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!

Upcycled paper bead jewellery

Rolled paper earrings and pendant, a photo by Philippa Reid on Flickr.

Inspired by the renowned Australian quiller Licia Politis and her wonderful paper beads, I've had a go at creating some jewellery using colourful paper sourced from glossy magazine pages.

Licia kindly shared with me the method of rolling up long triangular strips of paper to form a conical shape, and I had fun selecting suitable paper by looking out for full-page photographs and colourful advertisements in some larger than average size travel magazines.

You need quite a long strip of paper to make a decent-sized bead - the ones I used were all about 35 cm long. The method involves rolling the strip into a coil, fastening the end with glue and then pushing the middle out to form a sort of telescopic cone, which can then be strengthened using layers of PVA glue and clear varnish.

I managed to create hanging hooks for my earrings using loops of paper twine which I glued on to the wide end of each strip prior to rolling.

With Licia's help, I'm plannng to write a detailed feature about paper bead making for the Spring 2014 edition of the Quilling Guild's 'Quillers Today' magazine, of which I am now Editor. No doubt I'll be experimenting with plenty more designs along the way!

Quilled picture for Enid

Quilled picture for Enid, a photo by Philippa Reid on Flickr.

Enid recently made some new curtains for her bedroom using a very attractive fabric that is boldly printed with leaves and flowers. We decided that the pattern would be eminently 'quillable' ... so she asked me to create a complementary quilled picture for the bedroom wall.

I took a piece of left-over fabric, scanned the individual elements of the pattern and re-arranged them on the computer using Photoshop to create a layout that I could quill.

For the large flowers, I made two different types of centre: one is a slightly domed solid coil in dark green, and the other is a punched-out disc of paper covered with teardrop shapes that have been glued in position on their edges. The petals are made using vortex coils, moulded into shape, with thin 'veins' of contrasting colours glued along their inner sides.

For the blue flowers, I made large white solid coils, covered them in tiny 'squished' coil crescent shapes in blue, then edged the solid coils with two layers of on-edge blue teardrops.

The greeny yellow globe flowers were made using punched discs of paper covered in crimped strip solid coils.

The golden leaves are made up from eye shapes, with contrasting strips glued along their inner edges to create veins.

The interlinking stems are cut from solidly glued ring coils moulded around shampoo bottles and other objects that produced the required degrees of curve.

I assembled all the pieces separately, using pins on a piece of clingfilm-covered mounting board. Then the whole piece was assembled on a 12" x 10" backing sheet to fit within the recessed frame.

I'm very pleased to report that Enid loved it!!

It started with a jar of jam ...

Quilled wallhanging, a photo by Philippa Reid on Flickr.

Here's another of the items that I displayed at the Quilling Guild's 30th Anniversary Celebration of Quilling in Liverpool last month ... and, yes, it really did start with a jar of jam!

During a short break to Wales earlier in the summer, my husband and I visited the lovely tea room at Picton Castle where we indulged in a classic British afternoon snack: tea and toasted tea-cakes! The tea-cakes came with tiny individual pots of strawberry jam which I noticed were octagonal in shape. So I brought one home and used it as a mould for the black octagonal ring coil that forms the centre of this design.

I wanted to create a colourful quilled wall-hanging, so I added more rings, huskings and other quilled shapes on to the sides of the octagon, building the whole piece outwards from the middle ... and, needless to say, making it all up as I went along!

The green semi-circles inside the central octagon were created by making solidly glued ring coils around a dowel and cutting them in half. I made other whole ring coils for the piece using various sizes of dowel, and had fun filling them up with decorative huskings, 'twisted' wheatears and other quilled shapes. I assembled the whole piece on a cling-film covered board with a visible grid pattern under the film to assist in maintaining symmetry, securing the sections with the aid of pins.

The finished design is displayed in this photo hanging from a convenient metal stand which is actually intended to carry a bunch of bananas suspended alongside your fruit bowl at home!

The moral of this story is: always watch out for the everyday shapes that come into your life and think about how they could be used in quilling! I certainly treasure the little octagonal jam jar that provided the creative spark for this particular piece!

A quilled mosaic

Quilled mosaic, a photo by Philippa Reid on Flickr.

Here's the second of my two competition entries for the Quilling Guild's 30th Anniversary Celebration of Quilling in Liverpool, 10 - 11 August 2013. This time it's an abstract quilled mosaic, framed by squares containing two-tone 'beehive' swirls in black/white and grey/white. Inside the border are more composite shapes set within larger square 'ring coils' that I formed around the plastic box lid that came with my husband's iPod!

The whole design is basically 'tiles within a tile'.

You will see various solid coils and vortex coils throughout the design, plus rows of yellow half circles cut from ring coils, which I have positioned together to form a lattice.

Quilled mosaics are very much on my mind right now, as I think that square 'tile' building blocks like the ones I have used here could easily form the basis for many different quilled creations. This could definitely be the start of something ...

Quilled rainbow spiral

Quilled rainbow spiral, a photo by Philippa Reid on Flickr.

Those of you who have followed me for a while will know that I have a bit of an obsession with spirals. Well, here's my latest one, which I took to the Quilling Guild's 30th Anniversary Celebration of Quilling in Liverpool, UK, on 10 - 11 August 2013.

I used a combination of ring coils, cut ring coils, solid coils and various filigree shapes to create this piece, which was constructed under cling-film over a tracing of the spiral using pins on a mounting board.

The rainbow colours were carefully inserted in sequence, complemented by the inclusion of black and white sections.

To make the spiral outline, I used conjoined strips which I had pre-conditioned to make them curl. The main challenge was 'taming' the curl of the outline strips in order to follow the spiral accurately all the way round.

I'm proud of this piece, as it expresses the deep affinity with spirals and sea-shell patterns that I seem to have within me!

I hope you like it too!

Where are you now?

Quilled floral sculpture, a photo by Philippa Reid on Flickr.

Here's the little 'quilled miniature' that I sent over to South Bend, Indiana, for this year's North American Quilling Guild (NAQGCON) competition.

To avoid the expense and hassle of having the piece returned to me here in the UK, I donated it to the NAQGCON raffle at the end of the event, so I have no idea who won it ... I wonder where my little quilled floral sculpture is now?

My piece did not win an award, but that's fine - the quilling that received all the votes in the category is beautiful, and a very worthy winner! But, to be honest, I am DEEPLY disappointed that it has taken three whole months until the publication of Quill America magazine to find out the results of the competitions. I can hardly believe that it has taken all this time to find out how I fared!

Never mind, though - things are going to be very different at the UK-based Quilling Guild's 30th Anniversary Celebration of Quilling in Liverpool this weekend! Technology permitting, we are planning to publish 'live' news and photos from this exciting international quilling festival on the Quilling Guild Facebook Group page throughout the course of the event, so that an eager audience of quillers across the world can share in the excitement of this very special celebration.

If you're on Facebook, simply sign in via this link to see it: https://www.facebook.com/groups/152384868122961/
Liverpool, here I come ... I can hardly wait!!