Portsmouth Art Exhibit - At the Edge

A couple of weeks ago I visited the The Portsmouth Museum of Fine Art while staying overnight in New Hampshire. Stumbling upon it while sightseeing on an already beautiful afternoon was like a little gift - there was lots to take in despite the museum's small size. The current show is called "At The Edge" and asks questions about contemporary art. I was happy to see it featured some very interesting paper art.Lost in My Life Rachel Perry Welty 2009
On loan from the Barbara Krakow Gallery in Boston, Massachusetts

This fascinating portrait is part of a series by Rachel Perry Welty, in which she utilizes what she calls "...leftovers from the language of modern life." It's composed of price stickers affixed to a pigmented ink print. Unfortunately my picture doesn't begin to capture the detail, but hopefully this close-up will give you an idea of the design complexity.
New York City artist Heather Cox created an intriguing sculpture of repetitive image portions cut from photographs and placed on wooden dowels. It's a curious piece that draws you in for a closer look
Eye Columns Heather Cox 2002

The exhibit runs through July 11, 2010. If you're nowhere near beautiful, historic Portsmouth, don't fret, you can still see most of the show. I found a very nice (under-viewed!) video here.

Mini-Card Two Ways - Tutorial

As much as I enjoy complex quilled designs, I really love quick projects. In this case I took a ton of inspiration from a printed flower design on a Gartner Studios note card that arrived in the mail. A handwritten note - nice!

The cardstock was bright, summery, and offered the best of both worlds - a great graphic on one side and solid lime green on the other. place card
I liked it too much to toss in the recycling bin, so started thinking of ways the paper could be used to make something else... first, out came my trimmer. While cutting around the handwritten part, I came up with two ideas for the remaining pieces. gift card
Voilà - a little tent card that can be a table place card or gift card. Luckily there was just enough extra paper to make a fold-over card that measures 3.5 inches x 2.75 inches, and also a small square and rectangle on which to glue a quilled flower and computer-printed name.If you're new to quilling, you'll find my previous tutorials that contain basic information and tips here, here, or here.

Use 1/8 inch wide quilling paper to make the flower, leaves, and stem.
Step 1. Roll a 24 inch loose coil as the flower center. Rather than allowing the entire strip to relax, stop it when only the center has expanded and glue the end. This creates the solid outer ring. Glue coil to the square which is turned on point.

Step 2. Next, make eight 4 inch loose coils, pinch them into half circles, and glue them around the flower center. To make a half circle, roll a loose coil, pinch at the join spot and the place that is nearly opposite, resulting in a coil with a flat base and curved top.

Step 3. The two leaves are 6 inch marquises. To make a marquise, roll a loose coil and pinch at the join spot and opposite point.

Step 4. The stem is a double thickness 1 1/2 inch strip - one strip glued on top of another. This makes the paper sturdy enough to stand on edge when glued.

Step 5. Glue leaves and stem below flower as pictured.

I don't often mail quilling that contains strips on edge unless it's well-protected in a box, but a design like this one will be fine on a place card or atop a hand-delivered gift.Lucida Calligraphy - font size 24

I think a table with place cards made from a variety of patterned papers would be really eye-catching. Take advantage of the trend that things don't necessarily have to match. Plus, it's a great excuse to use up those small bits of pretty paper you've been saving!

Serbia's Straw-Girls

Perhaps you remember Suzana Ilic who quilled the elegant monogrammed letters I featured here a few weeks ago. Recently Suzana emailed me about an unusual Serbian folk tradition she thought I might be interested in. It's a technique of weaving and shaping straws of wheat, cherished in a province called Vojvodina, where there is almost nothing as far as the eye can see, except flat plains with wheat, sunflowers, and just one mountain. Zetva by Ana Milodanovic, 1967

These folk artists call themselves straw-girls (slamarke). Suzana told me there is quite a bit of similarity between quilling and straw art. The straw-girls make intricate designs with straws of wheat that they cut and soak in water until flexible, and then create folded roses, tight coils, fringed flowers, and shapes such as teardrops, just as we do in quilling. (This puts complaints about cutting strips of paper into perspective!)The straw-girls decorate blown eggs and religious icons, and make jewelry. They also create scenes composed entirely of wheat straws, such as the first picture, that are so highly detailed they're considered a form of painting.

