Paper Sculpture - 3D Quilled Nuphar Flowers

Nuphar lutea or Yellow water-lily is a genus of aquatic plants. It grows in ponds and slow-moving rivers, native to Eurasia and North America, but can be also found here in Israel. Nuphar blooms in spring and early summer.

As usual, I started making Nuphars with a thorough study of the flower structure. It differs from the common water lily in that its petals are much smaller than its sepals, so that the petals can be hardly seen. Yes, those bright yellow petals aren't actually... well, petals. To make the Nuphar flowers I employed various techniques of three-dimensional quilling, using 1/16"-wide (1.5mm) yellow paper strips for both sepals and petals, but the petals are so small that you can't see them in the photos, unfortunately. As the fruit maturation of Nuphar also differs from that of other water lilies in that it's held above water level, I made a fruit, too. I constructed it out of three-dimensional elements, using green 1/8"-wide (3mm) strips for the fruit itself and 1/16"-wide (1.5mm) strips for the sepals that surround it. The leaves of Nuphar have the shape of an elongated heart. I created them with the husking technique out of green 1/8"-wide strips (3mm), such strips were used also for the bud. To make the stems I wrapped green paper around pieces of thick wire.

For the base of the sculpture I created a small water pond, which is made up of three layers of corrugated cardboard glued together and covered with layers of colored paper (tints of blue and green). I came across this technique at Crafterall Handmade Works and liked it very much. When the base was ready, I made holes in it where needed, to thrust the stems of flowers and leaves.

You have probably noticed already that I try to add an insect to each of my "flower" designs. This time it's a blue dragonfly, its body made of 1/8"-wide strips (3mm), while wings and eyes — of 1/16"-wide strips (1.5mm).

The base measures 11 1/2 inches x 8 1/4 inches (29.5x 21cm), the diameter of a flower is about 1 1/2 inches (~4cm).