Quilled Elephant Head

Materials

Grey 3mm wide quilling strips
White 3mm wide quilling strips

Tools

PVA glue in a fine nozzle dispenser
Fine point tweezers
Reverse action tweezers
Cuticle scissors
Black pen

Head – 3 strips
Chest – 6 strips
Ear – 4 strips
Trunk – 2 thirds of a strip, decreasing lengths from that

Tusk – 1 quarter strip, tight rolled, small length of grey to cover base
Jaw – 1 sixteenth strip
Eye - 1 sixteenth strip

Roll the head, chest and ear sections and glue as loose coils. The ear should be slightly larger than the head section. Use reverse action tweezers to arrange and glue the coils against one side of the roll (see photos, they help make more sense!), glue on back to hold in place and let dry.

Once dry, carefully shape each part as shown in photo. Glue the tip of the chest to the side of the head, and the ear on top of the junction between them. The two bottom parts should support the ear.

Trim some strips to the lengths required for the trunk. Make a lot more lengths than you think you'll need, as you'll need to decide by eye what sizes suit the size of the head you've made.

Roll the trunk pieces into loose coils. Make the smallest two equivalently sized.

You will need more coils than I've shown here - approx 10 parts minimum, plus the two smallest ones for the trunk tip.

Using reverse action tweezers, squash the coils flat, keep flat by clamping between the tweezers, and cover the backs with glue. Let the glue dry – this’ll hold the coils in this flattened position.

Glue the trunk pieces together in order of size, angling them in a gentle upward curve. Take the smallest two pieces and pinch into teardrop shapes. Glue to the end of the trunk. Glue trunk to the lower edge of the point of the head.

Roll the white length into a tight roll. Push into a pointed shape and fill the inside with glue. This will make it strong and solid. Let it dry, and wrap a short length of grey around the top of the tusk, so it sticks out beyond the wide end of the tusk. Coat the inside of this grey extension with glue, and press against the lower side of the head to attach. Trim any excess length of strip.

Roll a short length of grey into a loose coil, and pinch into a teardrop shape. Glue the wide edge of the teardrop to the underside of the head for the jaw.

Roll a tight white roll, and use a pen to draw on an eye. Slide into the coils of the head and glue in place.

Tweak the shape of the various parts now until you're happy they all sit well together. And that's it!

Quilled bats

Body – 1 strip black

Wings – 1 strip black each

Head – 1 half strip black

Ears – small length of black, approx 1 eighth strip

Roll the body first. Roll entire strip, release coil and allow to relax. Glue the end of the strip to the body of the coil to create a loose circle. Gently squeeze the coil at one end to create a rounded ended-teardrop shape.

Roll the 2 strips for the wings up individually. Release coils and allow to relax. Glue the ends of the strips to the bodies of the coils to create two loose circles. Try to make these circles match in size, as this will help to create more symmetrical wings.

Pinch the circles into a teardrop shape.

Pinch off-centre from the opposite side to the point of the teardrop to create an unsymmetrical half-circle, ie the bulge of the circle isn’t in the centre of the half-circle, but off to one side.

Pinch at the height of the bulge in the half circle to create another point.

You should now have a triangle shape, with one long side, and two progressively smaller sides.

Push the shortest of the sides in toward the centre of the shape, so that it curves inwards..

Roll the half strip up, release coils and allow to relax. Hold against the body shape to judge whether it is the right size.

If too small, hold the centre of the coil loosely and unroll a few loops of the coil to loosen. Glue the end of the strip in the position that matches this size.

If it is too large, hold the centre of the coil loosely and gently pull the end of the strip to tighten the coils. Roll the excess length in the same way as before, and glue to body of coil,

Position the longest point of the wings on top of the body, with the inwardly curved section furthest away from the body, and glue in place. Glue the head on top of the wings.

When the glue has dried, fold the small length of black into an ‘M’ shape. Glue the lower tip of the ‘M’ to the centre of the top of the head. When the centre has dried securely, glue the ‘legs’ of the ‘M’ to the side of the head.

Thassit: a bat!!

Quilled spiders

Body - 6 black strips (or 5 black, 1 red if you're wanting to make a red-bummed spider)
Head - 1 black strip (or 1 red strip)
Legs - 1 eight of a black strip per leg

Also needed: a short length of black to cover the seam between the front and back halves of the body.

To make the body, roll 3 black strips into a tight roll, and carefully push into a curved bell shape. Repeat for the other half of the body to make matching halves. Make the tip of one tight roll slightly flatter, as the head will have to be glued to this. Coat the inside of both halves with glue and allow to dry.
If you want to make a spider with a red rear, just roll the first strip of one half in red.
When both halves are dry, dot glue around the edges of the halves, and stick together. Try to line up the seams of the two halves with each other, as this makes them easier to hide with the seam strip.
Once the glue between the two halves is dry, take the short length of black and coat the back lightly with glue. Press it along the seam to cover it.

