How to Quill
Almost everybody has done quilling, whether they realized it or not. Bored students tear strips of binder paper and roll them into tight tubes. This is called a "quilled roll." The invention of paper sheets about 2,000 years ago gave rise to the art of quilling. Over the years people did it to make decorative pictures. Anyone from small children to adults can quill. It's simple and inexpensive, but time consuming.
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Things You'll Need
- Quilling needle
- Pre-cut strips of quilling paper
- Various lightweight sheets of paper
- Paper cutter
- Glue
Instructions
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1
Purchase precut paper or cut your own. The strips should be 1/8 inch wide, lightweight paper, cut evenly with a paper cutter. Use foil, velum, typing paper and even coated paper. Avoid any paper over 80-pound weight because it will fold instead of roll.
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Wrap the end of a strip of paper around the shank of the quilling needle. Hold it securely as you wind the length of the strip. When it is done, pull it off the needle and let it relax on a piece of paper. Notice how the coil looks. Put a pencil mark on either side of the relaxed quill. Wrap it tighter and dab glue on the end to hold it. Mark the circumference of the tight quill. This gives you an idea of the tension of this strip of paper. Try this process with several different strips of different kinds of paper to see how the finished quills will look in a design.
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Draw a simple geometric picture on a 3-by-5 inch card. Wrap quills of various types of paper and use them to fill in the picture. Glue each quill securely. Work from left to right across the pattern. If the geometric design has a circle, find the center and work outward, making larger and larger concentric circles, until the pattern is filled in. Make sure all quills are of a similar circumference.
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Make a different shape from the quill. After you have mastered circular quills, it is easy to pinch shape them. After a quill has relaxed into a looser coil, pinch one end and hold it up. Allow gravity to pull the rest of the quill into a teardrop. Make five quilled teardrops and a small tightly wound and glued cylinder. Place the cylindrical quill in the middle and glue the points of the teardrops around the center to form a daisy. Pull a circular quill down at both ends and pinch shape a leaf.
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Continue to pinch circular quills into shapes. Make a square or rectangle. Form a star or a cross. Make kitty ears or longer bunny ears. Pinching the outside layer forms all shapes. Use one or two of the outside layers of the coil to form a point and then manipulate the inside coils of the quill into round, oval or elliptical shapes. Once you make a shape, glue it down to secure it.
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