Suzana searched through her boxes of magazines to find more examples and came across an article written by Ljiljana Matejic-Vuckovic about Miriana Kirbus, a grand master in straw art, in the magazine called, Zenski Svet (Women's World) from August 26, 2005. These first two egg pictures are from the article.We found video excerpts of documentaries about this fascinating art - each is quite enjoyable to watch if you have a few minutes, and not to worry, there are English subtitles. The first was made by Branko Istvancic and is called Od zrna do slike, From Grain to Painting. The other is Boris Malagurski's Slamarke, Straw Art.
And one more image... these egg designs were created and posted by a member, Smizla, of a forum called samsvojmajstor.com or Do It Yourself... lovely!

Paper Miniatures

Kris Compas of Illinois makes miniature rooms that feature incredibly realistic detail. She sometimes uses surprising materials to work her magic - for example, these pieces of pottery are made of quilling paper!
After Kris rolls the strip into a tight coil, she gently manipulates it into the shape she has in mind and coats it with glue, inside and out. She evens out the surface with a Dremel tool and applies gesso to smooth it even more. Finally, she adds decorations and/or acrylic paint.Quilling paper was used to make the decorative scrollwork on this little shelf.Recently Chris wrote tutorials for making paper baskets, complete with wire handle and twining instructions. I think it's safe to say there isn't anything she can't duplicate in miniature size.While they're not made of paper, take a moment to check out the upholstered furniture on her blog, 1 Inch Minis, too - wow!

Summer Flowers

If you're like me, you suspiciously eye the most vivid colors of quilling paper that are often included in a multi-color package. I decided to push past my reluctance and tried combining them as a little bouquet. The neon orange was pretty shocking on its own, but I rather like how it looks with raspberry, mint green, and white. On this first day of summer, my very favorite time of year, perhaps there's no better time to give brights a try. Happy Summer Solstice to everyone in the north and to those of you down south, here's hoping your winter will be a mild one!

By the way, if you need instructions for making folded roses, this link will take you to my tutorial.

Quilled Birth Announcement

If you're into quilling, chances are you've made a duck or two. Who can resist - they're cute, right? Quack!
I really liked the design of this announcement I was asked to quill... it's simple, classy, and the little dots reminded me of bubbles. Bubbles led to thoughts of water, which of course led to ducks... so why not make one to represent each member of the family? There's the new little guy, squawking a bit, and paddling along as fast as he can to catch up with his twin siblings, mom, and dad.

Even the tiniest bits of paper can be rolled and shaped in ways to show expression... and that's something that never fails to amaze me about quilling.

(By the way, I erased the baby's name for privacy purposes, in case you were thinking he just goes by initials. :-))

Party Time!

A collection of pretty little things I've come across recently...

imeondesign makes all sorts of nifty paper objects. The not-too-fussy cake slice and fortune cookie hold a small favor or words of love.


Planning an autumn wedding? A sweet tote from Safiya that holds a bar of their monogrammed, shea butter soap would be a favor I'd love to receive.


Or perhaps these clever acorn gift boxes, designed by Jessica Wolf of PaperAcorn.


Jessica also makes pretty garlands, place cards, and luminaries.


Lastly, not made of paper, but I have to show it to you because it's adorable... a birthday cake by Black Flour at CakeCentral.

What a great example of edible quilling!

Theme Wedding - The Starry Night

Recently Matthew Wengerd of A Fine Press, a custom event stationery boutique in Florida, blogged about some quillwork he admired. I noticed he had come across something new and quite exciting... a wedding photo shoot based on a favorite painting of mine, van Gogh's The Starry Night. Rachel Hanson, of Rachel Hanson Designs, was responsible for the menu and seating card graphics. Immediately drawn to the swirls, she realized this was the perfect opportunity to try her hand at paper quilling, something she had been intending for some time.
Rachel designed lovely French-inspired menu cards and enhanced them with quilled scrolls and colors that perfectly complimented the theme.She scripted the names of Van Gogh, his family, close friends, and even the doctor who worked on his ear (gotta love a quiller with a sense of humor) on elegant, quilled place cards. Photography - Meg Perotti

See more pictures at the Junebug Weddings blog, including paper lanterns and a fabulous cake. I might add that my own wedding colors were blue, yellow, and white... if only I'd been into quilling then!

