New Quilling Technique Tutorial - Compound Spike Flower

 

As promised a tutorial on quilling compound spike type (inflorescence type) flowers which I used for the quilled Black Maned Lion  ,  Behind the Picket Fence and  Lilly White. The one here has been quilled densely with more coiling.

Beehive Quilling Tip - simply insert your quilling tool away from the end of the strip and roll either clockwise or anti clockwise, the desired number of times . Make the second coil by inserting the tool an inch or less away from the end of the previous coil and continue as before making several sub-coils using one continuous strip. It will look like the pic below. If you turn the tool clockwise for one coil and anticlockwise for the next, it will look like the second one in the same Pic.

 You can find beehive quilling tips through the search button on the side bar just like you Google stuff.

Method

Take 3 shades of red or a combination of red and orange 3mm strips.  The darker shades should be about twice the length  ( I used 2,  9 "strips and a 5' orange one) of the lightest shade.

Tear the 2 darker shade strips in 2, then glue in the following order :-

 darkest, dark, light, dark and the darkest to make one long strip as in the 2nd Pic.

Now start beehive quilling and start the first coil about .75 inches away from the end of the strip as shown above. Turn clockwise about  5 to 6 clockwise turns and squash it  in the middle as shown above. If you want it to be lace like, make only 3 turns and do not squash.

  Continue to make about 6 more or any number of coils ensuring  you have an odd number of coil. Tear off the excess strip and glue the first and last coils shut. Then arrange  it as shown above.

 Now glue 2 strips together to make a thick stem and tear a 3' piece, then apply glue to one side as shown and glue 3 marquee coils to that side. Now leave one on top and glue the final 3 coils to the other side as shown in the pic. For the lacey flower, you have to glue the coils shut  and shape only the top most coil.

 Once glued it should look like the above..  Now press the 3 coils that are pointing upwards, down and allow to dry. Also glue the top most  coil shut .  If your marque are opening out too much glue them lightly.

Your finished spike flower should look like the above. This may not be that easy for those who have no experience with manipulating beehive quilling but try with newspaper strips till you get the hang of it and then it is a breeze.

If you enjoyed this tutorial please leave your comments to show your appreciation. 

Read More

Quilled Lanscape Picture Flower Frame - Behind The Picket Fence

Today's Landscape Picture is inspired by childhood memories . The picket fence always brings back joyous memories of my childhood home and all those wonderful flowers in full bloom which , beauty was enhanced by the white picket fence.

I have made this in 4 layers and the fence is the bottom most. I have used 3d cones. beehive quilling , quilled roses, fringed flowers and various types of leaves for this project.

The yellow flowers are the same grass flowers I used for Black maned Lion and Lilly White. I love the lacey look of it and they are quite easy to make.

The red flowers are the same as the white veronica  I used in Flower Shower. The white bell flowers are 3d cones and I have glued them directly onto the backing unlike all the other flowers where I made the plant and then glued it onto the backing.

The little pink roses are made from 3mm strips and look very dainty. I have used this extensively in my landscapes like Quilled Tree .

I hope to do a tutorial on the yellow flowers so those of you who have not done so already, click on Join to get Updates or  Get e mails. This blog is for You  to look and learn.

Read More

Quilled Nature Landscape Picture - Black Maned Lion of the Kalahari

Today's post is a quilled landscape picture of a Black Maned Lion, which though rare are found in the Kalahari Plains. I think he turned out rather handsome and I'm glad I have done justice to this beautiful beast who is a king among Kings.

Previously I had quilled a cartoon lion which I call A lion share of Love, but till now I have not dared to quill a lion, as  I wanted to do it justice when I really got down to it. However, I did quill a Tiger very early into my journey into quilling  which turned out pretty well considering the fact that I could hardly quill at that time and the basic shapes are all too loosely quilled in my opinion.

I have quilled him, my style which I think is quite unique so far, using various basic shapes that look like hair rather than coils.

Here is a closer look

Click to enlarge image

I used a picture of the lion to get the colors right and have combined colors to get a more natural look.

The grassy plain has been glued on top so that the lion looks like its standing behind at a distance and I have not put many leaves on the tree in order to get the viewer to focus on the lion rather than the background.

I would love to hear what you all think.

Read More

New Quilling Technique Tutorial - Mold Quilled Petal Lilly

As promised a tutorial on quilling 3D flowers using mold quilled petals. It is not as hard as it looks!!  All the flowers in Filigree Flowers on Trellis and Lilly White were made using this method.

 This method is just an extension of mold quilling which tutorial I have posted  here.

What You Will Need

A plastic or any non stick curved surface such as a spoon, a ball or a cylindrical object placed in a manner that it will not roll away. I use a plastic spoon or the rounded head of my massager!!

Method

Make 20 marquees for each petal using 2 or 2.5" 3mm strips. You will need 100 marquee for each flower with 5 petals.

Now you are going to make the petals on the mold or curved surface as shown above as follows:

R 1   3 marquee                R4  4
R2   4                                R5  3 
R3   5                                R6   1     where R is for row.

Glue each marquee onto the adjacent marquee and do not apply glue to the top or bottom surfaces. Start with 3 for the bottom row and then for the next row, glue the marquee by fitting it into the spaces first like building a wall and then outside making sure you apply glue, only to the portion you are gluing at that time ( i.e the sides of the  bottom half of each marquee) . Continue using the above grid.

