A new pendant design

Quilling strip pendant with 'bandaged' border, a photo by Philippa Reid on Flickr.

There's been a lot of dialogue on the Quilling Guild's Facebook Group page recently about 'bandaging' - an antique quilling technique whereby a paper strip is wrapped diagonally around a bundle or 'wad' of multiple quilling strips.

This got me thinking ... and so I started experimenting to see whether I could form shapes from wide bundles of quilling strips cut from a multi-coloured pack that I happened to have in my 'stash' of materials.

This brightly coloured pendant is the result! It's made in two sections: the inner part is formed from a multiple wad of strips from the pack, while a separate narrower 'bandaged' bundle has been added as a border decoration for the outside of the piece.

When creating the inner section, I had fun twisting the ends of a few of the strip ends that I had decided not to glue down, in order to add a little more interest to the overall shape.

It took quite a lot of gluing to hold the individual strips in the main 'wad' together - and the use of self-closing tweezers certainly helped this task! I also retained the manufacturer's binding from one end of the pack of strips in place until I had finished gluing, after which it was quite easy to peel away.

I coated the whole piece with a thin layer of PVA glue and clear varnish to make it strong and waterproof. That's why it appears quite shiny when photographed under natural light.

I think it's an unusual piece, for sure, but I quite like the way the graduated colours from the pack of strips have worked together. I also like the visual effect of the bandaging around the edge, so will definitely be experimenting with this technique a little more!