hopefully still has a subtle air of romance about it. These cards will be coming with me to the market on Friday, and then it will be for my customers to decide!

It's great to be loved!!

2012-01-24T14:16:00.000Z

I had a pleasant surprise today, after I had been 'tipped off' via Twitter that my blog had been featured in the latest edition of Let's Make Cards magazine (issue 48) which has a special feature on quilling.

I managed to buy a copy of the magazine (the last one in the shop!) and, sure enough, there was a panel about Quilliance on page 17, under the heading 'Blogs we love'!

Well, I consider this to be a very great honour, since I'd had no prior contact with the editors of the magazine, and the piece appears alongside articles by Elizabeth Moad and Diane Boden Crane whose work I greatly admire.

Well, "expect the unexpected", as they say! You never know what's just around the corner. This also coincides with publication of the Winter edition of Quill America (the magazine of the North American Quilling Guild) which contains several feature articles that I wrote for the NAQG last year - so I'm enjoying my brief moment in the spotlight!!

Thinking inside the box - part two!

2012-01-21T15:31:00.000Z

Pritesh very kindly shared the neat little template for this hexagonal-shaped box on her blog, and I have been itching to have a go at making one all week!

After my experience of making and photographing the square box (also courtesy of Pritesh) last weekend, I decided to take a picture of this new one before adding the acetate window in the lid, in order to avoid reflections - although, of course, the acetate subsequently plays an important role in protecting the quilling inside the box from dust.

I have decorated the outside faces of this box with some die-cut shapes, as the area of the template was too wide to feed the whole thing through my Cuttlebug embossing machine. Inside the box are some fringed flowers whose petals were made using iris-folding strips. To create the fringing, I folded each strip in half and secured it in a large bulldog clip before snipping the folded edge at an angle. The resulting cut strip is quite easy to roll, and it's possible to 'fluff out' the petals by pressing gently against the fold.

My plan now is to spray the whole box and its contents with lacquer before inserting the acetate window. I think it will then make a pretty and unusual gift.

A right royal struggle!

2012-01-17T10:45:00.000Z

One of the Quilling Guild's competition categories for last year's Display Of Work was a quilled card to celebrate our Queen's Diamond Jubilee (60 years on the British throne) in 2012. I thought really hard about entering this competition, but just couldn't get my head around it. What would I quill? A diamond? A coat of arms? A crown? Inspiration simply would not come ... so I backed off, and did not enter anything.

But ... what goes around, comes around. Now that we're actually in the Jubilee year, the challenge has raised its head again! This time it's the Hampshire Federation of Women's Institutes holding a 'make a card for the Diamond Jubilee' competition - and my fellow WI members have INSISTED that I enter.

Oh dear - back to studying the Royal Crown again! The real thing is so ornate and intricate that I could easily spend the rest of my life quilling it. So I decided to create a simplified, stylised version representing just the central section which will - hopefully - look OK sitting flat on a card.

I have found this project to be a REAL challenge! I started with the base of the crown, using teardrops and tight coils to represent the ermine (white fur with black spots) that encircles it. Next, I created a section to represent three of the precious jewel clusters, surrounded by an infill of gold 'beehive' curls. Then comes some two-tone purple 'beehive' on a background of purple card, to represent the velvet centre of the crown. Then there are two crosses, each created using a set of four vortex coils squished into triangles. Oh yes, and an golden orb, plus a strip of gold paper up the middle which is mounted on card so that there's a slight ledge to hold the purple beehive in place ... do you know, I'm feeling tired just telling you about it!

I really don't know whether I'm pleased with this crown or not - but I've done it now, and I'm desperate to move on to something else!! So this is the design which is going to be mounted on to my card, which is unlikely ever to get sent to the Queen - but I'll let you know how I get on!

Thinking inside the box

2012-01-14T14:32:00.000Z

As you might expect, I could not resist making one of the lovely little display boxes for quilling that Pritesh has recently featured on her blog!

Pritesh very kindly sent me the template for her brilliant box, which has a clever little 'window' aperture in the lid that allows you to view the quilling displayed inside. I found it quite easy to cut out and assemble the box, having first printed the template outline on to an A4 size sheet of card. Before adding the transparent acetate film for the 'window', I decided to emboss the outside of the card using my Cuttlebug. (For my next box, I may even experiment with colouring some of the raised sections for extra effect.)

Having made the box, I actually lay awake last night thinking about what I might put inside!! In the end, I decided to create a little heart shape which is filled up with a miscellany of coils and shapes that have been left over from other projects (I'm sure that most quillers have an extensive collection of these!) using a technique which I learned from the inspirational Jane Jenkins at last year's Quilling Guild Shared Skills Day.

I've added a cut-out border around the inner heart to add emphasis to the decorated shape, which is mounted on to the square of card left over after I had cut the box-lid aperture. I attached it to the base of the display box using little adhesive pads so that it is raised at a slight angle.

Unfortunately, I found it hard to photograph the contents of the box sharply due to reflections in the acetate - the sun is actually shining here in the UK this afternoon!! However, I think you can get the general impression of how my box has turned out.

Thanks again, Pritesh, for this excellent idea. I think that it has fantastic potential.

Same background ... different design!

2012-01-11T21:03:00.000Z

I had so many favourable comments about my 'beehive' quilling photo background, that I decided to use it in another way for a different card:

This time, I used the image at 100% resolution, and it looks almost as 'real' as the actual quilling in the centre.

What next? A new 'beehive' background using a different combination of colours perhaps ... watch this space!!

Multicoloured multitasking!

2012-01-09T12:24:00.001Z

I'm still exploring the potential of the versatile beehive technique, which lends itself so beautifully to working with an array of different colours.

Yesterday, I filled in a large open ring coil with pairs of twisted strips, working with that 'magical' colour combination of purple, red, pink and green (... plus a tiny bit of white, silver and black thrown in!) The result is almost a marbled effect, full of interest and movement.

I used it to make this card:

And then it struck me what a wonderful background pattern a photo of the quilling would make. So I've used it for this one too, with just a little flourish of real quilling on the top:

Swirls and twirls

2012-01-07T14:17:00.001Z

Having sorted out a couple of new card designs for men in my last post, I've now returned to my 'feminine side' once again!

This design begins with a simple grey background square (bordered with green), on to which I have glued two red cut-outs which I created using one of my newly-acquired Cuttlebug dies. (I love the way these swirly patterns seem to complement quilled shapes and coils so well.)

The centre piece is a thick diamond-shaped ring coil which I have filled up with a random two-tone 'beehive' pattern. Still thinking diamonds, I then decided to add a pair of tiny purple vortex coils to the edges of the cut-out shape above, before putting in a couple of extra pieces of quilled filigree just to balance the design.

This card features my all-time favourite colour combination: purple, red and bright lime green. I don't know why these colours work so well together, but they do!

A sideways glance ... and one for the road!

2012-01-05T11:56:00.000Z

Well, here it is - my first post for 2012. It feels SO good to be getting back to normal once again after the Christmas break. I've actually been doing quite a bit of quilling over the past couple of weeks, but I'm keeping the details 'under wraps' for the moment because the work I've been doing is for a really big project that I'm not ready to reveal just yet!

However, time is ticking by, and our local weekly market opens again on Friday of next week. So it's time for me to review my stock of cards, which is looking a bit thin in the men's department - always a challenge in terms of designs, as every quiller knows!!

For Christmas, I was fortunate to receive some new die cutters for my Cuttlebug machine, including one which cuts out a 'swirl' shape that makes a perfect complement to quilling. Having cut out a bold swirl in dark blue paper, I decided to team it with some rolled quilled pegs lying on their sides, plus a conventional open coil to add some symmetry. I've used this little combination to brighten up my first 'male' card which is designed for a computer user (when asked what their husbands are interested in, several of my customers have bemoaned the fact that "he's on the computer all day"!!):

Computer image sourced from Wikimedia Commons

My second idea for a man's card focuses on driving. Most men seem to love their cars and planning routes for a journey, so I created this design featuring a colourful old map of England and Wales which I sourced from The Graphics Fairy. I've simply added a small section of 'road' with a quilled steering wheel and a couple of road signs, and I'm quite pleased with the result. Well, hopefully that's another 'male interest' covered!

My top ten projects of 2011

2011-12-29T20:35:00.000Z

It's always fun to look back over past achievements, and fellow blogger Regina Ribeiro has suggested that we all take time out to select our favourite ten projects of the past twelve months. I was actually quite surprised by the number of posts I have managed to make in 2011, but it didn't take me long to select the following for my own 'top ten':

My decorative card featuring a water lily and other quilled flowers, which won a prize at our local village show.

My quilled pin brooch that was selected to represent Hampshire in this year's Women's Institute craft competition.

Another pin brooch created using tri-coloured 'twisted' P coils and metallic edged strips.

Digitally quilled shapes providing a 'ghostly' backdrop for 'real' quilling.

'It's a shore thing' - my sculpture combining quilling with photography, real sea shells and vortex coil 'rocks' - won first prize in the 'Quilling Plus' category of the Quilling Guild's Display of Work for 2011.

My spiral starburst on a twisted easel features 'twisted' wheatears and vortex coil blocks, and was awarded The Rose Bowl for innovation at the Quilling Guild's Display of Work for 2011 ... my proudest achievement ever!!

'Rainbow snowflake' - inspired by a piece that was originally created in glass.

My small tortoiseshell butterfly was inspired by an ornamental flower bed, and is made from folded roses and fringed flowers.

My own modern 'take' on the Victorian techniques of Mosaicon (a quilling kit sold in England in the 19th Century).

Twists and more twists using the 'beehive' technique.

I would like to thank all my wonderful online friends who have inspired me and left such encouraging comments here on Quilliance over the past twelve months. You really have helped me more than words can say. It's great to be part of such a vibrant and creative international quilling community, which has enriched my life beyond measure - and I'd like to wish every one of you a happy and healthy new year.

A kavalcade of Ks!

2011-12-21T15:44:00.001Z

I haven't got around to entering many challenges lately, so I decided to have a go at the one Pritesh has recently posted on her Quilling Me Softly blog, which is to create a quilled letter 'K".

The trouble is, once I started thinking about possible shapes and styles for the letter K, I couldn't stop! And after producing five very different quilled letters, I found it impossible to choose between them. So I put them all together to form a border decoration, which I can really only describe as a 'kavalcade of Ks'!!

I've decided that 'K' is a shape with lots of potential for borders, as all the letters connect easily with each other and seem to be marching forwards. I hope I won't be disqualified from the challenge for making more than one letter! But, even if I am, it really doesn't matter because my Ks were all such fun to quill!

Life goes on ...

2011-12-19T13:07:00.001Z

Well, it may be Christmas, but life - and birthdays - still go on exactly as before! I always like to carry a stock of quilled 'age' birthday cards, because customers at our market do occasionally ask for them. I've got designs for ages one through five, 18, 21, 30, 40, 50 etc right up to 100 - these seem to be the main 'milestone' birthdays that people generally want to buy for. Inevitably, I do sometimes get requests along the lines of "Have you got a card for a 42nd birthday - and I need it today?", which, sadly, have to receive a negative response. (If only they had thought to ask me a few days earlier, I could easily have made up a card specially.) Generally, though, I find it's cards for the 'milestone' birthdays that are mostly in demand.

At last Friday's market, I sold the '2nd birthday' card that I'd had in stock for quite some time. Instead of re-making the same design, I decided to try something new - and here's the end result:

It's been a while since I've played around with the blocks of solid colour that I can generate for printing using my Apple Mac Pages software, and it's actually been fun for me to return to them today. I think vibrant blocks of colour can make wonderful backgrounds for quilling. For this card, I've used orange, purple and yellow to create a bright background (carefully avoiding pink or blue as this really needs to work as a 'unisex' design!!) I created some simple gold 'twists' to emphasise the corners of the central '2' using my slotted tool, and then added two quilled balloons and a couple of lime green vortex coils to complete the card.

Hopefully this will be seen as a fun design that might appeal to a young child ... and I'm already thinking about another version with some quilled birthday candles.

Doing it digitally

2011-12-13T22:50:00.002Z

Well, I really seem to have gone from one extreme to the other over the past couple of weeks - from 19th century Mosaicon-style quilling to 21st century digital art (with just a little detour by way of 'beehive' coils in between!)

