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A QUILLED STORY

Contents:

1. Quilling`s exposure in words 2

2. Bianca`s Quillings a story about ambition and changes.3

3. History of Quilling.8

4. Quilling materials and instruments

4.1: The paper...11

4.2: The quilling instruments....12

4.3: Another useful materials....14

5. Different Techniques

5.1: Quilling..15

5.2: Quillography..........................................................................16

5.3: Tridimensional quilling..........................................................16

6. Artworks17

7. Quilling a necessity18

8. References.19

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1. Quilling`s exposure in words

Quilling is my hobby, but I also prefer to call it a job because that is what it

actually became with time. I decided to write my English thesis about quilling

because it is one of the things that represent me and I thought that this is a great

opportunity to share my experience with others and also because I wanted to expose

in words a visual art that changed my life!

What is quilling? that is the question that people usually ask when I tell them

that this is my hobby and it becomes annoying to always repeat the meaning of this

unknown word.

I remember that at the beginning I used to explain them a lot of things about

quilling but then I realized that people do not actually care about my explanations

and with time I got to answer the question very briefly, with simple and short words.

I do not like it when I give such answers because I think that in this way nobody can

really understand what quilling is all about, but I neither want somebody to get bored

while I am speaking about my passion. Anyway, if I could give a pleasant answer it

will be the following:

Quilling is an art form that involves the use of strips of paper that are rolled,

shaped and glued together to create decorative designs. The paper can be rolled,

looped, curled, twisted and otherwise manipulated to create shapes which make up

designs to decorate everything we want. The most popular and versatile technique is

that of rolling. The paper strip is rolled in fingers or using a tool. The coil is then

released and then glued at the tip and then shaped. These shaped coils are arranged to

form flowers, leaves, and various ornamental patterns.

If I give such answers people would understand exactly what quilling is, but

maybe because of the length of the explanation they would not see it as an interesting

thing, so that is why I think a short explanation is the best one.

So basically, quilling is the art that involves the use of paper`s strips which are rolled,

shaped and glued in order to create special designs. The process is time consuming

and requires a lot of patience and imagination, but at the end we can have amazing

results: framed artwork, three-dimensional miniatures, greeting cards, jewelry,

decorated boxes or other items.

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2. Bianca`s Quillings a story about ambition and changes

The story of Bianca`s Quillings started at the end of the year 2011 when a girl

decided that she had to do something valuable with her life. She was sick of going to

school and coming back home to do nothing more than homework. She had

wondered herself for days what could she do in such a small city, with so few

opportunities, with no parks for teenagers or places to go out. She had a few friends

but they were just like her: they were going to school and then coming back home,

they were wasting time and that was all! But she wanted something different, special

and she realized that it is all depending on her to change her life. She needed to

refresh her life.

At first she started reading and she was spending hours with her books. She

thought that this would be a great way to develop herself and improve her

knowledge. And it was exactly as she thought, but it was not enough! She realized

that this was not the thing she was looking for in order to change her life. Few days

later, while wasting time on the internet, she saw some quilling products for the first

time and she was amazed. They were so beautiful and delicate! Immediately she

thought that this could be what she was looking for. She started to search for

information about quilling but there were just a few on the internet. She found

thousands of pictures with quilling paper works, some of them were really fancy and

sophisticated, but others seemed to be not that hard to make. She decided that she

wanted to give it a try because it was something unique, beautiful and more than

anything it was something that she hadn`t heard about before. She was really excited

to start all this new hand-made adventure.

Since she was young she had some skills and abilities for hand-made but she had

never thought to really work on this, she was just making different things for school,

but now it was time to use her skills and make something much harder than ever

before.

