Graphic Quilling - Psychedelic Lady

I tried this multi strip, graphic quilled portrait from an image I found on the net. All the elements are made using multiple strips which I pasted together and then, manipulated the shapes by pulling each strip to different lengths. Wherever possible, I made the shape and pasted it to the backing.

The best way to get the circles are to create an arc by pulling the strips like the pink one at the forehead and then sticking one end on the backing and holding the other with forceps and turning the paper till the proper circle is formed. Then while you still hold the end with the forceps slightly raise it and roll a toothpick with glue along the edge, allow to dry slightly and then stick it and hold it till dry. It is not necessary to paste it completely.

The eyes too are quilled and they turned out great. I'm really proud of the eyes!!

Quilling Tutorial - New Technique Striped Flower

 

 Step 1

Take 2 strips of light & dark color or white and color and fold it at 1' intervals as shown below. Make sure the lenght of the fold is enough for you to curve around and paste.

  Step 2

 Take a strip of your choice and wrap it around the folded strip.

Step 3

Paste the encircling strip.

 Step 4

bend around a pen or pencil and paste the inside ends firmly to form the petal.

Step 5 (Optional)

  Quill a small loose coil to fit it into the hole in the petal and glue it in.

Step 6

Make 6 to 8 tiny coils in yellow or red to make the stigma.

Step 7

Paste these tiny coils to each other form a circle.

 Step 8

Now paste the petals to the stigma flat if you want 2 dimensional flower or slightly slanted up as shown below for 3d flower. Glue it when slightly dry and sticky . Make sure each petal has stuck well before you glue the next petal. Alternatively,  you can cut a small circle about 4mm diameter larger than the stigma and make 3mm slits equally spaced to match the number of petals +1. Now paste the slit edges together  pulling the edges slightly towards each other so that the circle lifts upwards off the flat surface and paste the petals to this cone shaped structure. If you want several layers make sure each layer's lift is slightly less as you go towards the outer layers.

Quilled Flowers & butterfly- Butterfly Garden

I saw the use of comb quilled flowers and butterflies at a Russian site and was fascinated by it. Though it was not a 3d flower like the one I have made, I loved the way the petals looked. I made up the butterfly as I went along making up the design. I generally do not plan the design ahead, which I think is a bad practice.  I just make different type of flowers that I like and then conjure up the design to fit the stuff I have made!!

For this one I made all the parts 3d style with stems and all and arranged it like a flower arrangement. The tiny leaves are made of round loose coils encircled in a teardrop shape. I think they go well with the small flowers.The yellow flower stems are twisted green strips. Just apply glue to one side of the strip and twist it tight and let it dry, they become nice and stiff.

Close-up

Tutorial for the dimensional flowers are available here.

Quilling Quick Tip - Tranfering print on backing

I discovered a simple way to transfer designs without leaving pencil marks. This is specially useful for graphic quilling. Its pretty obvious but never struck me till now. Get the design print out.
Keep the backing sheet your going to use under the print and simply use a stylus or empty ballpoint pen and  trace the design deep enough to get the impression on the backing paper but not too hard as to score the sheet and viola!! you have you design that will not show up on the final output. Make sure you keep it on a cutting mat or card board when you are tracing.

Quilled Leaf Sprig Tutorial - New Quilling Technique

This tutorial is on how to make the leaf like sprig I made for this design Flowers & Twigs. You may use this technique freely, my only request is to give a link to this blog when you use it so that others may benefit too.

 Step 1

Take either one strip or 2 light/dark strips and a comb and thread the strip below 2 teeth and over 2 teeth and down. Turn the comb to the side where the strip came out .

Step 2 

Loop it back and glue it on the  flat side with the tiniest bit of glue.  If you are using 2 strips make sure both strips are glued. Now fold the strip forward and take it under 2 teeth and over 2 teeth and down again, loop it back and paste on the flat side same as before.

After 1st loop is pasted

second loop folded but not pasted

After 2 loops are pasted

 

 Step 3

Continue the process till you get the sprig the size you want. Remove from comb. It should look like the pic below. You can see where I have looped and glued and then folded forward as this makes up the stalks of the leaves.