This week, I felt in the mood to start dabbling with Photoshop again, using the 'virtual' quilling shapes that I developed earlier in the year for my Coils By Quilliance page. When I first created the shapes (in conjunction with an article I was writing for Papers and Pixels magazine), I experimented with using them to create various 'digitally quilled' backgrounds for traditional quilling, which certainly generated some interesting shadowing effects. I've decided, however, that maybe it's time to start bringing this particular technique a little bit further 'out of the shadows', and explore the potential of digital quilling in its own right.

So, today I created this digitally quilled motif:

Which has found its way on to a new card design here:

I've also played around with creating these designs, which were fun to develop using the various resizing and colouring facilities that you get in Photoshop:

Digitally quilled images like this are certainly easy to reproduce in bulk - all you have to do is print them out!

Clearly, this digital approach will never be able to compete with the depth, texture and sheer versatility of real quilling - but I am beginning to wonder whether digital methods might eventually find a place alongside traditional techniques as our art continues to evolve.

Some more beehive quilling: doing the double!

2011-12-09T09:34:00.001Z

As I predicted yesterday, 'beehive quilling' is really taking off ... and I couldn't resist having another go myself, with - as you'd expect! - a few Quilliance-style twists thrown in!!

First I made two teardrop shaped open rings and set about filling them with beehive swirls. As you'll see, the swirls are multi-coloured - that's because I worked with long strips made up of several different colours joined together. Once I had packed out the teardrops with my swirls, there were a few gaps that I wanted to fill. So, in each case, I picked a short length of strip to match/complement the adjacent swirl colour, and did some more twisting to make an infill piece - the result is swirls within swirls, or maybe even a double-beehive effect!

I've mounted my teardrops together on a card as you can see here, with a printed blue background panel and two scallop-shaped cut-outs to which the quilling is glued. Two simple 'P' coils join it all together. Fun!!

A buzz about the beehive!

2011-12-08T10:34:00.001Z

Thanks to the internet, it doesn't take long for word to spread about new quilling techniques ... and this week the spotlight has been firmly focused on Susan's 'beehive' method for filling in quilled shapes. If you follow this link to her blog, you'll find photos of some brilliant jewellery she has made, plus a link to a very helpful video tutorial that's been recently produced by Pritesh.

The 'beehive method' seems to take the 'scribble technique' a stage further through the creation of a series of closely positioned swirls right along the length of a quilling strip using a slotted tool. The resulting swirls can then be bundled loosely together and dropped into a shaped open ring coil where they then open out to fill it up completely.

I thought I'd have a try at 'the beehive' by creating this new pendant. However, instead of tightly packing my teardrop-shaped outer ring with swirls, I decided to try leaving a little bit of space around them for the background to show through.

For this piece, I've used a combination of orange and black 1.5mm metallic-edged strips mounted on to a double-ply punched cardstock base that's been topped with pearlised gift wrap. (The strips actually started out as 3mm ones which I cut in half by hand.) I quite like the gilded effect that the strips produce, and I'm pleased with the way the colours work together to create contrasting areas of swirls.

I'm sure that tightly packed swirls also have great potential for use in flower petals, butterfly wings etc, and I've no doubt that many quillers across the world are working on similar projects right now. In fact, I think we'll be hearing a buzz about 'the beehive' for quite some time to come!!

Something quilled and bright for Christmas

2011-12-05T10:47:00.001Z

I came across an interesting idea on The Quilling Guild's Facebook page last week. Jane Jenkins (yes, THE Jane Jenkins who has published so many inspiring quilling books!) posted some examples of alternate side looped huskings she had made. However, instead of gluing the loops in place, she left them loose and dropped each husking into a ring coil where the loops could release themselves 'at will', resulting in some attractive 'chevron' patterns.

I thought I'd give this a try, but also decided to encourage my husking to unfurl a bit more randomly (following the 'quilled scribble' principle). Then I decorated the end result by putting a few quilled shapes in contrasting colours between the folds.

The result is a crazy Christmas card design which I'm quite sure no-one will ever want to buy, but I enjoyed the process of making it (which is probably all that matters!) I've matted my husking on to a scallop-shaped cut out, then mounted the whole thing on to a printed background. The 'greenery' sprig at the top right was digitally quilled for printing.

Well, at least it brightens up a grey December day ...

Another new quilled pendant

2011-12-03T21:07:00.001Z

I'm really getting into the swing of making these pendants on a shaped background ... this one's very different from the others because I've used a black background shape, but I think it looks quite 'dressy' with the silver and gold quilling strips that I used for the motif. Now that I've put the varnish on, it's very shiny too!

I've also been busy making this pendant:

and these leaf-shaped earrings:

I've sold the earrings, but there have been no takers for the pendants yet! Still, there's always next week's market ...

A new start ... and some finishes

2011-11-28T10:04:00.001Z

When I first started blogging, I felt nervous to say the least. What was I getting into? Who would read my blog? Those same feelings resurfaced when I first joined Facebook, a year or so ago. However, "fortune favours the brave" as they say, and the journeys I have taken into the on-line quilling world have enriched my life beyond measure. So ... encouraged by the very positive response that my blog and Facebook pages have already received, I've decided to take another step forward and sign myself up for Twitter.

Over the weekend, I've been thinking about exactly how I'm going to make use of my new Twitter account. Obviously, I shall be 'tweeting' from time to time about what I personally am doing quilling-wise (for those of you who are interested!!) - but I've also decided to use my Twitter feed to report and re-tweet items of news that I read/hear about in the international quilling community as a whole. By 'news', I mean exhibitions, awards, challenges, new techniques, details of new books and articles about quilling, and perhaps even links to interesting tutorials. What it WON'T be is a general showcase for individual quilling projects, as we already have our own blogs and Facebook groups for that particular purpose. I'm hoping that compiling this 'feed' will prove to be a useful resource for me in my role on the editorial team of Quill America (the quarterly magazine of the North American Quilling Guild), when researching material for possible future articles. Plus, I'm also hoping that quillers worldwide will find it useful to have a source of quilling news all in one place, rather than having to search for news items amongst all the individual projects posted on a typical Facebook group page.

So, if you're already on Twitter (or even just thinking about joining), I'd like to invite you to become a follower of my new feed @quilliance

Once I have acquired a reasonable number of followers, I'll start posting news items in earnest ... and then we can all find out exactly where this idea is going to lead!

And now for the finishes ...
Meanwhile, I promised to post a few details about the protective finishes I use for quilling at the request of my loyal blog follower, Sathya. I often get asked about this, so hopefully the information that follows may be of interest to other quillers, too.

The way I see it, if you are going to preserve quilled pieces (especially jewellery), you first have to make them strong, and then add something to make them waterproof. For strengthening purposes, I always like to coat the outside edges of quilled items such as pendants, brooches and earrings with PVA (poly vinyl acetate) glue (the same adhesive that I use to join coils with). I use a small paint brush to apply the PVA, paying particular attention to reinforcing crucial joins (for example, the area where the hanging ring attaches on to an earring as in the photo above). I also like to apply PVA to the backgrounds on which my quillings are mounted (like the silver heart-shape in my photo). Once the PVA is dry, the areas that have been coated become shiny and quite hard - in fact, they feel almost plasticised. BUT, if the piece gets accidentally splashed with water - which could easily happen if a piece of quilled jewellery is worn outside on a rainy day - the PVA will temporarily turn white and sticky. So you also need to add an extra waterproof coating in the form of lacquer or varnish.

Until recently, I always sprayed my finished pieces with a clear lacquer (like the one shown on the left of this photo) to provide this protective coating. People tend not to believe that jewellery made from paper strips could possibly withstand a shower of rain, but I have even tested my PVA'd and lacquered earrings under a running tap and the water just runs off them, with no damage done to the quilling whatsoever! The trouble with spray lacquers, though, is that you have to wear a mask when spraying, and you need to find a way of securing the quillings while you are doing it, as the force of the spray can easily blow them away! Spray lacquer can also play havoc with the appearance of some metallic-edged strips by taking away their shine. So, really, this approach is all a bit of a hassle, particularly as spraying is a job that's best done in a well-ventilated place or outdoors.

Because of this, I've also been experimenting with applying clear nail varnish to my quilled pieces, and it seems to work very well. The varnish is easy to apply on top of the dried PVA coating using the integral brush, and it dries within a couple of hours to leave a very presentable glossy finish. I think the varnish also helps to further strengthen the finished piece.

If you are wanting to preserve a larger piece of quilling, such as a picture to go in a frame, I think spraying it with lacquer would still be the way to go in order to ensure coverage of all the intricate little 'nooks and crannies' in it. But I would definitely recommend nail varnish for small items of jewellery. What do other quillers think?

Don't forget to check out @quilliance on Twitter! I look forward to 'seeing' you there!

Two more pieces of 'modern Mosaicon'

2011-11-26T14:22:00.001Z

If you liked the quilled pendant I featured in my previous post, I hope you will also be interested in these:

I created both pieces using documented 19th century quilling techniques with a bit of a 21st century twist - I think I'm going to have to call this 'modern Mosaicon' in tribute to William Bemrose's original 'Mosaicon' kit which was sold in the UK in Victorian times.

These are the principles I used:
- Open ring coils pressed into different shapes (some with smaller shapes inside)
- Metallic backgrounds, topped with various colours including black, green and violet
- 1.5mm strips (3mm cut in half) for maximum delicacy
- Inclusion of gold, silver and metallic edged strips in the design
- Use of solid coils made from crimped strips.

My method for making the pendant background discs is also described in my previous post.

Now, is anyone else ready to give this 'modern Mosaicon' a try?

Mosaicon 21st century style

2011-11-24T10:14:00.001Z

"A gold centre surrounded by green, violet and other colours cannot fail to look pretty. Crimped papers lend themselves admirably to this treatment."
From an article on 'Floral Mosaicon' published in 'Every Woman's Encyclopaedia', circa 1911

In my last post, I talked about Mosaicon - the quilling kit that was commercially produced in the UK for filigree artists back in Victorian times. These past few days, I've been fascinated by an article about Mosaicon which appeared in an encyclopaedia for women 100 years ago - and it's inspired me to put some more of its suggestions to the test.

Mosaicon work seems to have been characterised by the use of shapes created using ring coils, enhanced by huskings and open coil filigree work. The 'Floral Mosaicon' article also contains several points of guidance concerning the use of colour, and, as you will have seen, I've quoted from one of these at the top of this post.

"A gold centre surrounded by green and violet" ... well, that made a great starting point for a modern-day 'Mosaicon' design which I decided to create for a pendant. Taking on board the advice about crimping, too, I rolled a tight coil from a crimped gold quilling strip, then bordered it with another crimped strip in green.

(For this project, I also decided to work in 1.5mm strips for extra delicacy, so I cut my selected 3mm strips in half.)

Next came the violet ... the green ring is bordered by a series of heart shapes, fashioned out of open ring coils. Then I added some 'S' scrolls in deeper purple - so far, so good!

At this stage, however, the central gold circle was still completely plain, and as I had used quite a deep matt gold colour to create it, the centre of my design looked a little dull. Just as I was wondering about how to 'lift' it, I received a comment on my last blog post from Ann Martin. "... another look I like is gold on gold which gives a sense of metalwork", she said. Eureka! I would add an extra embellishment using some black strips I have which are edged with a much brighter gold - and the end result really does look like metal! Thank you for the inspiration, Ann.

Having completed my quilled motif, I decided to mount it on a circular background comprising two pieces of card topped front and back with gold gift wrap paper, as described in my last post about the brooch. I added a ring coil to the top edge (for attaching a jump ring) and coated the whole pendant liberally in PVA glue to give it maximum strength and stiffness.

Normally I spray my quilled jewellery pieces with clear lacquer, but this time I thought I would experiment by coating my pendant on both sides with clear nail varnish. This proved to be quick and easy to do, and it has resulted in a deep glossy finish which really brings out the metallics in the piece.

I'm pleased with the way this pendant has turned out, and have decided to keep it for myself rather than offering it for sale at the market. My customers won't be missing out, however, because I'm already part way through making another similar one with a different design on it. And my mind's working overtime - just think what sort of effects could be created with holographic-edged strips?! Watch this space ...

A time-honoured approach to modern quilling

2011-11-22T10:05:00.001Z

In the late 19th century, English 'ladies of leisure' could purchase quilling supplies in the form of a commercially-produced kit called 'Mosaicon'. The techniques they used to decorate boxes, frames and menu cards were first described in a book published by William Bemrose in 1882, which undoubtedly laid the foundations for the practice of modern quilling.