The decision was made, but when she wanted to buy the materials she

realized that she could not find any Romanian website with what she needed. She

was disappointed, but she did not stop the search. One day she saw a picture with a

quilling paper work on facebook and she asked the person that shared the picture if

she knew anything about quilling or a website from where she could buy some

materials. Fortunately, that person was the one that had made that quilled work and

she could give her the needed information. Clara became Bianca`s friend, they were

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The first tableau made by Bianca

always talking about quilling, the materials they use and what works they were

doing. It was very helpful for Bianca because everything was new and at first she did

not even know from where to start.

With time everything got better, she became used with the procedures and she

started to imagine and create different types of flowers and some very beautiful

cards. After two months since she started the work on quilling she finished her first

tableau just in a few days

In March 2012 Bianca started to win the first money from her works. When

she decided to start working on quilling, she did not

think for a second that this could become a business,

she just thought that this could be something for her

free time, something for her but in March that year,

some relatives asked her to make a few cards for

them. They wanted to offer these to others as some

special cards, not as the ordinary ones and like this

Bianca put the base of her business. She had so

many orders that she hardly could finish all of

them. Because of the fact that there were many

things to do and a lot of paper works to finish,

Bianca`s mother started to work with her, alone she could not finish everything in

time. The entire family was surprised to see Bianca`s new hobby and business and

even her father and brother offered themselves to help. For a few days in the evening

all the family was reunited in the dining room, working on quilling and chatting. That

was a pleasant time for everyone!

Since that March Bianca and her mother kept working together because they

realized that everything is more productive if they work together. Quilling is not a

work for one person. Quilling takes a lot of time and patience and if someone is

working alone he can get really bored of doing this and either he gives up, either he

is not productive at all. If there are two or more persons working together, they do

not just combine their ideas, but also they can feel more relaxed and with more will

of working and finally like this they can have much more beautiful creations.

The months from the beginning of Bianca`s quillings were really productive.

Quilling was new for everyone Bianca met and everybody wanted to have at least a

small object created by her. She was excited about her hobby. Her mother and she

were working with pleasure all the time. Sometimes when she got different orders

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and she also got homework for school, she preferred to not do the homework, but to

finish the quilling work. Also, during that period, when she saw how successful her

quilling paper works can be, she decided to extend her small business and create

some other different objects: fridge magnets, picture frames and other ornamental

objects. It should have been a great business but it had not.

It was not enough to have different or much more beautiful creation, because

a person that once bought something cannot

buy again a similar object for himself and the

situations in which one person buys more than

one creation are rare. Considering these,

Bianca thought about making some market

strategies in order to sell the products. In May

she created a facebook page named Bianca`s

Quillings where she intended to promote her creations for finding new customers. It

did not have the impact she wanted but at least in time she got to be known. Most of

her friends, her acquaintances or her family`s acquaintances found out what she was

doing and this was a big step. Another strategy she used was to talk about hand-made

and quilling. This strategy turned to be the best one ever! Once people had heard

about this, they wanted to also see how it looks, so they were asking her to show

them some items. She was always having a camera with some quilling pictures with

her and she immediately showed them

what they wanted. If it happened not to

have the camera with her, she was

always telling them about her facebook

page. As she wanted to be known she

also had to make one more step. It was

not enough to be known by friends and

acquaintances and she decided to

participate to different exhibitions with her creations.

In the summer from 2012 she left home for two months to work in another

city, but she got a big order from somebody from Canada and she had to take all the

materials she had and work alone to finish these in time. It was really challenging for

her because she was not used to work alone. At first she did not find the power to

create the items, but the deadline was coming so she had to do these anyway. She

finished them in time but it took her more than double the usual time. She was lucky

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Getting ready for future exhibitions in autumn 2012

that one day a person that was living with her got really interested in the combination

of colors and the process of arranging all the flowers together and helped her with

some interesting ideas.

In autumn Bianca and her mother created for the first time an autumn quilling

collection of tableaux for an

exhibition. They found out about

it few days before it started so

they had to work really fast.

Since then they realized that it is

very important to always have

few items ready for an

exhibition because they could

never know what opportunity

could appear.