Removed from comb after 2 loops (leaves) are pasted

Completed one side

 Step 4
Repeat the process with a separate set of strips and then paste them both together to form the leaf sprig as shown below.

After both half sprigs are pasted

Graphic Quilling - Colorful Paradise Bird

More graphic quilling or multi strip quilling my style!! This graphic quilled bird is created with multi-strip quilling techniques, I basically pasted strips together and then adjusted the lengths and created the various shapes that went into the design. I like the way it turned out. I hope you do too.

Graphic quilling Tips are here.

Quilled Letters or Typography

I have always been awestruck by quilled letters, monograms and words, so I finally picked up the courage to try it and here are the results. Well, not too bad for a first attempt. Actually I quite like it. Sort of looks divine in its own way.

I did struggle to get the strip stuck properly on the printed letters. Guess I should have opted for an easier font. Anyway, on hindsight fonts like Gisha or Aharoni may be easier to quill.

How was it done??  Well..... just printed the letters and stuck the strip on top using a toothpick to apply glue on the strip and not on the backing. Had to do it bit by bit and hold it down till it dried a bit. I just picked the design out of the hat. Made it up as I went along.

 This was my attempt at quilling script. I found it easier than letters with sharp edges as those need precision folding of the strip, but my glue was not good enough and the letters kept coming 
out after all the time I spent gluing a specific section. For this one I pasted red, white & red and quilled the letters.

This was a narrower script I tried out. I think it is called sloop. I have tried to use multi-strip method here to get the double line effect. The flowers are made using continuous strip.

Graphic Quilling - Tips

For those who wanted to know how I did Tinkerbell's hair and dress, here are a set of tips.  Yulia Brodskaya is probably the one who developed this method. Her work is out of this world. I am only guessing at how it is done.

1. Strips are used to create the various shapes in graphic quilling   and the strips are pasted directly on the backing. ( Probably, thicker paper 100 to 120 gsm is used but I have used regular printer paper for all my graphic work).
2. I usually have the image outlined in pencil, and paste the outline strip on the pencil outline first.
3. In order to fill the space I tear up the strips to the relevant size.
4. Just as in the case of a pencil drawing the strips are pasted. A strip for a pencil line, in order to get the contour of the image.
5. Dark and light shades are used to get the depth for the image just as in the case of pencil drawings.
6. I generally keep the strip in the area I'm going to fill and get a sense of the length required and tear it accordingly.
7. The twists and turns of the strip is used once again to bring out the contours of the object. For example if you want to show a curved surface you will curve the strips to the right and to show it is going in, you will curve it in the opposite direction and combine a few darker shade strips.
8. I acquired a bit of knowledge by reading up on pencil drawing.
9. When applying gum you have to use very little. Best is to use a toothpick and roll it along the edge, allow it to dry a bit and paste.
10. I would not gum the whole strip if it is long, rather, I do it bit by bit.
11. If you are using individual shapes like circles etc.  it is better to make the shape and then paste it.

I feel that being  able to draw well is a definite advantage for graphic quilling  . I hope this post is helpful.

Quilled Monarch Butterfly Closeup

This monarch butterfly was quilled using a print out as a guide. I placed a polythene on the printout and quilled the wings first. I used coils and shaped them according to the picture. Then I encircled each one in black and pasted it, one to the other. Where colors are at the edges of the coils,  like the tip of the wings, I just made the black coil then a few white ones, shaped them and pasted them into the outer edge of the coil. I use the same technique to put highlights into the eyes I quill.

For the body, I have just pasted white strips cut to shape, after quilling the 3d body. I did a small trick for the eye as I was lazy!! I cut a strip like a long triangle and made a peg starting with the broader end.

Quilled Humming Bird Closeup

I have uploaded a closeup of the humming bird quilled picture in my Fuchsia Shower to show how the blended quills enable you to get different shades. The darker shade of green is achieved by mixing light/dark green and making the coil. The grayish look is by mixing black and white. The tail feathers have been made using husking technique. I have quilled the eyes then pasted strips to get the shape of the eyes.