I have yet to see a copy of Bemrose's book, but I have been able to obtain a transcript of an article entitled 'Floral Mosaicon' which appeared in 'Every Woman's Encyclopaedia' sometime between 1910 and 1912. In it, many applications and methods for quilling are described - and I believe they have as much relevance today as they did for filigree artists in the early 20th century.

As I mentioned in my last blog post, Mosaicon favoured the use of ring coils in preference to closed loose coils, but these were pressed into all the familiar shapes we know today: teardrops, eye shapes, leaves, hearts etc etc. Open scrolls were widely utilised, and huskings too. In fact, practitioners of Mosaicon used a wide variety of techniques to produce absolute masterpieces of floral filigree.

I've decided to go back through time and revisit some of the quilling methods described in the 'Floral Mosaicon' article, as I'm sure that many of them are just as relevant today as they were 100 years ago.

Here's the first piece of advice that I picked up:

"When the groundwork employed is in gold, flowers, leaves and stalks should be made in colours, and vice versa; when the groundwork is plain, flowers, etc., should be made either in gold or colours."

Groundwork in gold ... well, that sounded attractive! I've got some beautiful gold gift wrap paper in my stock, so I punched a piece out in a scallop shape and glued it on to a matching cut-out base of card. (Actually, I made the base by punching out two matching scallop shapes from ordinary card stock and gluing them together. By the time the gold paper was glued on to the front, the resulting base was quite rigid - plenty strong enough to affix a pin and make this creation into a brooch.)

After coating the gold paper with a layer of PVA glue to make it shiny, I added some simple quilling with petals for the flower-head fashioned in the time-honoured manner using ring coils.

I brushed PVA around the edges of the quilling, and then sprayed the whole thing with clear lacquer to ensure that my brooch would be waterproof. Here's the end result:

While making this, I felt very 'connected' to earlier generations of quillers who expressed their creativity through the techniques of Mosaicon.

Reading through the 'Floral Mosaicon' article, I came across one particular paragraph which so closely echoes my own philosophy of quilling that I might almost have written it myself: "... anyone of an artistic temperament can think out new designs. Indeed, the work itself constantly suggests new ideas." I couldn't agree more! So let's all celebrate our amazing quilling heritage!

Back to reality!

2011-11-17T11:33:00.001Z

Well, enough of all these 'scribbles' - although they certainly do seem to have got everyone's imagination working overtime ... and I'm happy about the favourable comments they have received.

Digital background courtesy of Laura Boetto at Papers and Pixels

Now it's back to reality for me with a more conventional design. This card was made for my daughter-in-law's birthday earlier in the week, and I'm glad to say she was very pleased with it. I made the flower petals using ring coils which were pressed into a teardrop shape and then embellished with contrasting S coils inside.

Apparently, open rings were very popular in Victorian times among English quillers who practised their art using a commercial kit called 'Mosaicon'. Many of the basic shapes we know today were created from open rings and then decorated inside as I've done here. I formed my rings by winding strips around the circular shaft of a rubber stamp. It makes a change from the familiar closed loose coils that we use so often these days, and I like the potential for embellishing the inside space. I'm sure that modern quillers could draw a lot of inspiration from these old techniques. Meanwhile, of course, I couldn't resist adding a 21st century element by placing my quilling on a printed digital background!

A new 'scribble' for Christmas

2011-11-14T14:20:00.001Z

Well, my last quilled 'scribble' really wasn't intended to be a flying baby elephant, but so many of you saw the same image in it that I can now no longer look at it in any other way!!

These 'scribbled' images are proving to be rather fun, and it's very interesting to hear the different interpretations that people put on an abstract shape - a bit like those psychological 'ink blot' tests where you are asked to describe what images you see in random blobs or splashes of paint!

Anyway, encouraged by the very positive comments I've been receiving about these, here's another quilled 'scribble' design which I thought would make an unusual card for Christmas. You can't see the colours very clearly in this shot, but the darker strip is actually a deep metallic green. Obviously there's a suggestion of holly berries, greenery and maybe even a candle flame ... but I can't wait to find out just what other people see in it!

Another quilled 'scribble'!

2011-11-13T18:02:00.001Z

I sold this card almost as soon as I had made it ... and so I very nearly forgot to post it to my blog! It's actually just another of those random quilled 'scribbles' that are made by coiling the first few centimetres of a strip, then inserting a slotted tool at various intervals along its length to create a succession of twists and turns. (There's another example in my previous post.) When you let the twisted strip relax, it settles into an interesting abstract shape which can then be secured by gluing down the end just as you would do with a conventional closed coil. I used two contrasting strips to make this 'scribble', and decided that it would look OK on a plain background of matted squares. Well, at least one other person must share my 'off the wall' tastes, because it quickly found a buyer at our Friday market.

I'm sure most quillers would agree that paper strips sometimes seem to have minds of their own - and I guess this proves that interesting effects can sometimes be created as a result of 'happy accidents'! Or maybe it just appeals to me because I prefer to quill straight from my head (or twisted mind?) rather than following a pattern. One thing's for sure - it's a unique design and will definitely stay that way, as I couldn't even produce it again myself!!

Some more embossing ...

2011-11-07T12:45:00.000Z

Now that the excitement of the blog hop is over, I'm getting back to making some new cards. Thanks to everyone who kindly commented on my 'Sweet leaves of autumn' post - I hope I have managed to reply to them all, except the ones whose e-mail addresses are not made public on Blogger. So a special thank you goes to those friends as well!

I've been enjoying playing with my new Cuttlebug machine, and have managed to create some new embossed backgrounds for my quilling.

For this card, I first used my 'swirly' embossing folder to make a central patterned section on the front, and then added a square mat of purple mulberry paper which I have also embossed. The mulberry paper is mounted on top of a blue paper mat. I also added a heart shape stamped out of gold paper. The quilling is done in my favourite purple strips which are edged with gold. I think it creates quite a regal feel!

The second card utilises a mat of gold paper which I first embossed before stamping out in a crimped oval shape. This has then been mounted on a printed background. I created a 'random' piece of quilling using a gold strip which I coiled a little bit to start and then crimped/twisted at intervals down the length of the strip using a slotted tool. The resulting abstract shape assembled itself quite naturally into an interesting kind of 'scribble' which I have glued onto the card. Just don't ask me to try and make another one the same!!

The sweet leaves of autumn

2011-11-04T13:00:00.000Z

What colours are the fallen leaves of autumn? Brown? Gold? Yellow? Look closely, and you will see all those colours and many more besides: deep red, orange, scarlet ... even silver. So here is my tribute to the multicoloured spectacle that's at its height right now in the Northern Hemisphere - and also my contribution to the Sweet Leaves Blog Hop which starts its journey around the world at Sandy Diaz's blogspot here.

My leaves have been created using a variety of quilling techniques: closed coils, open and 'S' coils, wheatears, huskings and anything else that came into my head! Some of the strips are crimped, some are double-wound with complementary colours, and for the teardrop-shaped leaf I used a strip that's graduated from green to white. Autumn leaves come in so many shapes, sizes, colours and textures that they seem to provide an endless source of inspiration. Who needs written-down patterns for quilling when Nature provides so many of her own?

And the background for my leaves? This was digitally quilled in Photoshop Elements using 'virtual' quilled shapes which I re-sized, rotated and coloured on-screen to create a leaf-like printable background image. If you'd like to know more about digital quilling, please click here.

And now - on with the Hop! You're currently visiting Philippa's blog, Quilliance, at the end of the European section. You can continue your journey by referring to the 'route map' here:

AFRICA
Jacquline http://cutekipepeo.blogspot.com
ASIA
Syaz http://syazcards.blogspot.com/
Suganthi http://papercraftss.blogspot.com/
Anastasia http://anastasiaw.blogspot.com/
Lin http://azlina-lin.blogspot.com/
Thusitha http://craftsimagery.blogspot.com/
Miez http://miezam.blogspot.com/
Amna http://alfardh.blogspot.com/
EUROPE
Cristina http://cristina-funquilling.blogspot.com/
Suzana http://quillingwithfun.blogspot.com/
Finnuala http://quillingowo.blox.pl/html
Pritesh http://quillingmesoftlee.blogspot.com/
Philippa http://quilliance.blogspot.com/
NORTH AMERICA
Jennifer http://www.creativequilledcreations.blogspot.com/
Paula http://chillinwithquillin.blogspot.com/
Linda http://www.myquillingnest.com/
Shruti http://eenzybeenzy.blogspot.com/
Melissa http://sleeplesswonder.blogspot.com/
AUSTRALIA
Bronwyn http://quillme.blogspot.com/
SOUTH AMERICA
Regina http://regina-ribeiro.blogspot.com/
Natilde http://natiquill.blogspot.com

Now I've got the cuttle bug!!

2011-10-30T14:21:00.000Z

Guess what I got for my birthday? A Cuttlebug embossing and die-cutting machine! So now I'm off on a new creative tack, and I've definitely got the 'cuttle bug' big time!!

Over the past few months I've noticed quite a few quillers producing some beautiful work on embossed backgrounds, so now I'm trying it for myself.

Here's my first attempt: an embossed butterfly on an oval cut-out, complemented by some quilling and mounted on a card with an embossed edge pattern. Once I'd processed the butterfly shape in the Cuttlebug, I found it quite easy to colour it in using brush marker pens. I decided to quill the flower using 1.5mm strips for two reasons: firstly to complement the delicacy of the embossed side pattern, and secondly to restrict the overall thickness of the finished card since I'd already had to glue on the cut-out oval as an extra layer. (Here in the UK, we have to pay more in postal charges if a card is more than 5mm thick, so every extra millimetre counts!) The vertical purple line is a 3mm quilling strip.

For the second card, I embossed a cut-out oval with a different pattern, coloured it very roughly with a few strokes of a brush marker (just to catch the raised sections) and attached it to a printed card base. The quilling was again done with 1.5mm strips. I have a friend who ONLY quills in this width, and every time I see her work I am struck by the beauty and delicacy of the motifs she creates. It makes 3mm work appear quite chunky in comparison.

Here's a close-up of the quilling on the embossed background. I think I am going to have fun with this ...

Update on earrings ... and a couple of new cards

2011-10-23T14:13:00.000+01:00

Another week has gone by, and what do I have to show for it?

Well, I've started making earrings again, in an effort to stock up for Christmas. These two designs both incorporate two-colour huskings embellished with folded roses:

I'm pleased to say that my friend Doris was delighted with the silver and yellow vortex earrings that I made for her - here she is modelling them!

And I have managed a couple of new card designs, too. The first of these features a photo taken at a beautiful lake close to my home in Hampshire, embellished by a quilled dragonfly whose wings were quilled with holographic edged strips to make them sparkle.

The second is a floral design which utilises a printed digital 'mat' that's on offer as a freebie with this month's Papers and Pixels magazine. The 'mat' is actually a photo mask that can be used in digital scrapbooking designs, but I thought I'd have a go at echoing the shape of some of the leaves and flowers around the edge in quilling.

I'm also working on some new ideas for quilled leaves in readiness for The Sweet Leaves Blog Hop on 4th November (see panel at the top of the column opposite) - but, of course, I can't reveal these yet!

So today's post is a bit of a 'mixed bag' to be honest ... but at least I have a few new things to share!

Victory for quilling ... an update

2011-10-19T10:31:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I attended the Autumn Council Meeting of the Hampshire County Federation of Women's Institutes (HCFWI) where I received an award certificate in respect of my quilled pin brooch which had been selected as one of four entries to represent Hampshire in the 2011 Inter-Counties Craft Competition for jewellery. (The other selected entries were made using beading and silversmithing techniques, so it was great to see quilling represented for the very first time!) Collectively, these four entries went on to achieve the highest score in the competition final, making Hampshire the overall winner. One of the Hampshire judges said that I had "stunned" them with my entry, adding "who would believe rolled paper could be used in this way?" I'm hoping this will help to raise the profile of quilling amongst WI members, and I already have two enquiries about bookings for demonstrations, so this is very good news indeed!!

Here's a photo of the four entries that were chosen to represent Hampshire, all on display yesterday at The Anvil theatre in Basingstoke. You can see my little pin brooch in the centre. I was so pleased that quilling had earned its place alongside such superb examples of the better-known arts of silversmithing and beading.

I had used black strips edged with gold to create my pin brooch, which you can see in more detail here against the backdrop of my award certificate. Many people asked me about the materials I used, and found it hard to believe that the piece had actually been made from paper and not rolled gold!

