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.