The next few months were very productive! Until Christmas they prepared more than

fifteen tableaux and pictures frames, plus some cards and magnets. Bianca found

some new customers and the business grew pretty fast because the success motivated

them to create new and more beautiful items. Another productive period was in

March 2013 when they managed to sell everything they had at that moment.

Moreover, they got some big orders and with all these their business got to the

highest level ever.

Since then and until now the business did not work as well as they expected,

but like a hobby, Bianca`s Quillings got to the highest level because they evolved a

lot and improved their techniques. The fact that they did not have much orders let

them enough time to practice and become much more professional.

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The future of Bianca`s Quillings will have some ups and downs because soon

Bianca will leave her home to go to university. The best part is that she will find new

customers and maybe much more opportunities to sell or exhibit the items her mother

and she create, but the worst part is that they will not be together anymore to create

the items. At the beginning it will be a little bit hard, like it was when she left home

for going to work in another city in the summer from 2012, but after a while maybe

she will find somebody else to work with and create another beautiful tableaux.

Quilling changed Bianca`s life and she will never give up on working this.

Quilling is more than just a business or a simple hobby. Quilling teaches you how to

appreciate time, how to become patient, how to see the beauty in the small things and

how to always be happy.

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Tea caddy dating from 18th century,

England

3. History of Quilling

Quilling is a lovely old art form which some believe may date back to ancient

Egypt. It has been known by many names including paper-rolling, paper-scrolling,

filigree, paper mosaic. It is theorized that early quillers rolled their papers on a

feather, or quill, hence the name quilling. Through the years its popularity has waxed

and waned.

French and Italian nuns during the 16th and 17th centuries, decorated

reliquaries and holy pictures and book covers with quilling. During the regency and

Victorian eras, young ladies of affluence were taught paper filigree just as they were

taught needlework. They decorated furniture, tea caddies, and boxes which were

made with recessed sides specifically to accommodate quilling. The quilling during

this period was quite heavy by our standards. Every inch of space was covered

with tiny coils and shapes. Wax chips and flaked shells were often added. References

to quilling and patterns were published in magazines in the 1700s. In 1875

Mosaicon kits were produced. In an article called Floral Mosaicon found in an

Edwardian book of household management, mention is made of quill work being

purchased by Queen Mary and Queen Alexander.

In the 18th century, quilling became popular in Europe where gentle ladies of

quality ("ladies of leisure") practiced the art. It was one of the few things ladies could

do that was thought not too taxing for their minds

or gentle dispositions. Quilling also spread to the

Americas and there are a few examples from

Colonial times. Many quilled art works can be

found on cabinets and stands, cribbage boards,

ladies' purses, a wide range of both pictures and

frames, work baskets, tea caddies, coats of arms

and wine coasters. Storage boxes, larger than

most jewelry boxes with drawers and/or tops that opened, quilled lock boxes, and

much more. Some items were specially designed for quilling with recessed surfaces.

Quilling was also combined or married with other techniques such as embroidery and

painting.

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Betty Christys book

Picture frame decorated with quilled motives, 19th century

In the United States, early examples of quilling were usually scones and coats

of arms. In the early nineteenth century quilling disappeared. Margaret Carlson, of

Kansas City Missouri, is credited with starting the modern revival of this art (in the

mid 1950s), after being asked to repair and do restorative work on some very old

pieces. She became interested in the art form

herself and taught many people to quill. In the

mid-sixties, Gini Antonie of Independence,

Missouri, pioneered a lacy form of paper filigree

and began the custom of naming the different coils

and shapes. Betty Christys book Quilling, Paper

art for everyone published in 1974, listed 29

companies that specialized in quilling. Quilling

papers and kits could be found in every mom and

pop craft store. Unfortunately, once the big craft

store chains started taking over, most of the small

stores went out of business. Of the 29 companies

listed in Bettys book, only one survived. Hers. One fledgling company NOT listed

in Betty Christys book was Lake City Crafts. Malinda Johnston, a Missouri quiller,

started her company in 1974 just as Bettys book was published. Lake City Crafts

went on to become the largest manufacturer of quilling supplies, books, and kits in

the country.