Yesterday's meeting filled the theatre in Basingstoke, and a huge cheer went up from my WI colleagues when my name was announced. Above the stage there was an overhead projection screen where the names of the four Hampshire winners were displayed. Alongside the names was a single photograph of one of the entries ... and I'm very proud to say that it was mine!

Vortex coil earrings

2011-10-13T16:14:00.000+01:00

Word seems to be spreading about my quilled jewellery ... and I'm getting all sorts of requests, ranging from "Can you replace the clasp on this necklace?" to "Can you make something like this in quilling?"

Well, I always like to help if I can. So, when a friend asked me recently if I could re-create an earring design like the one below using quilling strips, I was happy to try and rise to the challenge.

The original piece was made from metal, with bright yellow enamelling. I decided to reproduce the diamond shape for each earring using vortex coils created from pairs of yellow strips (one crimped, one not) to make a fairly solid background. Having bordered both diamonds with silver strips, I created each of the silver chevrons from two marquise shapes which I had made using crimped yellow strips edged with holographic silver for an extra sparkly effect. These, again, were bordered with silver. To strengthen the pieces, I applied PVA glue around the sides and all over the back of both earrings before attaching metal posts and varnishing, as I wanted to be sure that the centres of the vortexes would not push out when taking the earrings on and off. Here's the end result:

Life gets in the way!

2011-10-09T12:28:00.001+01:00

No post here for nearly a week ... well, that's the way it goes I guess - there's never a shortage of crafting ideas in my head, but life has an annoying habit of getting in the way just when I want to put them into action!

In actual fact, I haven't been entirely idle on the quilling front these past few days. I DID manage to create another card design using some more of those metallic-edged strips I love so much. I have some gorgeous purple 3mm strips which are edged with copper, and decided they would look great on a background of even deeper purple, complemented by some extra yellow swirls to add a little brightness.

I also played around with fringing some strips, using the very useful 14cm wide 'bulldog clip' that I bought at The Quilling Guild's wonderful event last month. I managed to create three fringed flowers using some iris-folding strips which I had folded in half and fringed diagonally inwards from the folded edge, holding the open edges together inside the clip as I cut. When you roll up this type of fringed strip around a central solid coil, the cuts splay naturally outwards to create an interesting petal effect - although I did find that it's best to glue the open edges together after fringing and apply a little downward pressure to open the cuts up first.

Here are the flowers I made, alongside my finished card. I'm hoping to get a LOT more quilling done this coming week, if I get the chance!

A gilded butterfly

2011-10-03T20:00:00.001+01:00

I've been experimenting with metallic-edged quilling strips again. The wings of this new butterfly are made from 3mm black strips edged with gold - the effect reminds me a little of gilded wrought iron work. To be honest, these wings evolved 'by accident' as I played around with making asymmetric huskings between my fingers and twisted the end loops (still one of my all-time favourite current techniques!) I put two of the huskings together, added a few extra marquises and swirls - and my mind just said "butterfly"!! So here's my latest butterfly on a card for the market ... who knows what new ideas tomorrow may bring?

Just look what I found in Photoshop!

2011-09-28T17:10:00.000+01:00

If you are a regular follower of Quilliance, you may remember that I did some quilling last year inspired by the style of the 19th century English artist William Morris. I love the bold, swirly, leafy designs that Morris produced, so you can imagine my excitement when I came across some very similar ornamental patterns in the 'Shapes' menu of Photoshop Elements (version 9):

Using the Photoshop software, I combined the square motif I had found with some zig zag lines on-screen, reduced the opacity of the image to make it appear light grey, and saved the whole thing as a 'png' file which could then be printed on to a card like this:

Next I added a little quilling, using some more of my new metallic-edged strips ... and here's the end result:

I've tried just to create a 'suggestion' of the underlying pattern with my quilled shapes, utilising colours that echo the green, red, orange and gold of autumn leaves. I wonder whether William Morris would have approved?

A shiny new quilled card design

2011-09-26T14:23:00.000+01:00

Well, now that I've come back down to earth after all the excitement of last week, I've been getting back to my card-making once again. I decided, however, that it's time for a bit of a 'new look', so I've been experimenting with some speciality quilling strips and some different typography.

When I attended The Quilling Guild's AGM and Display of Work earlier this month, I was fascinated to browse through the merchandise on offer from the various traders who were there. One of the items I bought was a pack of gorgeous 'holofoil' edged strips from JJ Quilling, and I've used them in this new twisted husking motif. As I hope you can see from this photograph, the yellow strips are edged in holographic silver, which catches the light in a fantastic way. The green strips I used are also edged with metallic green.

I chose colours for my quilling that would complement the dramatic daisy flower that I have used as the background for this card. I managed to 'extract' the flower from its background in Photoshop, and reproduce it in different sizes to make up the design. (I took the picture of this flower on my recent holiday in the Isles of Scilly, where the profusion of unusual blooms at this time of year really has to be seen to be believed!) The typeface I've used for the greeting is Zapfino, and I quite like the resulting handwritten effect.

My second 'secret' quilling!

2011-09-22T21:52:00.002+01:00

Here's the other quilling I had been keeping 'under wraps' until after this year's Quilling Guild display of work was over.

It's another little 'sculpture', this time featuring a lily pond with a tree and a base of blue coils which hopefully give the impression of rippling water - well, that was the intention, anyway!

I created this piece a couple of months ago during my active 'vortex coil period' (which regular followers of Quilliance will no doubt remember!!) I had the idea for the water first, as vortex coils seem to be the perfect medium for this! Then I made the willow tree out of two wide brown iris folding strips joined together along the sides, which I folded and pressed to form a solid vortexed trunk. I decided to decorate it with a few tiny solid dark brown vortexes (?vortices) whose centres have been pushed out and glued into place - these are meant to suggest gnarls on the tree trunk. Then all it needed was a little extra decoration in terms of some ivy and a leafy section at the top. It's meant to be a 'pollarded' willow, by the way, which you often see close to streams and rivers in England. (Pollarding means that that tree has been cut down very low in order to encourage 'bushy' growth.) I spread glue over the vortex coils on the underside of the pond in order to create a solid base.

I entered this into the 'Freestanding Quilling' section of the competition, and here it is in the bottom left hand section of the competition table - now, I did start out by saying it was 'little' didn't I?!!

Anyway, no prizes here, but I did learn a lot about vortex coils in the process of making it - and I was actually quite pleased with my water lily flower:

I've been keeping secrets from you ... but they can now be revealed!

2011-09-21T13:37:00.002+01:00

When I first received my member's invitation to attend The Quilling Guild event this past weekend, I had to decide whether or not to enter any of the competition categories in the annual display of work. It didn't take me long to decide that I would! Having made that decision, however, I had to set about creating the quilled pieces for my entries - and, of course, I had to keep them closely under wraps!

Now that the competitions are over, I can reveal the pieces that I entered into some of the other categories, and will post pictures here on Quilliance over the next few days.

First up is my 'Quilling In A Frame', for which I decided to create a quilled version of my favourite butterfly - the Small Tortoiseshell. Now, instead of just drawing the outline of the wing markings and filling them in with quilled marquises, I took my inspiration from an ornamental flower-bed and decided to create my butterfly's wings from flowers. So I used fringed flowers and folded roses to create the patches of colour on the wings, just as garden designers in English parks create pictures using flowering plants!

Here it is, mounted up on top of the glass within an unusual frame:

And here you can see it with some of the other 'Quilling In A Frame' entries on the competition table:

As soon as I saw the superb quality of the other wonderful entries, I doubted that my butterfly would stand much chance in the voting process, and so it proved ... but I'm still very proud of it!!

Here's a close-up section of the quilled flower shapes that I used for the wings. Maybe this is an idea that others would like to try?

Quilling with the experts

2011-09-20T16:47:00.002+01:00

It's not often that you get the chance to quill alongside expert quillers like Jane Jenkins, Diane Boden Crane and Elizabeth Moad - but that's exactly what we got to do on the brilliant Shared Skills Day that was organised by The Quilling Guild last weekend.

And just LOOK at some of the projects they showed us!!

It was a wonderfully informal event, staged in a superbly well-equipped hall where we sat around tables in groups of five or six, sharing techniques and learning from one another. Every so often, the call would go out that someone was about to demonstrate a particular method of quilling, and we would all gather round to watch and learn.

I was asked to demonstrate making the 'twisted wheatears' that I used in my winning 'Spiral Starburst' design, and before I knew it everyone seemed to be grabbing their slotted needle tools to twist the loops of huskings that they had made. Believe me, that felt good!

I think the most wonderful thing about this event was that we all felt so connected as quillers at every level - beginners and experts alike. It's so comforting to know that even the most accomplished quillers sometimes lose control of their coils, drop tiny quillings and succumb to the temptation of rushing ahead with a project too soon before their glue is completely dry!

I laughed, I learned and was inspired! And I just can't wait to do it all again next year ...

A wonderful weekend with The Quilling Guild

2011-09-19T12:52:00.000+01:00

It isn't often that you'll find me lost for words ... but right now I have so much to tell you about that I hardly know where to begin!

This past weekend, I attended The Quilling Guild's annual general meeting, display of work and shared skills day in the beautiful county of Suffolk. What a wonderful couple of days! I have made so many new friends, put 'faces to names' of people who I chat with on the internet, watched some inspirational demonstrations and seen such an extravaganza of brilliant quilling that it feels as though my head will burst!

In fact, there's so much to say that I've decided to spread it over several blog posts in the coming days, starting with the most exciting news of all: I actually won three prizes in the Guild competitions!

My 'Rainbow Snowflake' picture came third in the 'Never Placed' section, which is intended for newcomers to the Guild (I joined last year).

My little quilled sea-shore sculpture achieved first prize in the 'Quilling Plus' category, in which quilling paper may be complemented with other materials (mine incorporates real sea shells).

Best of all, however - and I can hardly believe I'm telling you this - I was awarded the Rose Bowl Award for my 'Spiral Starburst' quilling on a twisted easel. The Rose Bowl is awarded for innovative quilling, so I'm particularly proud of this one. To say that I feel honoured is an understatement!

I'll tell you more about the competition entries, the people and the demos just as soon as I can think straight once again. Meanwhile, please excuse me while I spend just a little more time floating about on Cloud Nine!

Quilling a cross stitch pattern

2011-09-13T11:13:00.000+01:00

I'm finally getting organised again after my holiday. The laundry is done, the housework is 'in progress' ... and I've re-stocked my box of quilled cards for the market which was getting seriously depleted before I went away. So, finally, I'm able to get down to some new quilling projects - one of which is something that I've never tried before.

I recently picked up a lovely book containing cross stitch patterns. Now, I have absolutely no affinity with needles and threads whatsoever, but it did occur to me that some of the patterns in the book could easily be translated into some interesting quilling.

Cross stitch patterns are presented as squares of colour on a graph paper grid. So what I've done is scanned a sheet of this squared paper, imported it into my computer and then printed a section of it on to the front of a card. I did not want the grid to appear too prominent, so I used my graphics software to pull it into an oval shape with softly 'feathered' edges, printing it at low opacity so that it does not appear too dark. I think the end result actually makes quite an attractive background for some brightly coloured coils.

Anyway, I've only got part way with this flower pattern so far, but at least you can see where it's going! I've been working with tiny open coils made from 2cm lengths of 1.5mm quilling strips, placing each coil on to a little drop of glue inside each square on the grid. It's just a question of following the pattern to see which squares have to be filled and which colours to use.

My flower is taking shape, as you can see here, and I'll post a picture of the end result as soon as I have finished. There are loads of wonderful cross stitch patterns available, so I think this method of quilling could have some interesting potential. Watch this space ...

Home from the islands ... with a taste of the sea

2011-09-09T16:58:00.000+01:00

I can hardly believe it's been over two weeks since my last post ... but I have an excellent excuse! I've been on a wonderful holiday with my husband and two friends to the Isles of Scilly which, for me, represent a little piece of paradise just off the Atlantic coast of Cornwall (south west England).

Whenever I go there, I am inspired by the intense blueness of the sea and sky, the whiteness of the spectacular sandy beaches (strewn with beautiful shells) and the vibrant colours of exotic, sub-tropical plants that thrive in the islands' mild climate.

Of course, I took loads of photographs which will eventually find their way on to cards - and here's the first design that I've had time to work on since arriving home:

The main photo is a view of an elegant yacht moored off the island of Bryher, and below it is a section taken from a wall of the fabulous seashell mosaic 'house' which stands in the Abbey Gardens on Tresco.