Oona Patterson - Paper Sculpture

You might remember the beautiful paper lamps of Hannah Nunn. I always enjoy reading Hannah's blog and was fascinated by her recent discovery of artist, Oona Patterson.Oona cuts and shapes elaborate magical, miniature worlds from book pages and tiny bits of paper as descriptive illustrations of her own stories and poems. Go and have a look. I don't think you'll be disappointed!

By the way, I've answered questions at Craftzine about my work space. To be perfectly honest, I don't really have one... in fact, you might be a little shocked at my organizational system, or lack thereof! As I say in the interview, I enjoy the challenge of creating something out of my crazy box of tangled strips.

Modern Quilling

I love coming across unusual examples of quilling and these pieces fill the bill. First off, a pair of colorful birds by Creartive, found on Flickr.
Rather a fierce and majestic duo, aren't they?!

This is a replica of Alexander Calder's 1971 Green Ball serigraph that Roxann Dragula quilled as a thank you card for Howard Solomon, after she was given a personal tour of his unique art gallery and home in Florida, called Solomon's Castle. Made up of tight coil discs and collaged shapes, it's a true likeness of Calder's colorful montage. He is known as the inventor of mobiles, was an engineer who became a freelance artist, creating brilliant, contemporary works that are displayed around the world. Calder's career was varied and fascinating - he even created miniature circuses and acted as ringmaster!And speaking of circuses, I bet most of us who quill have seen filigree clowns, always a popular subject. This unusual fellow by Martinaquill of Brazil, found on Flickr, caught my eye. Martina used so many colors and shapes to compose his costume - quite impressive!

Stitched Illustration - Peter Crawley

About the time I came across quilling, I was into hand stitching on cards. Machine sewing on paper is everywhere right now, but I find it more satisfying to see a design take shape slowly under my fingers, stitch by stitch, and imagine that British artist, Peter Crawley, can relate. Peter's work, however, takes stitched illustration to a new level. He combines cotton thread and watercolor paper to create abstract minimalism. I admire the depth and strength that the angled stitches bring to this modern art piece.

The typography of a sweet alphabet sampler is also very appealing.Peter looks for inspiration in the architecture of London and has a created a series that features some of his favorite buildings.
Visit Peter's website to see more of his intriguing work.

If you would like to try your hand at stitching on paper, I blogged last summer about combining stitching with quilling. Here's a Card Inspirations link to several free patterns.

Cuttlebug Quilling Dies - Flower Headband

Here's a sweet idea for a summer headband from the Mixology Crafts blog at Provo Craft. I can just imagine how cute a little flower girl would look wearing it on her way down a wedding aisle.The flowers and leaves are examples of what the new Cuttlebug quilling dies can do... true, these embellishments are made of thin embossing metal rather than paper, but a lightweight metallic cardstock or sculpture paper would be just as nice.A strip of paper or metal is run through the Cuttlebug along with a quilling die and is then simply rolled up to make a flower - that's it! If you'd like to add a bit of dimension for a more realistic look, shape each petal and leaf by placing it on something spongy like a mouse pad, and rubbing it in a circular motion with an embossing stylus or an implement with a rounded end, perhaps a paintbrush handle or small dowel.
The flowers and leaves are glued to a ribbon-wrapped headband and accented with pretty beads. Find the complete PDF How To at the Mixology site.

And here's a brand new video tutorial in which Kathleen Green of the New Zealand Scrapbook Company demonstrates just how easy it is to use the Cuttlebug dies.

Wedding Ring Holder

Sometimes the simplest ideas really are the best.Not only did Brittni Wood and her fiance want to use something a bit different as a ring holder for their wedding, but they needed a way to link the ceremony site with the library rooftop reception... voilá... one made from a vintage book! Necessary supplies are easy to gather and the book can be one that has special meaning for the couple.
Brittni's simple tutorial is here.

black/white photography - Jeanne Ciasullo
composite shot - Brittni Wood

And one more good find for today: Meet the woman behind the extraordinary quilled art... a new Kawaii interview with Yulia Brodskaya!