While quilling struggled for survival in the USA, quilling was alive and well

in England. In 1983, English quillers formed The Quilling Guild. The mission of the

Guild is to promote and spread the art of quilling and enable quillers to meet and

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exchange ideas. Information about the English Guild can be found in the Lake City

Crafts newsletter. Even if English quillers formed the Guild, they have member

from all over the world. The representative of the English Guild began writing a

newsletter, Quill America for the American quillers. In 1993, a small group of

American quillers attended the International Festival of Quilling in England. They

had such a wonderful time with each other, that they planned a reunion meeting in

New Jersey the following spring. The meeting was such a success, that the American

quillers, who kept in touch through Quill America, have had a national meeting

each year. At the 2000 Quill America meeting, held in Nova Scotia, it was decided to

organize the American and Canadian quillers into an official quilling guild. The

North American Quilling Guild was born, and Quill America became its official

newsletter. The quilling guilds of England and USA have played a large part in the

revival of this beautiful art.

Another very important factor in this current quilling revival has been the

internet. There is a large active group of quillers from all over the world who

exchange ideas and scan their work for each other to see. Martha Stewart has even

jumped on the bandwagon. Her February 2002 article about quilling in Martha

Stewart Living stirred up so much interest that Lake City Crafts had to hire

additional staff to keep up with the orders. Most recently, the scrapbooking industry

has discovered quilling bringing a whole new group of potential quillers. This ever

changing history is constantly written with each new person who learns to quill.

During the years the craft has gone through many transformations and

changes using new techniques, styles and materials. One of the biggest and most

important improvment in the quilling art is the Dimensional quilling with 3D items.

Today, quilling is seeing a resurgence in popularity with quillers (people who

practice the art of quilling) on every continent and in every walk of life. No longer

confined to the "upper classes", this is a peoples art form and the beauty of the art is

always expanding. The craft has become increasingly popular due to the low cost of

the material. It is used to decorate wedding invitations, birth announcements,

greeting cards, scrapbook pages, and boxes. Quilling can be found in art galleries in

Europe, in the United States and also in other place because it is an art that is

practiced around the world.

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4. Quilling materials and instruments

4.1: The Paper

For starting a quilling project, there is needed a heavy-duty quilling paper or

similar paper product. Quilling

papers should be smooth, sturdy,

acid-free and uniform in size. Papers

specifically created for quilling are

sold in craft stores. Other materials

needed for a quilling project include:

a toothpick or quilling tool, tweezers

for detail work, card stock or

cardboard for your work surface and

a high-quality, tacky craft glue.

Quilling Paper Types

Quilling paper is available on the consumer market in over 250 colors and

dimensions. It can be divided into various categories, like solid colored Quilling

paper, graduated Quilling paper, two-tone Quilling paper, acid free Quilling paper

and other assorted parcels of Quilling paper. It is available in various dimensions,

such as 1/8, and 3/8 broad paper parcels.

Acid-Free Quilling paper:

As the name clearly indicates this is a paper that is completely acid free. The quality

makes it an outstanding choice for making scrapbooks, rubber stamping, and creating

frames for pictures. It assures your project will last a lifetime, without any side

effects on the framed picture or album.

Graduated Quilling Papers:

This type of paper provides you an exceptional look to your decorative quilling

projects. On the edges, you will have a solid, concrete color but gradually, it will fade

to white. It is the nature of the quilling ring, that, when using a graduated paper, it

begins with a dark shade but ends up being faded to a lighter side. On the contrary,

some graduated papers begin as white, or a lighter shade, and then slowly fades into a

solid, darker color.