I thought these images would make a perfect background for some 'beach life' quilling: some angular rocky coils, a yellow periwinkle shell, some narrow strands of seaweed ... and my attempt at a scallop shell, made using graduated strips. (You can see the real thing in the mosaic photo.)

I had a wonderful break, but now I'm really glad to get back to my quilling. My head is just bursting with new ideas, which I hope to share here in the weeks ahead.

White space

2011-08-24T17:20:00.000+01:00

Quilling designs often seem to appear in my head overnight - maybe my brain is still quilling while I am asleep!! Anyway, last night I was half-thinking/half-dreaming about two cards which, unlike my usual photographic backgrounds, were characterised by lots of white space surrounding the quilling. All I've added is just a tiny coloured shape as a subtle background graphic. Here they are:

I was thinking along similar lines last week when I made this new dragonfly card:

I'm really not sure whether I dream in colour ... but I've certainly been dreaming in white!!

Using quilling shapes as stamps

2011-08-22T15:43:00.000+01:00

It's interesting how the seeds of creative ideas are sown. As regular followers will know, I've been experimenting with placing quilled motifs on top of digitally 'quilled' backgrounds for my most recent card designs, and I've been delighted with the favourable comment I've been receiving! Heidi Bishop, a talented quilling friend of mine on Facebook, told me that the technique reminded her of work she had seen in the past where quilled shapes had been pressed into an ink pad and then used to create 'stamped' impressions for a quilling background. This idea intrigued me - I just had to give it a try!

Meanwhile, I have just been writing a feature for the Quill America newsletter about paper bead making, featuring the beautiful work of Licia Politis. Licia told me that she likes to embellish some of her beads by rolling them on a sticky glue pad and sprinkling them with embossing powder which then melts into a beautiful shiny finish after being 'blasted' with a heat gun.

Years ago, when I first starting crafting, I purchased embossing powders and a heat gun which I used to emboss images obtained from rubber stamps. It's been quite a while since any of this equipment saw the light of day, but today seemed like the right time to bring it out.

I wanted to experiment with the idea of dipping quilled shapes in glue and applying them to card like you would a stamp. So I made a vortex coil and two teardrops and had a go! After transferring the sticky pattern to the card, I sprinkled on my embossing powder, and switched on the heat gun - here's the result:

I thought this might make a good basis for a 'Congratulations' card which is a category in demand right now that school exam results are out.

I printed the background with a digitally-produced layout of stars, did the embossing as described, and then created a few 'twisted' huskings to place on the top, producing a sort of 'champagne cork/fireworks' effect.

So this card combines digital art, stamping/embossing and quilling all in one - and another new idea is born!

Turning the ghost on its head

2011-08-20T16:40:00.002+01:00

Regular followers of Quilliance will know that I have been experimenting with mounting quilled motifs on to a shadowy digital background image of quilled shapes, to create a kind of 'ghostly' layered effect. The results seem to have been very well received, so I decided to experiment some more ...

This time I've been much bolder with the background image, colouring it in with the idea of placing some paler 'real' quilled shapes on top - in other words, "turning the ghost on its head"!!

I also played about with the digital background shapes in Photoshop, applying the 'Fresco' and 'Plastic Wrap' artistic filters to the images, creating what I hope are some new and interesting effects.

Well, here's the result - an abstract card design which makes me think of flowers and butterflies in a colourful meadow. I think there's a huge amount of creative potential with this new 'combination' technique, so I expect I'll be posting more before too long!

Some more 'ghostly' quilling!

2011-08-16T17:54:00.000+01:00

The mysterious 'ghostly' card I featured in yesterday's post seems to have been very well received - thanks, everyone, for your very kind comments!

Today, I decided to make another card using a printed 'quilled' image as a background for some real quilling. I had actually been thinking about the way in which duplicate images are layered on top of one another in decoupage. I wanted to quill a bright yellow daisy for today's card, so I started by creating a digital image of a quilled daisy for the background, which I printed in grey at 50% opacity. Then I added some colourful quilling on top, using bright yellow marquises which I deliberately made smaller than the printed marquises, producing a 'shadow' effect.

Here's the finished design - not as 'ghostly' as yesterday's, but hopefully still quite effective:

Now you see it ... now you don't!

2011-08-15T16:13:00.001+01:00

Last time I re-stocked on my quilling strips, I was tempted to include some graduated strips in my order. I've never used these before, but I wanted to give them a try. The strips I got are coloured darkest in the centre, gradually fading out to white at either end. This produces quite a gentle colour effect when you roll the strips, much more delicate than the bold solid colours that I normally use.

For this design, I decided to go back to a technique I began using quite a while ago: mounting quilling on to a photographic background of quilling to achieve a layered effect. The background is a digital image of a quilled motif made using different shapes, printed in grey. I did not want this to dominate the finished design, so I printed it on to my card at just 50% opacity, before adding my 'real' quilling on top. I think this balances the delicate shades of the graduated strips quite well - in fact, the effect is quite mysterious and almost ghostly!!

I used quite a few different techniques here, too: large, open 'P' coils, a 'royal' wheatear husking, and two pinched vortex coils with open centres - all made using the graduated strips.

I guess that's the most wonderful thing about quilling - there's ALWAYS something new to try!!

Using every trick in the book!

2011-08-10T10:01:00.001+01:00

I guess you know you've 'arrived' as a card-maker when people start commissioning you to make personalised cards for special occasions. Last month, a very well-respected gentleman in our village had his 80th birthday, and I was flattered to be asked to make a special card for him by his wife. No sooner had I finished that, than I was asked to produce another unique birthday card for the organisers of our market to give to him. Then, the Women's Institute committee made a similar request. And THEN, I had a phone call from a friend of his asking me to make yet another special card ... well, by that time I was running very low on ideas (especially for a man)!!

Now it looks like it's happening all over again. Last week I produced a personalised quilled card for a couple's first wedding anniversary ... no problem! However, I'd only just given the card to the lady who ordered it, when her mother asked me to make another for her. Obviously, it had to be quite different from the one I sold to her daughter - so, it was back to the drawing board once more! I've literally thrown every trick in the book at this one: inset photo and heart graphic; different typeface from the one I usually use; slanted text; two 'royal' wheatears, a 'royal' husking with S coil inside, a heart coil and sundry swirls ... Talk about experimental - I'm suffering from burn-out!! But, actually, there's nothing like quilling to calm me down.

New card for a gardener

2011-08-03T16:14:00.002+01:00

It seems that people buying cards are always on the lookout for designs reflecting hobbies. For the men, I've got designs featuring football, cricket, golf, fishing etc etc ... but it occurred to me a while ago that I had nothing at all relating to gardening.

While visiting some beautiful gardens a couple of weekends ago, I came across a scene that I just knew would make a great card background. The garden fork beside a little basket of potatoes made an attractive combination - and I hope I have enhanced it with my quilling.

As you can see, I've finally got back into my card-making again after a really busy week working on magazine articles and preparing for last Sunday's art show. Now all I need is just a few more uneventful days to get the creative processes flowing properly once again!

It's Blackberry time!

2011-08-01T10:26:00.000+01:00

My mobile phone contract finally came up for renewal last weekend, leaving me eligible for a long-awaited upgrade - so now I am the very proud owner of a brand new Blackberry smartphone! The reason I'm telling you this is that it's going to change the way I respond to all the wonderful comments I receive on my blog, so please read on ...

Now that my email account is linked directly to the Blackberry, I'm going to receive instant notification of a comment no matter where I am. (SO exciting LOL!!)

In future, I'm going to respond via the Blackberry, too - but I can only do this if your email address is included with your comment. So, if you would like me to reply personally to a comment (which I hope you will), please make sure that the Privacy Settings in your Blogger User Profile have the 'Show my email address' command box checked. That way, I can just hit 'reply' on my phone and get straight back to you!

My next post will be about quilling, I promise ...

Breaking the silence!

2011-07-31T21:04:00.000+01:00

When Quilliance is silent for more than a couple of days, you know that my time is being taken up by something big. Sure enough, my main focus for the past few days has been preparing for an art show which took place in our village this afternoon - and I was right there amongst the paintings and the pottery with my quilling!

I took my quilled jewellery and the biggest range of cards that I could muster ... and it was SO worthwhile! Lots of sales, lots of friendly people, and the huge satisfaction that comes from taking part in a successful event on a sunny summer's day.

The show took place in a big marquee set along the edge of our local cricket green, and it attracted a great crowd of people. I took along some quilling to do, and quickly gained an admiring audience making the usual comments along the lines of: "that looks so fiddly", and "I would never have the patience to do that"! Some have signed up for my next demo in a few weeks time, and I'm so looking forward to proving them wrong!

Here's my display, in a picture taken just before the show opened:

The only trouble now is that I've got my regular market again on Friday ... and an awful lot of replacement quilling to do!

A new quilled watch

2011-07-27T15:09:00.000+01:00

I've just finished decorating this craft watch which was the other part of my prize from the Creative Quilling Forum jewellery challenge (along with the 1.5mm quilling strips which I mentioned a few days ago). The very narrow strips are ideal for this application, as you can layer them up and still get the transparent watch cover to fit on over the top. It's a bit of a challenge finding a design to fit into the crescent-shaped working area of the watch, but I decided that half a Royal Flower would be just the thing! I have decorated watches with quilling before, but I particularly like the format of this one because the cover simply snaps into place on the watch face without requiring any glue around the edge. You can buy them from http://www.creativequilling.com.au/

A 'royal' dragonfly

2011-07-21T19:47:00.001+01:00

Why should flower petals be the only recipients of the 'royal' treatment? I decided to create this dragonfly with wings made from huskings with twisted loops, using the technique that quillers around the world are now calling 'royal' after Asma's Royal Flower.

I used copper-edged strips for the borders of the wings, making a sparkly contrast to the rather dark and mysterious pond water that appears in the background photo. I thought the lily floating in this pond looked great against the darkness of the water, and hopefully my dragonfly does too!

Two more 'royal' huskings to complement some squares

2011-07-19T16:01:00.001+01:00

I have always liked this four-square format for my cards, so I have returned to it while fulfilling a special order for a 'first anniversary' design. The couple who will receive it love nature, hence the flower and the butterfly. But I'm glad I left the other two squares plain, as they make the perfect backdrop for these huskings which have received the 'royal' treatment through twisting of the ends!

The 'Royal Flower' technique was invented by Asma Ahmad Bahari, and named on Facebook by Amna Al Fardh. Thanks, ladies - I could so easily sit and make these huskings all day long ...!

Quilling on through thick and thin!

2011-07-17T14:43:00.001+01:00

Lauren over at the Creative Quilling Forum kindly sent me a multi-coloured pack of 1.5mm quilling strips as part of my prize for winning the Forum's recent quilled jewellery challenge. I was really looking forward to receiving this, as I normally always use 3mm strips, and I was keen to try using narrower ones for a different visual effect.

Having seen 1.5mm strips in use at the quilling workshop I went to recently, I knew that these ultra-thin strips would make it possible to create some very delicate motifs. In fact, the ladies I met on that occasion all said they would never go back to using 3mm strips again! Now, I'm not sure that I would go quite that far, but it does seem to me that the thin strips offer a lot of potential for use in combination with wider ones.

I quilled this card today, using a motif created with a standard width 3mm husking combined with some layered spirals and teardrops made using the 1.5mm strips. This approach makes it possible to layer quilling without adding to the overall depth, which is particularly important here in the UK where cards need to fit within a maximum 5mm width in order to avoid a mailing surcharge. I also like the way you can work within the background 3mm depth of the main husking to angle the narrower quillings that are layered.

Here are some close-ups to show you what I mean:

Quilling beneath the waves!

2011-07-13T15:18:00.001+01:00

Here's another card design featuring a little quilled octopus, starfish, some weed and a rock! I used the rainbow coloured background, because the graduating colours give the impression of water laying above a sandy sea bed. I think the sun is shining up above!

So now I have finished re-stocking my card rack (for the moment, at least ...!)

It's time to start working on something new...

Quilled cards on the production line!

2011-07-12T10:48:00.001+01:00

I've sold a lot of my quilled cards lately, which is great! But of course it means that I need to stock up again, pronto, because I've got several sales events coming up between now and the end of the month. The first of these is a Women's Institute meeting on Thursday, where there's going to be announcement about my recent win in the WI craft competition. This has already caused quite a bit of excitement amongst my fellow WI committee members, so I really can't go along to the meeting with a half-empty card box!

