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.