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Two-Tone Quilling Papers:

This is another important type of quilling paper. It is quite similar to the graduated

quilling paper in its use. The look consists of a concrete color on one side and

comparatively lighter color on the other side. Although, with two-tone paper, the

color remains same, however, the intensity of color is different. The main use of this

quilling paper is to provide a desired level of softness to the quilled subject. It

possesses the capacity to quill many papers in a single spiral.

4.2: The Quilling instruments

There are a lot of quilling instruments but the best thing about quilling is that you

can make your own tools and you do not have to buy anything if you do not want to.

The paper curling tools:

There are two main tools: the slotted tool and the needle one. The slotted tool is best

for beginners, while the needle tools lends itself to a more perfect creation. It can also

be used a toothpick or corsage needle.

o Slotted tool: This is thin pencil-like instrument with a slit or slot at the

top. The one downside of the slotted tool is that it creates a tiny crimp in

the center of the paper where you slide the paper into the head of the tool.

o Needle tool: This tool is harder to use but will result in an uncrimped

spiral (meaning it looks more professional) and perfect.

The onion holder (or quilling comb)

It is the ideal tool for making wheat ears-flat weaving and quill wrapping techniques.

Create loops and patterns with quilling paper strips.

The scissors

o Normal Scissors: straight cut scissors and curved cut scissors. These

extra fine tip, stainless steel scissors are designed to give a perfect cut

without perforating or buckling your paper. The curved scissors will

neatly cut leaf and petal shapes. The straight scissors are great for

cutting 45 or 90 fringed flowers.

o Micro Scissors: The sharp micro pointed nose is ideal for precise

detailed trimming. The micro scissors are easy on the hands and great

for making hand fringed strips.

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Special Fringe Scissors: The five blades are about 3 inches long and spaced

1/8 inch apart. They warp/twist the paper a bit at the end when the cut is

started but it can be straightened out It is tricky to make buts longer than just

3 inch blade because repositioning and lining up the strips again takes a little

effort but it can be done. When the fringed strips are rolled, the edges are

rough and give the appearance of strips cut with a paper shredder.

The Curling Coach:

It is perfect for making quilled miniatures, but it can also be used for every kind of

rolling ! Adding a slotted tool to the Curling Coach makes holding and rolling large

tight circles a breeze! This instrument gives extra support while rolling. Children are

the ones that love it most.

The Quilling Paper Fringer

With the quilling paper fringer you can make fringed leaves quickly and easily,with

uniform, precise 45 or 90 degree fringe. The machine means time-saving and fun

while using. This adjustable tool will fringe folded paper from 1/4" to 3/4" or 3/8

widths. Trim your folded paper into a half-leaf shape, fringe, and unfold for beautiful

leaves or fringe strips of paper, twirl, and then spread fringes apart to create beautiful

flowers.

The Quilling Border Buddy

Fill the shapes with Quilled shapes & curls to create unique flowers, snowflakes and

more

The Mini Mold Tool

It transforms flat tight coils into perfect domes! It is the perfect 3-Dimensional

shaping tool.

The Crimper Tool

Create fine or coarse crimping paper strips with just a turn of the knob! In general the

re are crimpers with different sizes.

The tweezers

o The magnifier tweezers: Tweezers with a magnifying glass that pulls

apart are allowing you to magnify the area you're working on, as you

place the quilled piece. It is very handy!

o Standard tweezers are perfect for every quilling action, it can be used

for arranging the small pieces and it can also be used instead of the

quilling tool, in rolling the strips of paper.

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The Quilling Grid Guide

Concentric circles and grid system are used for piecing and gluing snowflakes and

flowers. It also includes 45-degree and 60-degree markers to help you make 8-

pointed or 6-pointed snowflakes and flowers. The 5 squares/inch grid system is

perfect size for husking as well as aligning your paper strips while braiding and

weaving.

The Quilling Board

The coil must be released inside the shape and then with some pins the coil must be

directed to create the shape from the board.