On Sunday, I began printing out a load of card blanks with photographic backgrounds: some of my most popular designs, and several that I haven't used for quite a while and had almost forgotten about! I've been quilling them ever since, and although the pictures may have been used before, much of the quilling is quite new as I'm trying to make use of some newly-learned techniques. Here's a small selection ... and I'm hoping to have some totally new ideas to show you before too long!

White on white

2011-07-09T20:23:00.000+01:00

Now, you know me ... I really love COLOUR in my designs. But just occasionally I am tempted to do something completely different.

I was given the blank for this card at the quilling workshop I attended last week. It is made from lovely textured paper, and has a prettily cut edge (done, I think, using a Cuttlebug), behind which lies a narrow strip of white glitter paper on the inside of the card. Now obviously I couldn't run this through my computer printer to make a background, so that got me thinking: what kind of quilling shall I do to harmonise with this crisp, sharp white? The answer - more white, to create a delicate, almost sculpted, effect. The result is a card that's very different from the ones I usually produce, but I'm pleased with it. How surprising it is that white quilling shows up so well against a white background - I guess it has something to do with the shadows that are cast.

Anyway, you'll be pleased to hear that my new 'Fine Tip Glue Applicator' worked a treat - it really does dispense miniscule dots of glue when you want it to. I also tried the damp sponge/greaseproof paper technique for getting glue on to the back of my finished motifs, and can recommend this as well. (You can read more about both these items in my previous post.)

Now here's a close-up of the quilling itself... white on white, like an embroidered handkerchief!

Where does the time go?

2011-07-07T10:28:00.000+01:00

I've been out and about quite a bit this past week, so there's not been much time for me to do any quilling ... but hopefully that's all going to change today! Before I settle down in my craft room, however, there are a few brief items of news I can share:

First, here's another piece of experimental quilling that I did last weekend, comprising some more twisted husking leaves, plus a diamond-shaped crimped vortex coil flower. (What a mixture of different techniques!) The husked leaves have a strip up the middle which is meant to look like a central 'vein'. I've mounted this motif on to another of those digital medallion backgrounds which seem to complement quilling because they look so delicate. For this one, I also decided to colour in the central segment using a gold glitter pen and add a simple quilled heart to embellish it. I think this makes quite an unusual card.

Second, I attended a quilling workshop a few days ago, which gave me the opportunity to meet up with a few other members of the English Quilling Guild who live in my local area. I was very glad I went, as the other ladies were all so friendly, and it was really great to be able to sit round a table doing some quilling all together. I noticed that the others were all using a brilliant little 'fine tip' applicator for their PVA glue, consisting of a small 'squeezable' plastic glue container which is capable of dispensing teeny-tiny dots of glue in a very controlled way - just perfect for quilling! Well, this little gadget made my portable glue pot and collection of messy cocktail sticks look very cumbersome indeed ... so I searched for the supplier online and placed an order straight away. I've only had time to play with my new applicator for a few minutes so far, but it seems to be a brilliant little tool which is going to be very useful and convenient to carry around. The design is very clever, too - you store the container upside-down with a special pin inserted inside the applicator tip so that the glue inside never dries out. You can check out the supplier's web site via this link. She's based in the UK, but ships worldwide.

Now, here's something else I learned at the workshop: if you take a damp sponge, wrap it in greaseproof paper and dispense a blob of glue on to the paper, you can spread out the glue into a thin layer and use it to dip quilled motifs in before attaching them to cards. The dampness prevents the glue from drying out, and so you have a useful reservoir of glue on hand that's just perfect for applying evenly to the reverse side of your quillings. I have always applied lots of little blobs of glue to the back of my quillings using a cocktail stick, but this seems like a much easier, cleaner and more efficient way of doing it ... so I'm happy to pass this suggestion on to you.

When I ordered my glue applicator, I also bought another five to keep in reserve - they are sure to come in handy at my next quilling demonstration which has now been scheduled for an evening in August. I think my participants will find them very handy as they learn to take their very first steps in quilling, and I'm really looking forward to doing the demo once again.

I've also booked a table at an art show which is being staged in our village at the end of this month, where I hope to sell some cards and earrings whilst also doing some quilling for people to watch. Maybe I'll be able to get some more bookings from local groups for my little demo - I certainly hope so! I'll let you know how I get on.

I'm taking another 'quill pill'!

2011-07-04T10:46:00.000+01:00

Some of you may already have seen this quilled nine-pointed star that I made recently, as I have posted it in a couple of the quilling group albums on Facebook. I originally made it as an exercise in pairing up 'P scrolls and using the 'twist' technique to finish off the ends. But what to do with it? Well, I eventually decided to mount it on to a brooch pin as a piece of jewellery and enter it into this month's 'Take A Quill Pill' challenge, as I haven't entered this for quite a while.

Meanwhile ... well, I've been literally overwhelmed by the response to the news about my WI craft competition success, not just here, but also on Facebook and from my good friends in both the English and the North American Quilling Guilds. Now I'm really hoping that my piece will do well in the national competition finals, because that would generate just the right kind of publicity that's needed to bring the art of quilling into the 'public eye'. To all of you who commented on my posts and congratulated me so warmly, I'd like to say another very big "Thank You" right here. If I failed to respond to any individual post, please forgive me - things went really crazy after I posted my news in various places last Thursday night, and it was very difficult for me to keep up with the response, especially as I was away from my computer for most of the day on Friday. The results from the next stage of the competition will be announced in September, so I'll let you know how I get on.

Victory for quilling!!

2011-06-30T20:32:00.000+01:00

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!!

One more twisted wheatear

2011-06-29T17:53:00.000+01:00

Another twisted wheatear ... two copper-edged P scrolls ... and a little husked leaf = the perfect quilled motif for this card:

A new card design with 'twisted' wheatears and huskings

2011-06-27T10:35:00.000+01:00

Here's something a bit different, but still exploring the possibilities of twisting the loops that are formed within quilled wheatears and huskings:

To make this card, I printed the yellow background first, then ran it through my printer again to add the two graphic 'medallions' which are obtainable as downloadable 'freebies' from the Papers and Pixels online craft magazine. (The green line and the greeting are also over-printed, of course, using my AppleMac Pages software.) Then I attached the quilled motif, which is made up entirely of experimental pieces that I had created at random over the weekend. This one is a bit different from my usual designs, but I think it works quite well. I just love all this 'quilling with a twist' ...!

Yet another quilling twist!

2011-06-26T10:39:00.000+01:00

Ever since I learned the 'Royal Flower' technique for twisting the ends of husking loops, I've been experimenting with 'twisting' all sorts of quilled shapes!

Yesterday, I thought to myself: "What would happen if I add some twists inside a simple teardrop or closed loose coil?" ... and here's the result:

I just made the coils for these shapes in the usual way, but then captured some inner parts of each coil with a slotted tool and gave them a slight twist. It makes an interesting pattern, I think! The silver 'fleur de lys' shape was made by twisting the outside loops of a 'three-pronged' husking.

So I took this little 'random motif' and added it to a birthday card. My experimental quillings never go to waste LOL!!

Let's twist again ...

2011-06-22T16:40:00.000+01:00

... like we did yesterday! Except that today I've been experimenting with different ways of using the twisted loop effect of the 'Royal Flower' technique.

I made this design by adding a 'Royal twist' to the straight ends of some 'P' scrolls and the outer loops of a simple husking. I also added a second colour (orange) to the inner scroll sections for greater visual impact. A Facebook friend in Australia has already commented that this design has a Medieval look about it, which I think could easily set me off on a whole new quilling style!

Royal petals and leaves

2011-06-21T16:08:00.000+01:00

There's a real buzz over on Facebook at the moment about a new quilling technique for making what's recently been named a 'Royal Flower' (or a type of 'Malaysian Flower'), developed by quiller Asma' Ahmad Bahari of Simple Rhyme.

(For details, do check out the Emirates Quilling Guild page on Facebook if you are a registered Facebook user, or visit this link for an example and tutorial.)

Basically, the technique involves twisting the ends of the loops inside quilled huskings to form curly patterns rather like 'P' coils - and the result is very effective!

Well, of course, I HAD to have a go - and here's my take on the 'Royal' technique:

Instead of the usual flower petal application, I twisted the husking loops within one of my quilled leaves, and then tried it on a non-enclosed husking to make what looks - I hope! - like an unfurling purple flower. There are tiny orange wheatears within the yellow stamens, too.

For the last couple of days I've been having fun making different types of leaves using husking/wheatear techniques, and to my surprise I've found that I can quite easily create them by holding the quilling in my fingers, without using a board and pins. This all began when I started creating closely-wound wheatears for making vortex coils, and I've been really pleased to discover just how versatile this method is. As long as you keep a good grasp on the base of the husking, there's almost no limit on the amount of looping you can do! Just secure the finished husking with a tiny dot of glue.

Quilling inspired by a summer garden

2011-06-19T19:14:00.000+01:00

After weeks of warm sunshine, we finally got rain ... and the garden is looking fabulous! Here's a photo I took of one of our hosta plants, whose variegated leaves look wonderful with purple lavender flowers next to them. I've simply echoed the colours by adding some quilling, and I'm pleased with the result of this finished card.

Meanwhile, a friend asked me to make a 50th birthday card for her son who is a very keen gardener. She wanted me to include a quilled garden rake and spade, which I managed to produce after a little trial and error!

And finally ... this has absolutely nothing to do with quilling, but I wanted to share it with you! Yesterday we attended a little country fair at a nearby village, and among the sideshows was a 'human fruit machine'! Yes, instead of the usual 'one-armed bandit' machine, there was a little painted booth with three windows and three real people with a supply of fruit inside. Every time someone came up to play, the people inside the booth picked up their fruit at random and held it up to their window. (There were curtains between, so they couldn't see what their neighbours were doing!) They had pineapples, melons, bananas, grapes and oranges - and just like the real thing, three of a kind got a prize! I've been smiling about this ever since ...

Have a great week!

A new quilling tutorial

2011-06-15T11:11:00.000+01:00

Most of my wonderful Quilliance followers are already accomplished quillers in their own right - so I'm sure none of you really need to read a beginners' tutorial on quilling! However, I thought you might still be interested to see the tutorial that I've recently written and had published in the June 2011 Papers and Pixels (my favourite online crafting magazine).

My 'Quick Quilled Card' project is aimed at Papers and Pixels' many readers who are mainly into digital art and scrapbooking, but seem keen to find out more about quilling after reading my earlier articles (December 2010 and February 2011). I've deliberately kept this project really simple, using a fold-rolling technique to make some flowers. No tools are required other than a cocktail stick, glue and a pair of tweezers. (Plus a card blank and some quilling strips, of course!!) Hopefully it may help to recruit some new enthusiasts to 'our quilling world'.

My finished tutorial project

To view Papers and Pixels, you first need to register for their forum via this link here. It's completely free. Once registered, you can download the June edition of the magazine, and also access past issues which are well worth a read.

Vortex coils in lilac colours

2011-06-14T15:49:00.000+01:00

I'm still experimenting with those vortex coils, and this time I've used a few to decorate my ever-popular lilac card. The photo background on the card is a close-up shot of some lilac flowers, showing just how many different colours are actually present in these lovely blooms. I've tried to echo these colours in my quilling, as you'll see:

The left hand vortex combines a single crimped pink strip on the inside with a 'sandwich' strip comprising light pink, dark pink and mauve sections on the outside. The central one is plain purple, made from a single half-length strip and shaped all around to fit. The right hand one is a 'classic' vortex shape - and the one I'm most pleased with - made from 29cm strips of mauve and light pink, joined at one end. The inventor of vortex coils, Licia Politis, says that the best coiling effects are obtained with longer strips, and she's absolutely right! The more turns you can achieve on your basic wheatear (which then gets flattened first in one direction and then the other), the more detailed and spectacular the resulting vortex will be.

Our quilling world

2011-06-13T15:03:00.001+01:00

Wow ... I've been absolutely knocked out by all the wonderful comments I received about yesterday's post, both here and on Facebook, where I also posted the news about my quilled card winning a prize. I'd like to thank you all from the bottom of my heart. One comment in particular made a big impression on me. It was from Anca, who said: "I am happy for you, and happy for our quilling world". Well, that really made me think. I guess that through our blogs and our internet communications we have actually managed to create our own little private 'quilling world' online - and it's such a great place to be. Whenever I settle down to do some quilling, I really can feel the presence of all my friends throughout the world who share the love of this wonderful art, and it's simply fantastic that we can all support and encourage each other in the way that we do.

