Sunset & Silhouette - Quilled Landscape Picture Art

I was always fascinated by silhouette photography so I thought I'd try to do it justice by quilling one just to see how it turned out.  I love the way it did . I have quilled the sunset on water scene only slightly below the black . I have used pegs under the black silhouette foreground. The method is the same as in my landscape tutorial. I have squashed the coils that are used for the background to make them less elastic and more malleable. The black foreground and bamboo silhouette coils are not squashed. You can see the difference from the shape.

You should note however, that you will have to use many more coils if you squash and use. So if you are lazy like me, don't squash unless you need to emphasize the flow or need more control over the quills.

Squashing the coils make it flatter and more malleable for shaping.

Crimping without a Crimper - Mini Tutorial

Simply thread a strip over and under the teeth. Make sure you  pull it vertically up when you are threading under and vertically down when you are threading over so that it is tight. Leave for a while (20 counts) to allow the strip to take shape or set and then gently with push it out of the comb with forceps. Do not pull it out too much when your using the crimped strip.
A metal comb will do it much better I think. Combs with smaller teeth ( small combs) can be used to make finer crimped strips.

Twin Concentric Petal - New Quilling Technique Tutorial

This is a slight variation of the Twigs & flowers tutorial.

Step 1

Paste 5 or 6, 3mm strips together as shown.

 Step 2

Score  the strips with your fingernails to get a nice curve.

Step 3

First hold all the strips together about 1 1/2 inches away from the pasted end and then pull each strip starting from the shortest to form the  arch shown below and then gum the strips together in one spot. Make sure the gum is minimal and all strips are stuck in the same spot.

 Step 4

  Now stick both ends together to form a circle ( see below) and cut off the excess strips. Gum them together where you have pasted the strips previously.

Step 5

 Now push the centre to the bottom as shown below and paste another strip to the bottom and encircle the two concentric petals to form a single double concentric petal.

Use the petal to make whatever flower or leaf you want.

Flowers & Twigs - New Quilling Technique Tutorial

How to Make The Petal -New Techniques

Step 1

Take 2 strips of different colors (paste one end together) or a single strip and paste it round your quilling needle handle to form a ring.

Step 2

Wrap the rest of the strip round the first circle  to make the usual coil, allow to unwind and gum it. once completed it will look like the above.

Step 3

Take the coil  and hold it between your thumb and forefinger on either side and push  the top towards  the bottom right in the middle with a sharp object  or your quilling needle, while pushing the two sides together.

Step 4

While still pressing the sides together, take a new strip and encircle it around the petal as shown above, and gum it and viola !! you got your petal.

Step 5

Now for the centre, make a fringed flower by using a 3mm un-fringed strip for the centre and 5mm fringed strip and for the outer black petals, use 7mm , but fringe it wide and have only around 8 to 10 cuts. Use your own color combination.

Step 6

Stick the petals to the fringed flower slightly angled up. The easiest way is to allow the glue to dry a bit and get sticky before you paste it.

Twigs & Flowers - Quilled 3d Flower Design

I have used a new technique these quilled 3d flowers and the leaves. I like the way the flowers turned out. The colors used are red, brown and yellow. The background is brown though it looks orangy. The twigs were made from brown strips.
I thought of using twisted strips for the twigs but settled for making them look more real. I think it goes well with the whole design.

Look out for tutorials on the flowers and the leaves in future posts.