Passiflora - Quilling and Paper sculpture

Passiflora or passionflower is a fast-growing perennial vine with climbing or trailing stems and large, intricate flowers. Passiflora grows in Israel, and it's blooming right now, so I can admire its flowers personally.

Poppies and dandelion. Framed quilling

It's November. The weather gets bitterly cold when the fall season, with its gold palette of colors, is turning into winter. But I want to bring you a piece of hot summer with its green leaves, red poppies, yellow dandelions and bumblebees.

Quilling: Illuminated Capital "L"

I was recently asked to make a quilled letter for a birthday present. Something not very complex and not too large so that could fit on a desktop. The present was meant for a person whose first name started with "L". This is how my first illuminated quilled letter was created.

Quilled Mosquito

You must have already noticed my weakness for insects :-) I started thinking of making a mosquito out of paper when I was working on my praying mantis. I was in search of a gift idea at that time, focusing on insects for inspiration. Unlike the mantis, which have made a lovely gift for my art teacher, the mosquito stays with me. I'm somewhat reluctant to give it away.

"Thank you" and bell-flowers quilling cards

I count myself fortunate that all of my friends and family members like and appreciate quilled greeting cards I create for them (or at least say so :). Let me show you some of the most recent ones, a "Thank you" card and a card with pink bell-flowers.

Simple framed quilling with daisies and a bumblebee

I made this quick and simple quilling picture with daisies and fluffy orange flowers for a gift. The innovation here is that the bumblebee is fluffy, too, unlike all my other quilled bumblebees. I made it using the fringed flowers technique of black, white, and yellow paper strips 1/4 inches wide (~7 mm) and 6 inches long (~15 cm) each. This lengths corresponds to half the length of a 12"-long quilling strip or an A4 paper sheet.

Mazal Tov quilling card

Some time ago I created this simple greeting card with paper quilling. The lettering says "Mazal Tov" (מזל טוב) or "Congratulations!" in Hebrew, I used letter stickers for it. The base was made out of thick watercolor paper.

My kid's quilling — dragonfly

My children love quilling just like I do, and I keep saying this craft is suitable for kids. Here's just one example. Some time ago my eldest daughter who is 8 years old created this blue dragonfly. She saw me making the flower with curled petals, and wanted to use the same technique for dragonfly's wings. She used the standard 1/8"-wide quilling strips (hand-cut). The dragonfly measures about 2 3/8" (6 cm) in length, 2 1/8" (5.5 cm) wingspan.

Those of you who are going to try quilling with children might like the article Paper quilling for kids: 10 tips I wrote earlier. Links to other examples of quilled insect designs can be found in this round-up post: Insects — quilling designs.

By the way, when I say "my children" that means also two 6-year-olds, including a boy :)

Lilac flowers and butterfly, framed paper quilling

This quilling picture was a present for my mom's birthday a few months back. I had been planning to create a picture that would feature lilac flowers for a long time, and even started making a stock of them — you need a lot for a project like this. Eventually I had a chance to complete this project. I love lilacs very much, they are so beautiful, and the scent is lovely. Unfortunately, lilacs don't grow in Israel.

Cherry blossom, framed paper quilling art

I was writing this post when the news came about the tragedy in Japan. Like many other's, my thoughts, heart and prayers are with the people of Japan. For those looking for ways to donate to support the disaster relief efforts, here are a few links:

• Japanese Red Cross (via Google)
• American Red Cross
• British Red Cross

Simple quilled flowers in a beveled frame

I created this simple arrangement of quilled flowers with daisies and cornflowers as a gift. I used 1/8"-wide strips for the leaves and petals, and 3/8" strips for the fringed flowers and flower centers. The fringe is very dense. I always try to put some quilled insect as a point of interest in my flower arrangements. This work isn't an exception — you can see a tiny green bug climbing the flowers.

To frame this picture I built a beveled paper frame using 140lb (300gsm) card stock, tinted with acrylic paint. Step-by-step for a frame like this can be found in "How to make a beveled picture frame out of paper". Size of the finished picture is about 10 1/8 x 7 1/4 inches (25.8 x 18.5 cm).

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.

Praying mantis in three-dimensional quilling

The praying mantis is an amazing insect who has been always fascinating me. Some time ago I was visiting Tikotin Museum of Japanese Art in Haifa when I saw a beautiful box decorated with an image of two praying mantises. The full title reads "Stationery box (Suzuri Bako), 18th c. Flowers and two praying-mantises. Lacquered wood. Design in gold hiramaki-e and mother-of-pearl inlay. Tikotin collection". This experience has become the catalyst for my decision to make a quilled praying mantis.

Flower basket quilling picture

I started making this flower basket last winter. Since it turned out extremely time-consuming, I had to make a break at some point, then resumed working on it, and eventually got enough time to finish it. For this project I used hand-cut 1/8-inch wide (3 mm) paper strips. The basket is made of white strips with gilded edges created using a metallic gold marker.

Insects — quilling designs

Unfortunately, I'm not having much time for blogging these days, although I do have new pieces to show off. In the meanwhile, I'll try to do some cleaning up and writing overview posts, which I feel may help my readers to find what they need. Today's post is about quilled insects.

Quilled butterfly on a plaster cast hand

As I already wrote, my art classes keep me very busy. Usually I have a lot of projects to do, and I wanted to share one of the latest. It's a plaster cast of my own hand with a quilled Monarch butterfly.

Flowers of Israel, framed paper quilling art

This is another of my big quilling projects, along with the quilled flowers on black velours background. The design is mine, from beginning to end. In this quilling picture I tried to reproduce a few species of Israeli flowers that bloom in February through April. Here they are, left to right:

• yellow Lupin(e),
• red Poppy,
• white Iris,
• purple Maltese Cross Ricotia (Egyptian honesty),
• white Chamomile,
• yellow Dandelion,
• pink Cyclamen,
• dark purple Cloven-Petalled Campion.

Besides the flowers, there's also a quilled Gonepteryx butterfly (also known as brimestone) and a ladybug. For this project I mostly used 1/16"-wide strips (1.5mm); but for the ladybug, foliage, and lupin flowers popular 1/8"-wide (3mm) strips were used. I cut-out the leaves of the chamomile using small scissors. Size of the finished artwork: 9x9 inches (23x23cm). Sorry, no close-up photos this time :(

Quilled cyclamens framed art

This is one of my old quilling pieces inspired by nature, my attempt to make cyclamens with their unique flowers and patterned leaves. As an accent I added the red-and-black firebug, a little larger than life-size. In Israel, both cyclamens and firebugs can be seen in February through April.

Quilled butterfly in a fishbowl

Where do I put my finished quilling, if it's too big for a frame or shadowbox? In a fishbowl!

Quilled moth and flowers in a shadowbox

I'm back to quilling flowers. I know it may sound strange, but the starting point for this work has been a black shadowbox frame I bought once. This frame was just begging to be used for quilling. It's a square frame, 9x9 inch (23x23cm), so a circle layout seemed to be a natural choice for the composition. Once again I've got the inspiration from a Helen M. Stivens' book. This time it was "Embroidered Flowers". I used it to create a design of my own, made a sketch, and set to work.