Today feels like a new beginning for me now that the festival is over, and here's a new card design featuring some kind of quilled flowering plant that just sprang up in my imagination!! Don't ask me what it is ... all I can say is that the colours echo the purple, yellow and orange of the pansies in the photograph. The leaf bud on the left side is my attempt at an 'eccentric vortex coil' - a technique kindly shared by my friend Licia Politis in Australia. I used green and black strips wound together as a wheatear for this shape, and glued the back to hold the centre of my flattened coil in an offset position, just as you would with a normal eccentric coil. Watch out for some more vortex experiments tomorrow...!

It's a winner!!

2011-06-12T11:56:00.000+01:00

Well, I've just finished my three marathon sales days (why do these events always arrive so close together?!), and I'm pleased to report success on several fronts! I've sold LOTS of cards (need to stock up again now!), some quilled jewellery and even one of my woven paper purses which I don't bring out for sale very often these days. I've been booked to give another quilling demonstration later this summer (yippee!!), and - best of all - my quilled flowers card (left) won a prize at our village festival yesterday.

So now I'm tired but happy ... and can't wait to get started on some new quilling projects. Once again, I'd like to thank all of my wonderful blog followers for your encouraging comments - your enthusiasm means so much to me.

Some quilling for a 21st birthday

2011-06-09T12:44:00.000+01:00

This week I've been really busy making cards, earrings and hair slides for sale at our village festival on Saturday - finally I am ready! Plus I have a market this evening and tomorrow morning as well! In the middle of all those preparations, I received an urgent order for a 21st birthday card. So I quickly pulled out my old faithful rainbow background and created this design:

Time goes by so fast, and I really feel as though I've been neglecting my blog. Once the weekend is over, however, I hope to get back to creating some new designs, trying out new quilling techniques ... and more regular blogging, too! So please don't go away - I'll be right back!!

Vortex coil hair slides

2011-06-05T14:46:00.001+01:00

Did you notice those multicoloured vortex coils lying on the side in my last post? We'll I decided that a couple of them would be ideal for fixing to some hair slides.

I created these particular vortexes by 'squashing' two wheatear shapes that I had made using a 'sandwich' of different coloured strips (green joined to blue joined to green, and mauve joined to pink joined to purple). I think they have turned out looking like a bit like sweets (or what I believe my American friends would call 'candy')! Here in the UK, we have a multi-coloured selection of sweets known as 'Liquorice Allsorts', and that's exactly what these remind me of!

I'd like to include a credit here for Licia Politis who first invented the vortex coil. Thanks, Licia - it's a really great shape!

Work in progress

2011-06-01T10:34:00.000+01:00

I'm busy, busy, busy ... but I wouldn't have it any other way!

Right now, I'm stocking up on cards and making some new quilled earrings for sale at our village festival on 11th June. You can see a few of the earring huskings here. Plus I've been experimenting with making vortex coils - a quilling shape that was invented some years ago by the talented Australian quiller, Licia Politis, whose work I greatly admire. And I've got some articles to write, too - for the NAQG newsletter Quill America and the on-line magazine Papers and Pixels. Just wish there were 36 hours in every day ...

Getting my act together ...

2011-05-29T16:18:00.000+01:00

I've got a lot going on domestically just now, so haven't managed to do as much quilling as I would have liked these past few days. So today's post is about a project that I actually completed last weekend.

I'd had one of my shadow-frame card blanks lying around for a few weeks now, so decided to fill it with some quick quilled flowers to make this card:

I liked the result, so have adapted the quilled design to work on a digital graphic background (above) that was originally created by Laura Boetto for the excellent Papers and Pixels online magazine. I've written a beginners' quilling tutorial about this card which is going to be published in the June edition of Papers and Pixels, due to be published on 15th June. Click here to subscribe - it's free!

Finally ... my quilled flower card!

2011-05-25T17:57:00.000+01:00

All those individual flowers I've made have been sitting around for quite a while now ... so today I was determined to get the card assembled, no matter how many household chores needed doing - they would simply have to wait! Well, here's the end result:

I made a base mat for the the quilling by printing a blue-bordered yellow rectangle which I then cut out using a scallop-edged cutting blade in my paper cutter. I also cut a scalloped edge along the right hand edge of the front of the card before centering the mat. To get a little colour behind that edge, I glued a single 5mm quilling strip on the inside of the card below where the scalloping sits when the card is closed. (Because of all this, I had to offset the inside greeting a little to the left to keep the design symmetrical.) I quite like the effect of the scalloped edges, which just add a little extra background interest.

The quilled flowers you have seen before in earlier posts. However, I also enjoyed creating a few green scrolls and leaves just to create the impression of foliage without making the card too 'busy'.

Here's a view from the opposite side:

I'll be entering this card into the 'Make or Bake' competition at our village show in a couple of weeks' time. Wish me luck!

Quilled flower number four

2011-05-24T12:43:00.000+01:00

Here's the final flower design in the series I've been developing for my floral card.

It was inspired by a flower like this:

I'm not sure what this one is called, but we have some of them growing in our garden and I love the way the delicate purple petals fan out from an unusual deep pink coloured centre. The middle of the flower is almost black, which is very dramatic.

Making those pairs of open-scrolled petals was fiddly, but I got the effect I wanted. Now I've got the task of assembling the finished card, which is going to be a massive gluing operation for all the different elements I've made. I'm going to have to be in the right mood for doing it, hopefully with no interruptions! I promise to post it soon ...

Quilled flower number three!

2011-05-21T15:54:00.000+01:00

At yesterday's market, I only sold one card - and for once in my life I was pleased that business had been so slow! It means that instead of spending several more afternoons next week restocking my card display, I can devote some time to other quilling projects - and my floral competition card in particular!

Today, I'd like to share the third of my new flower designs that I've been making for this card. The basis for this one is four identical huskings, each one double-wound around pins using one purple and one white strip, which I had folded together in the centre before winding. My starting point for each husking was, in fact, a little orange scrolled heart which I placed 'astride' the first pin and then built the rest of the husking around it. I pinched the huskings to make them pointed, and deliberately squashed the heart scrolls a bit when I did so. I think the resulting orange 'stamens' look quite realistic - just waiting for a bee to arrive and collect some pollen!

At last ... another flower design!

2011-05-19T21:40:00.001+01:00

I really don't know where this past week has gone! Ever since the night of my quilling demo last week, I literally haven't stopped! Thursday was the demo, Friday my normal market, Saturday another special market, Sunday - out all day. Then Monday. Well, I did manage a post, but then I had to stock up again because of all the cards I had sold, plus make some special orders (quill, quill, quill ...), then yesterday I was out all day - and now, well it's Thursday already and I'm getting ready for the market tomorrow all over again. Hopefully next week will be MUCH quieter, so that I can finally finish off the floral card I've been making for our local village show.

You've seen the water lily, but now here's a close-up of two more tiny little flowers that I've made using eccentric coils and some simple little teardrop leaves. You can't really see it here, but the inner pale blue sections are made from metallic edged strips.

I've actually got two more flower designs saved up to show you in future posts, and I've also been making various items of foliage (swirls and marquises) in different shades of green. This card is going to take me a long time to assemble because there is so much quilling, and now I'm worried that it may be a bit too busy ... but I'll let you be the judge of that when I finally post the finished design. Maybe next week?

Pattern for quilled water lily flower

2011-05-16T16:37:00.000+01:00

Several people have asked me to post the pattern for the water lily flower that I made last week. So here it is. Writing this has made me think hard about the best way to present pattern instructions, and I'd really appreciate your comments about the format I have used, to see whether it can be improved.

Here goes:

You will need:
1 x 14.5 cm yellow strip
1 x 14.5cm orange strip (crimped)
1 x 5cm length of fringed yellow paper
13 x 29cm deep pink strips
13 x 14.5cm light pink strips
Cork board and four pins to make huskings

I used Paplin's 3mm wide strips, which are 58cm in length. For convenience, a quarter of one of these strips measures 14.5cm, and a half measures 29cm, so it is easy to divide them up quickly into quarters and halves to make this flower. I also used some ready-fringed paper which is about 1.5cm wide, but you could easily cut your own.

Method:
To make the centre of the flower, glue the yellow and crimped orange strip together at one end. Roll up the joined strips from the glued end with the orange in the centre. Release the finished coil very slightly so that the orange strip and its crimping are clearly visible; trim and glue the ends so that you have a coil approximately 1cm in diameter. Wind the fringed yellow paper around your coil, gluing at each end to secure it in position. Do not fan the fringing out yet.

To make the first petal, set up a vertical row of pins on your cork board spaced as follows: pin 2 should be 2.7cm above pin 1; pin 3 should be 1cm above pin 2; pin 4 should be 1.5cm above pin 3. Take a deep pink strip, put some glue on the very end and fold it over to create a tiny loop about 1 - 2 mm in length. Pin 1 should pass through this loop. Wind the strip around pin 2 and back to pin 1, gluing at that point, using the standard method for creating wheatear huskings. Wind again around pin 3, and glue again behind pin 1. Wind again around pin 4 and back to pin 1 again. Trim the strip at this point and glue the end down behind pin 1. Remove the pins and gently lift your husking from the board when the glue is dry.

Roll a light pink strip into a closed loose coil, glue down the end and pinch the coil into an 'eye' shape. Put a dab of glue on one point of the eye, and position it inside your deep pink husking so that the glue is at the base (pin 1) end.

Now you have one petal for the lily flower. Make a further twelve petals in the same way, and glue them around the flower centre, with a dab of glue on the base of each petal and also on the sides for extra support. When the flower is assembled, you can fan out the fringed section.

Handy tip: when making huskings, try using straight needles instead of round-headed pins. Because of their streamlined shape, there is no need to remove the needles from the board each time, as the husking can easily be lifted off with the needles still in position, ready for you to make your next petal.

So ... how did I do?

My quilling demonstration: here's what we did!

2011-05-14T15:54:00.000+01:00

I'm still on a high since completing my quilling demonstration on Thursday evening. (Due to my hectic lifestyle at present, and the recent problems with Blogger, this is the first chance I've had to write a post since then!)

The demo was my opportunity to introduce members of our local Women's Institute group to the joys of quilling ... and I had the BEST time! The ladies who took part ranged in ages from late twenties right up to a 91 year old, and they all started out doubting their ability to do any quilling whatsoever ... but, one hour and lots of laughs later, they all managed to produce a lovely quilled gift tag. I felt so proud of them - and the delight I felt in getting them enthusiastic about quilling was almost as great as the joy I get from practising the craft myself!

I started out by telling them a bit about the history of quilling, handing out pictures of the precious 18th and 19th century quilled tea caddies and fire screen which are now housed in London's Victoria and Albert museum. Then I showed them some examples of contemporary quilling, using books and images published on the internet - they were amazed! I showed them a bundle of quilling strips and explained about the basic ways of working with them (i.e. closed loose coils, open scrolls and husking). Then the real fun began as I handed out some ready-made closed loose coils and got the ladies to pinch them into teardrops, marquises and a bunny ear shape. When they were done, I took the shapes and glued them together to form a flower and a butterfly like this:

That was the moment when they began to see how quilling works, and were eager to learn more!

I then handed out some slotted tools and showed them how to wind coils. Some people took to it straight away, while others struggled - but they all got there in the end! Interestingly, some of them found they preferred to wind their coils around a cocktail stick rather than using a tool. They each used their coils to create a simple flower which we glued on to ready-cut gift tags that they could take away, like this:

Well, let me tell you, some of the results were stunning! We all attached ribbons to our gift tags, and the job was done! Each tag looked different, and I'm now convinced that each individual quiller's personality is somehow reflected in the work produced.

Everyone was so excited by their achievements, including me - it felt like my heart would burst! And the best news: several of the ladies said they would go out and buy a tool and some strips and try some more quilling for themselves. Now I understand the deep satisfaction that can be gained through teaching and sharing knowledge ... and I really can't wait to arrange my next demonstration!

Floral fantasies

2011-05-11T13:09:00.000+01:00

It's our annual village festival next month. This year, for the first time, there is going to be a 'Make or Bake' competition for people to enter, and one of the categories is a hand-made greetings card. I've started working on my entry, which is going to be a birthday card with an array of different quilled flowers on it. This has given me the opportunity to start developing some new, colourful, 'fantasy flower' patterns - and here's the first (which I think may actually be some kind of water lily):

Creating this card has become a kind of 'pick up and put down' project, and I've been having fun inventing several new flowers which I will post here over the next few days. I also need to make some leaves and tendrils, so there is still plenty to do! Then I'll have to decide how they all fit together before assembling the final card.

