Quilling – December Try Something New Every Month

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It’s the first Monday of December, so I’m sharing another Try Something New Every Month (TSNEM) project! You can see more about the year-long adventure and what else I’ve tried in this post. I’m planning a 2016 TSNEM, Rebecca from Hugs are Fun is going to help me host and we will be handling it a little differently so it’s easier for people to join us , so stay tuned!

I don’t remember where I saw quilling, but I’d never heard of it before and still haven’t seen it in person. I was intrigued by the delicate nature and organic shapes, and quickly fell in to a Google Image Search rabbit-hole of beautiful artwork.

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I bought a beginner quilling kit*; I didn’t find any supplies locally and liked that it came in its own happy little box. The kit came with an “instructions sheet” but it doesn’t give you a whole lot of direction on getting started. I skimmed a few tutorials and liked this set on Makezine the best. Ann Martin, who wrote the post on Makezine, also has a book that looks bright and fun!

It seems like quilling is somewhat similar to needle felting (which I tried a while back) in that instructions can only be so specific and a lot depends on “feel”. Starting out, that makes it both easier and harder to figure out what you’re doing.

The kit came with all the basic supplies – a glue bottle with an ultra-fine tip, paper strips, a blank card for display, a needle pen, tweezers, two circle guides, and a funky comb thing that I am not sure how to use. I think it’s a good value – my only complaint is that the glue bottle didn’t hold together very well; glue kept oozed out the sides but not out the top. I think I’ll just apply glue on the bottom of a pin next time.

My circles were definitely not precise. I used the “beginner side” of the tool which has a little slot to hold the paper but had trouble wiggling it out at the end.

That’s what I made! A little peacock card. Most of the quilled art I saw online was very intricate and overwhelming, so embellishing a stamp seemed more attainable. I actually like the asymmetrical coils inside the circles, although I know they’re not “correct”.

I liked this! It wasn’t particularly hard, and I think there is a lot you could do with the skill. Ive been searching for cool examples to show in a future round-up and cannot believe how intricate some of the artwork gets. I think maybe in the new year I will try and make some ‘thank you’ cards with quilling features.

Have you ever quilled? I’d love to hear what you made, or if you’d heard of it!

See what other bloggers made this month:

• Kristy at Simply This Life tried tatting
• Rebecca at Hugs are Fun tried using a fabric die cutter

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