Once completed you will get a petal as shown in the pic, molded to the curvature of the surface used as shown below. The steeper the curvature the more time you will have to spend ensuring it is stuck properly.

Make all the petals and allow them to dry well. Meanwhile, cut small circles of 1/2'' diameter. Then make 6 slits to about 2/3 the way to the center. This will give you 5 petals.

Now place the slit circles on rubberized foam or on the underside of your mouse pad ( semi soft surface) and with the rounded end of your quilling tool rub it repeatedly in a clockwise motion till the circle cups in . Then take each petal (you will have 5 if you made 6 slits) and rub the underside of the outer edge of each petal till they curl out like flowers as shown in the pic below. ( the paper curls in towards the surface you are rubbing). Each petal would have opened out if done correctly.

Now if you want your flower to be firm, glue the sides of the petals together up to half way up. Leaving the opened out section unglued gives you the option of shaping the flowers later.

Now glue each molded petal to the paper petals as shown above and allow it to dry. When gluing always allow the glue to become sticky before you bring any two surfaces together.

Once dried well you can shape the flower as desired using the paper center. If desired make stamens and glue it onto the paper center.

Read More

Mould Quilled 3D Flower Frame - Lilly White

A quilled frame of Lillies with mould quilled petals. The leaves are mould quilled too to get curvature. This was gifted to my best friend  who brought me some crafting tools which has made my life so much easier

The white and yellow bunches are beehive quilled and are similar to the flower bunches I used for
Flower Shower, except that they are glued on a single plane onto strips instead of stems.

I have used  marquees for both the flowers and the leaves unlike the beehive quilling I used for the moulded flowers in Flowers on a Trellis.

A simple method to prevent  the marquee from popping out to much is to hold both the pinched ends  and move the top to the left while you move the bottom to the right a few times. That way you can remove the elasticity of the paper and control your moulded shapes more.

Once the petals were done, making the flowers were pretty simple. I shall post a few pics on how the flowers were made in my next post which will be after I return from my holiday. Another tip to standardize the size and shape of the petal when quilling on moulds, is to keep a count of the number of rows you used for the first petal and the number of marquees used for each row. Generally if you increase each row by one marquee it will get wide smoothly and vise versa. 

For the leaves the length of the marquee and the angle at which you glue will determine how wide the leaf is. However you can use the same method as for the petal for leaves too.

I have used 2.5" strips for the petal marquees and 11" strips for the leaf marquees.

Looking forward to reading your comments but please bear with me for taking time to reciprocate as I will be out for about 10 days.

Read More

Quilled Nature Landscape Painting - Flower Fields

This time its a quilled painting of a nature landscape of a winding path through a field of flowers. You can see the distant trees and hills in the horizon.

Wowww, its 10 days since my last post!! I have had a long break from blogging by my standards!! Been really busy quilling though I have not blogged. This one too was done a long while back.

A picture that I had taken on one of my many tours caught my eye and I thought I would try quilling it. Well I was quite happy with how it turned out.

As you can see it is not layered. though I have used various techniques to depict the various elements.I have also used some metalic paper strips for the path and the far horizon. I have used crimped strips to give texture to the gray hills in the horizon.

It is not easy to explain what I have done, but the basis of this type of quilling is a combination of what I did in Cherry Blossoms and Quilled Tree.  The whole frame is glued directly to the backing like in graphic quilling.

The depth is achieved through the use of color tones and  each element or shape is used like a brush stroke to form the whole just as in a painting. The overall picture is seen when viewed from a few feet away just as in a painting. That is why I call it a quilled painting.

Looking forward to reading your comments.

Read More

Quilled 3D Flower Frame - Filigree Flowers on a Trellis

After a long break, quilled 3D flowers in a frame. I have been concentrating more on landscapes all this while, so I thought I'd make a quilled floral wall hanging with  moulded 3D filigree flowers.

 I have tried to achieve the lacey look like  I did for Christmas Poinsettias.  However this is more complicated as I have used petals that are quilled over a curved mould  without encircling it with a strip in order to achieve the lace like quality. The petals are made into curves shapes, just like in the bell  tutorial here.

 In this close up, you can see the petals are curved as they are made on a curved surface. I have used  slightly cupped pegs for the centers.

For this frame too, I have made the plant with stem, stalks and leaves and then mounted it on the backing as in the case of my Orange Blossoms and Sweet William frames. 

I generally mount the plant at different levels (heights ) to get a more intense 3D effect rather than only arrange the leaves and stems over or under the flowers. Though it is not so noticeable in this front perspective shot, if you observe the frame closely, you can see the shadow around some of the flowers and leaves because they are elevated.

I have already done a tutorial on affixing the flowers to their stems the easy way. I will do another tutorial on how to fix stems to the leaves as my next project, so keep tuned in to this blog.

As Manuela  ( manuk.ro)  says, the easiest way is to use a glue gun, and she does it oh!! so neatly, but people like me who fear hot glue guns can still use the good old PVA glue and glue them on quite firmly with the use of my tutorials if they wish.

As you can see, the leaves are made using 5 tear drops but I have used 2 different greens for effect.

Would love to have your feedback.

Read More