Meanwhile, something has just happened which I never expected: I now have more followers on my Quilliance Facebook page than I do on the blog itself! Anyway, whether you have arrived here via Facebook, Blogger or any other route, I'd like to say a big 'thank you' for visiting. It makes the great satisfaction I get from quilling even more worthwhile.

Just quilling a-round ...

2011-05-10T12:24:00.000+01:00

Remember that circle I made the other day? Well, I made another one (using a 3mm strip this time), and have just finished filling it in with quilling.

I decided to try with a 3mm strip, because that's the maximum I can use on a card to avoid extra postage charges here in the UK. It was trickier to make than the 5mm one (less width to play with), but I managed to do it using the same wine glass as last time.

The infill quilling is all a bit experimental. I like the effect of intersecting lines, and practised doing a few on this design. The challenge is to get them absolutely straight and horizontal - a bit more practice is needed, I think. Anyway, here's what I ended up with:

Molly, if you're reading this, I hope you made your circle, too!

Demo preparations and more quilled earrings

2011-05-09T12:05:00.000+01:00

I've been busy this weekend dividing up strips and making coils in readiness for the quilling demo I'm giving at my women's group on Thursday. I'm going to show them how to create teardrops, bunny-ear and marquise shapes out of the ready-made coils, and hopefully wow them by gluing the shapes together to make a butterfly and a flower. Then they are going to try making their own coils and hopefully have a quilled gift tag to take away with them at the end of the evening. Some of the ladies are very excited already, so I hope my demo lives up to their expectations!

Meanwhile, I've been making a few more quilled earrings to replenish my market stock. Here's a new pair of black/white and silver huskings with a black folded rose on each - I thought the rose was quite a nice finishing touch. Now I need to come up with a few more new designs ...

Quilling a perfect circle

2011-05-07T13:08:00.000+01:00

In my 'Quilling the line' post earlier this week, I mentioned how difficult I thought it would be to create and then glue down a perfect circle outline with a single quilling strip. Well, of course, that got me thinking about possible solutions to the problem ... and, you know me, I was not going to rest until I'd thought of a way of doing it!

Here's my solution, which involves a straight-sided wine glass - but I'm sure you could do it with any cylindrical object.

First, position the rim of the glass on your paper or card. I centred it on a card, and marked the position with some very faint pencil marks.

Next, wind a quilling strip once around the rim, gluing down a very short overlap. (I used a 5mm wide strip for this.)

Slide the paper circle up so that half of it stands just clear of the glass rim, leaving enough around the glass so that the circular shape is maintained. Then apply tiny dots of glue right around the exposed edge with a cocktail stick.

Slide the circle back down again so that the glued edge is flush with the rim of the glass. Position the glass on the card using the pencil marks, so that the glued edge of the paper circle makes good contact all round.

Allow the glue to set for a few seconds before carefully withdrawing the glass, leaving your perfectly shaped paper circle behind. Remove any visible glue on the surface of the card with the clean end of the cocktail stick.

Start quilling!

I haven't had time to finish this particular bit of quilling yet, but it will keep! Meanwhile, I hope this technique will be helpful for other quillers. I'm sure you could use it with other suitably shaped objects to make squares, triangles or rectangles too!

An eyelet coil!

2011-05-04T12:08:00.000+01:00

Do you remember the lilac card that I made a few days ago? Well, I sold it at the market on Friday, and wanted to make another for my card box - but with some different quilling. (Don't like to keep repeating myself!!) Now, don't ask me why, but suddenly I was moved to have a go at winding a coil around a metal eyelet ... and here's the result:

I made the inner coil from a bundle of crimped strips that I had left over from quilling a husked bluebell flower - just ran them together through the crimper and wound them around a metal eyelet. After gluing, I flattened the underside of the eyelet with a hammer so that the little metal flanges grip the paper. Then I went a bit mad and added a zig-zag and some circles. I think the whole thing looks a bit like a shooting star, but in lilac colours LOL!! And, surprisingly, it looks OK on the card background I think!

I promise to do something a bit more conventional tomorrow ...!

Quilling the line

2011-05-03T12:42:00.000+01:00

I had an un-quilled printed card left over from my earlier experiments with shadow borders, so I decided to add some quilling to it over the holiday weekend. This is the result:

I wanted to try the technique of intersecting a 'straight line' strip with open curls as I have seen other quillers do to great effect - notably Yulia Brodskaya, who is surely an inspiration to us all! I decided to glue down the straight strips first, and found this was not too difficult to do with the short lengths I used here. But I would imagine that doing it with longer strips would be much more challenging. Does anyone have any tips for this? And has anyone succeeded in gluing down a large circle outline made from a single strip? I'm sure that keeping a perfect circle shape must be very tricky!

Some roses for May Day

2011-05-01T12:59:00.000+01:00

It's hard to believe that May is here at last, full of the promise of summer! So I decided to celebrate by posting some quilled roses on Quilliance today - just the thing to help banish the memory of all last winter's snow. This is a little hairslide that I've just finished making for a friend's grand-daughter. I like the combination of deep red with pink, and the pink roses here were made using metallic edged strips for a little extra sparkle.

This past week, I've been awarded the 'Stylish Blogger' award not once, not twice, but THREE times over from Mihaela, Eenzy Beenzy and Monica. Thanks very much to all of you - I am honoured! But it also seems to me that there aren't many blogs left now to pass the award on to ... especially as each recipient is asked to nominate another eight recipients each time. So I hope nobody will be upset when I say that I've decided not to pass this award on any further. It's a really nice idea, but I do feel that having to make all those nominations creates extra work for busy bloggers - especially when blogs without the award are getting increasingly hard to find!

However, another of the award's requirements is that recipients should reveal eight random facts about themselves. Well, that's actually quite easy for me right now, as I'm delighted to have been featured as 'Member of the Month' for May 2011 on the Creative Quilling Forum. So anyone who is interested can discover at least eight facts about me here!

Quilled butterflies for my friend's birthday

2011-04-28T10:30:00.000+01:00

I'm going right back to basics with this one! My quilling habit first turned into an addiction a couple of years ago when I started putting quilled butterflies on to photographs of flowers, and I haven't really looked back since! However, the original, simple ideas are often still the best - and I hope my friend Anne will be pleased with this classic 'Quilliance' design.

Quilled greetings from the bluebell woods

2011-04-27T10:54:00.000+01:00

Bluebells are in full bloom here in England right now, and on Saturday I took my camera to photograph them in a beautiful stretch of Hampshire woodland. They seem to like shady places, and these ones thrive beneath the bright green canopy of ancient beech trees.

I've used two of my photos in the background for this card, and my first instinct was, of course, to quill a bluebell for the central section. But then I recalled all the other delicate white flowers which were growing in profusion in amongst the bluebells, complementing them perfectly. You can see them in the photo below. For me, quilling is all about complementing the subject of a background photo. So I decided to make my central quilling one of these instead!

Lovely lilac!

2011-04-26T12:53:00.000+01:00

Camera image

The photo on this card is a close-up of a lilac flower - and there are so many different colours in it!

When you look carefully, you can see pink, mauve, purple and magenta - and all shades in between. I tried to echo this in my quilling, using combinations of strips to make my coils. Some are crimped, some plain ... and some with sparkly metallic edges.

Following my success with scanning (see my previous post) I thought I would try scanning this finished card too.

The picture above was taken with my camera, but the one below was scanned. As you can see, the scanned image is straighter and squarer, but there is loss of sharpness on the 'Happy Birthday' lettering due, I guess, to the thickness of the quilling. Also, you cannot easily see the edges of the card. On the other hand, the camera picture is sharply in focus throughout but darker and not quite straight. However, I could probably have lightened it in Photoshop before posting it here.

Which do you think is best?

Scanned image

Q and A

2011-04-24T14:11:00.001+01:00

Question: What do you get when you scan a piece of quilling instead of photographing it? Answer: A brand new header for my blog!

I quilled the letter 'Q' for Quilliance using black 3mm strips which are edged with gold. On a whim, I decided to place the motif on to the flat bed of my computer scanner, which provided a nice white background for the piece. The result was even better than I had hoped: I ended up with a well-lit image which shows the gold edging very well - and there is some great internal shadowing to add depth to the quilling. Plus I didn't have the normal challenges of holding my camera steady and straight! (Maybe this will be a better way to capture future images of my cards?)

Anyway, I was so pleased with the result that I pulled the 'Q' image into Photoshop and added the text before uploading it to my blog as you can see above. This then prompted a complete re-vamp of my blog design ... it's a good thing I had plenty of free time in which to play around today! So Quilliance now has a whole new look, and I really hope you like it ...

A quilled flower to complement lazy summer days

2011-04-22T15:29:00.000+01:00

We're having glorious weather here in the UK at the moment - in fact, it feels more like high summer than Easter time! This has prompted me to look back at some of the photographs I took in various gardens last summer - and my latest card carries a background image that I've transformed using the 'Charcoal' sketch filter in Photoshop to set the scene for a colourful quilled flower.

I formed the large teardrop shapes for the petals from rings which were created by winding quilling strips around a 1cm dowel. I quite like this 'open' style of quilling for a change, as it gives you so much scope for putting other shapes inside. Maybe I'll experiment a bit more with this technique now that the Easter holiday weekend is here.

Meanwhile, I had a successful trial run last night for the quilling demonstration that I have prepared for my women's group next month. The two friends who came as my 'practice audience' were fascinated by their introduction to quilling and seem very keen to try some more. I had provided slotted tools for them to try making coils with, but in the end they both preferred winding strips around a simple cocktail stick which surprised me - but it just goes to show that you can't make assumptions about people's preferences. Anyway, it was a fun evening and definitely time well spent. Now I'm looking forward to my 'public debut' in three weeks' time.

And finally ... I had a successful time at the market this morning, where I sold two pairs of earrings and several cards. I bought a new card display rack earlier in the week, which came out for the first time today, and I'm really pleased with it. Each shelf is slightly angled so that the cards don't tip forward as people look through them. The rack is lightweight, too, and easy to put together. In case anyone is interested, there's a link to the supplier here. Sharp-eyed followers will recognise many of these card designs (below) which I've posted on Quilliance at one time or another. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend ...

A quilled pansy

2011-04-21T10:37:00.000+01:00

While I was making that quilled violet earlier in the week, it occurred to me that I could easily adapt the pattern to make a pansy flower - and here it is! I decided to put this one on a plain background, with just a little note of the Latin name, as you might find in a reference book of flowers. Who knows - maybe this could be the start of a series? So many projects ... not enough time!

Which flower is the star?

2011-04-20T10:38:00.000+01:00

I thought the photo on this card was a really dramatic picture. I took it on Sunday during a visit to a lovely country garden, and was amazed by the deep red of these tulips which actually look more like poppies! But, although the tulips are centre stage, I decided that the real stars of this shot were the tiny little blue forget-me-not flowers that sit quietly in the background providing contrast to the splashes of red. So that's why I decided to let the tulips speak for themselves, paying homage to the forget-me-nots with a little quilling - plus a tiny hint of purple, too.

A quilled violet

2011-04-19T14:35:00.000+01:00

I have my husband to thank for the background photo that I've used in this card. He was in Cornwall last week, and took some lovely photographs for me of the wild flowers that he found growing along the edge of the coastal path. This picture features violets and wild garlic (the white flower), and it immediately got my creative juices flowing!

I 'feathered' the edges of this oval image in Photoshop Elements, before adding a few additional violet flowers just to balance the composition. (Bet you can't tell which ones!!) Then I had a go at quilling a violet after studying the little white markings and the petal formation. Now I'm thinking I could maybe create a pansy flower in a similar way. Watch this space ...

Who's counting?

2011-04-18T10:45:00.000+01:00

Who's counting? Well, I am as it happens ... because last week I gained my 100th follower for Quilliance - an achievement I would never have dreamed possible when I first started my blog 16 months ago. So this card is intended as a very special 'thank you' to all of you wonderful people who visit, comment and make me feel so welcome in the world of blogging. You have enriched my life more than words can say ...

Meanwhile - and still on the subject of numbers - here's another card I have just made for someone who's just a little bit older than Quilliance at two years old. His grandma wanted 'a chick, rabbit, cat and butterfly' on a rainbow background, and I'm pleased to say she was delighted with this card.