Legs are made by gluing the last few millimtres of four one eighth length strips on top of each other. Once the strips are glued, fold in half and splay out. Glue the glued ends to the body, attaching to the seam strip.

For the head, roll a tight roll with a strip of black. Mark eyes on it with silver pen. Glue to the flattened half of the body.

There, done!

Quilled flowers

Quilled Flowers

Flowers

There are lots of different types of flowers you can make, all made up from the same basic shapes. I'll describe a few simple types here.

6 petal flower: this is made by making 6 teardrop shapes for the petals, and a single either tight or loose roll for the flower centre. Glue the large end of the teardrop to the roll in a circle, creating a flower with a round centre and 6 petals pointing outwards. This can be done with any number of petals.

8 petal flower: same as to make 6 petal flower, but make 8 teardrop shapes, and a smaller central roll. Glue teardrop shapes to central roll at point of teardrop, giving curved outer shape to flower.

'Glasgow Rose�'style: make a large fold in the end of a strip, and loosely roll the rest of the strip around this fold, keeping it flat. Release the roll and glue the end.

Tulip: make a teardrop shape, then pinch again to create a half-circle. Push the middle of this half-circle in towards the centre of the roll, making one edge curve. Add two small teardrops glued together at their wide end to the base of the tulip.

Fringed Flowers

Fringed flowers can be made either by hand or by using a fringing machine. They are made from 6mm or wider strips, cut into using scissors. A few tips can help making fringed flowers by hand easier:

Once you've fringed a strip, you can either make a flower with or without a centre. The centre can be either a tight or a loose roll, but using a tight roll will make a flower thats more sturdy and resistant to 'squishing'!

To make a flower without a centre, just roll the fringed strip up in the same way as a normal strip, and glue. When it's glued use your thumb to press hard to splay out the fringed areas to the side, to open out the flower. The flower petals should be at about 90 degrees to the body of the roll, so when seen from above they create a 'halo' of petals.

To make a flower with a centre, glue the centre to what will be the inner edge of the flower at the bottom. Then roll the strip in the normal way, glue, and splay out as described above.

Quilled Duckling

Most things can be made through quilling, you just need to be able to ‘visualise’ the shapes that things are made up out of, e.g. circles, teardrops, squares etc. A simple piece to make using these shapes is a duckling.

Materials:

1 and a half strips of yellow paper.
One short (approx 5-6mm) length of orange strip
A background to stick the duckling onto.

Instructions:

Take the full length of the yellow strip, roll up, release, and glue end to make loose roll.

Pinch point of loose roll to create teardrop shape.

Roll the half-length strip and glue to create a circle.

Put the larger teardrop shape with the point ‘pointing’ to the right, with the large, bulging part to the left.

Put a small amount of glue on one small section the outer edge of the head, if possible at the point where the edge is glued to the roll, and press it against the outer edge of the teardrop shape at the top. This should give you a round head sitting on top of a teardrop body.

Take the little bit of orange and fold it in half.

Glue this half to the side of the head, using the fold as the point to secure it.

You’ve got a duckling!

Shaping

Loose Roll

Circle: Easy to make, it’s just the basic strip rolled up and glued!

Teardrop: Support the central coil with a fingertip, and find the point where the strip is glued to the body of the roll. When you find it, take your thumb and index finger of the hand not supporting the coil, and pinch the sides, making the glued edge the point of the pinch. This will kink the loops of the coil and create a teardrop shape. It’s not essential to make the glued bit the tip of the point, but it can help to keep the sides looking smoother as the tiny ‘bump’ of the glue won’t show as much. The teardop can also be twisted into a more curved shape, like a half of a yin-yang shape.

Diamond/Eye: From the teardrop shape, pinch the end opposite the tip, making a shape with two pointed ends.

Square: From a diamond, pinch two points in the smooth sides, in the same way as making the diamond shape originally. This should give a shape with the four points roughly equal in distance from each other…

Rectangle: Follow the same instructions as for the square, but make the pinches at a different spacing.

These are some of the main shapes. You’ll find that you’ll start needing other shapes eventually, but they can be easily adapted from these basics.

Making A Picture
Most things can be made through quilling, you just need to be able to ‘visualise’ the shapes that things are made up out of, e.g. circles, teardrops, squares etc. A simple piece to make using these shapes is a duckling.

So, there you go, a quick run-through of the basics of quilling. I hope you decide to have a go, it’s very easy to pick up, and there’s so many ways to develop and experiment with those simple little strips of paper!

Getting started

All quilling pictures are made from a few basic shapes, all very simple to make one you’ve got the hang of rolling the paper, so we’ll start with rolling, gluing, and go on to shaping.