The pins

These are very useful if you want to create unique shapes, petals of flowers or other

stuff.

4.3: Another useful materials

Besides all the quilling instruments and the paper strips, a quilling worker also needs:

white/invisible glue will be needed for forming the flowers, leaves or the

other shapes;

gloss varnish will be needed for the fixation and protection from water of all

the items;

colored papers will be needed for making the frames and other things.

The basic instruments and materials

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5. Different techniques

5.1:Quilling

Quilling is a very simple technique which involves the shaping of the paper`s

strips. From an open coil we can create many other shapes like in the picture below:

Besides this basic shapes we can create more complicated ones, similar to these:

For professional and complicated designs it is recomanded to use the onion holder.

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5.2:Quillography

Quillography is another quilling technique which involves the use of strips of

paper which are designed after a pattern. From all the quilling techniques it is

thought to be the most complicated one.

5.3: Tridimensional Quiling

Tridimensional Quilling is a modern technique which also involves the use of

paper`s strips. Besides the curling tool, this technique involves the use of some other

instruments: The Curling Coach, The Mini Mold Tool and some other random

instruments, depending on type of work.

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6. Artworks

The art of quilling has some very simple basic rules. Once a person gets used

with the procedures he can start and create complicated, intricate and amazing

designs. The following artworks are made by different people around the world.

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7. Quilling a necessity

Quilling is more than it seems to be! As a person who is not involved in the

making process, besides the final results, you may see few hours of working: time

consuming and perseverance, but quilling is not just that. Quilling is about learning

how to love and appreciate everything around us, quilling teaches us how be become

patient not only while working on this, but also with the persons around us.

Moreover, quilling is about making relationships because we have a lot of

opportunities to meet new people with whom we share this passion and not only, at

exhibitions, events or on the internet.

I have always seen the persons that had a hobby as some amazing aliens. I like

to use this word because I think they are pretty rare nowadays, at least here in

Romania. I think that everybody who has a hobby is a special and different person

because of the artistic spirit which can be observed easily and immediately. I

remember one day I read something very nice and interesting on the internet, it was

said that besides all the standard rules for impressing an employee one person should

have an interesting or strange hobby. And I cannot agree more! Why is that? I

strongly believe that because nowadays everybody has or can get a diploma, but the

differences between the candidates for a job are made considering the extra activities

or hobbies that they have. Sometimes a hobby can speak for ourselves more than a

CV does.

More than everything, quilling or handmade in general can be considered the best

way to offer original presents to the people we love. Douglas Coupland said:

Handmade presents are scary because they reveal that you have too much free

time!, but, personally, I prefer to say that the handmade presents reveal how much

time one person can invest for their friends.

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References

http://www.whimsiquills.com/servlet/StoreFront

http://quilling-guild.weebly.com/the-history-of-quilling.html

http://www.quillingsuperstore.com/

http://quillingsupply.com/

http://quilling-guild.weebly.com/the-history-of-quilling.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quilling

http://www.allthingspaper.net/p/quilling-faq.html

http://ada-quilling.blogspot.ro/

http://manuk.ro/en/2013/01/quillography-tutorial/

http://amberrousse.wordpress.com/2012/07/19/quilled-map/

http://www.wikihow.com/Do-Quilling

http://www.ehow.com/about_5410627_information-quilling.html

http://quilling.blogspot.ro/2006/06/welcome-to-world-of-quilling-and-art.html

http://www.answers.com/topic/quilling

http://www.impactednurse.com/?p=5516

http://lisanilssonart.com/section/282102_Tissue_Series.html

http://www.tedmed.com/speakers/show?id=6631

http://www.mustash.ro/67-instrumente-quilling-

http://www.quilledcreations.com/

http://www.naqg.org/naqgcon/naqgconHistorymain.htm

http://www.quillingcafe.com/

http://paper-paradise.com/en/tag/kartki-urodzinowe-quilling/page/2/