Rolling

To do without a tool: select a strip of paper, any length, but preferably 3mm to start off with as it’s slightly easier to control than 1.5mm or 6mm. I scrape the end of the paper with my nail to start it curling a little bit, then squish (technical term there, eh?) the end into the tiniest fold I can, and roll it up my index finger. To explain the ‘rolling up my index finger’ bit: you know the motion of rubbing your thumb over your index finger to indicate cash, Harry Enfield Loads-a-money style? Run the pad of your thumb up the side of your index with the paper between them, and this should make the paper curl up as it moves to the top. When you roll it to the middle knuckle of your index finger, grab it with the tweezers around the outside edge of the roll. This will keep it secure until you can put it back between your thumb and forefinger and keep on rolling it up again. It’s also why I don’t like the ridged grip tweezers: when you hold it at this point they can crumple the paper edges.

Roll until you come to the end of the strip.

To do with a tool: put the end of your strip into the slot on the tool (apparently dampening the end can make it more likely to stay in the slot) and roll!

Once you’ve figured out what I mean in the instructions above you’ll find you have a tightly rolled circle of paper (unless it slipped when you were rolling, which means you’ll have an open circle, which is fine!). This is a tight roll (also called a grape roll) and it can be glued at this point and used as the basis for 3D designs.

If you let go of this tight roll, it’ll unwind itself and gradually relax into its uncoiled size. If you glue this, it’s a loose roll. So, now you need to know how to glue it!

Loose Roll

Tight Roll

Gluing

If you rip the very end of your strip, the feathery edges of the paper will glue almost invisibly onto the body of the roll, so rip it!

Holding the loose roll in your hand, wipe the end of the strip against the glue nozzle or dip the end that’s not going to be the outer side of the roll in some glue, and wipe the excess off. Any excess glue will show up as a shine on the finished item, so try and minimise the amount of glue you use, so there's less chance of it squeezing out onto an outer surface and being visible.

If you feel the circle has unrolled too much pull the loose end of the strip to tighten it up, and press the glued side of the strip against the body of the roll, using the tweezers to get in between the coils and press the end down tightly without kinking the circle. This should give you a circular shape, with the unrolled coils looping in the centre into a tiny curl.

To glue the tight roll, just don’t let go of it to let it unroll, and glue the end against the tightly rolled body. From the basic circle in its loose and tight forms we make all the other shapes.

An introduction to quilling

Ok, so you want to quill, huh?

I don't blame you! As a hobby, it's cheap, easy and once you get the hang of it, you can make some impressive looking pieces! Well, you're going to need a few things to start off with:

Tools

• Fingers. Very useful items for this craft, although if you want to show off and you're very agile, toes would do at a push.
• Strips of paper of varying widths. The standard width in the UK is 3mm (one eighth of an inch in the USA / some other countries) for most stuff, 1.5mm for fine narrow work, and 6mm, 9mm, or even 12mm for folded roses and fringed flowers.
• PVA glue. Only the child friendly stuff for you lot, just to be safe. It's best to decant it into a fine nozzle glue dispenser, such as the Art Institute or other brands.
• Nails. Or the back of a knife. Or anything you can use to scrape paper to start it curling.
• Tweezers! Not the eyebrow ones (although they'll do at a pinch), really you need ones that come to a narrow point, as fine as possible. I got fancy-schmancy medical tweezers, but any fine point tweezers without gripping ridges (that would crumple the paper) will do.
• Some small, sharp scissors. Cuticle scissors are good, they're very helpful for trimming strip ends, fringing flowers etc.
• Some sort of flat surface to work on. Depending on whether you want to copy exactly a diagram, or design freehand (easier and less terrifying than it sounds, honest!) you'll need either a cork or porous board (anything that you can stick pins into that'll stay in place) and some greaseproof/tracing paper. The board lets you stick pins in to hold the quilled bits in place as they're gluing to each other, and the greaseproof paper is for putting a pattern beneath that you then lay out on top of the paper to make the shapes to match it. This type of board is best of you're copying a design.
• A flat surface, preferably plastic/smooth. I make my stuff freehand, and glue it together on a flat surface. Usually a bit of extra glue seeps out from the join between the pieces and ends up on the back, so I need a smooth plastic surface to be sure I’ll be able to detach it when the glue’s dried! Mainly, I use a plastic tray – now heavily glue covered!

Optional bit and bobs:

• A quilling tool. But I don’t recommend it you know! Using one of these do-hickeys means that the centres or your rolls are gonna be big and bulky, rather than neat and inconspicuous. It’s worth the effort (and occasional swear words) of learning to roll without them.
• A paper shredder. Handy if you want to make your own unusual paper strips. Make sure it tells you on the box the width of the strips though: you want 3mm. Also, paper can slant as it’s going in, so you get short diagonal strips instead of long straight ones.They can also fray the edges of the paper, leaving them looking 'furry'.
• A cocktail stick. For neat people (not me!). You can use this to transfer glue to the ends of your strips once rolled, but that’s why I like fine nozzle glue dispensers - you can wipe the strip directly against the glue nozzle!

Right, got that all together? Are we all sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin.