Trying My Hand at Paper Quilling

 This month's Make and Mingle craft at Kaukauna was paper quilling. I wasn't sure what it was but it sounded intriguing and I was willing to give it a try. Per Wikipedia, "Quilling is an art form that involves the use of strips of paper that are rolled, shaped, and glued together to create decorative designs". It sounds simple enough. 

After watching a quick demo on the different types of rolls and how to roll your strip of paper, we were pretty much left to our own device. 

The two types of rolls are tight coils and loose coils. The difference; a loose coil you let unwind after you wind it on your quilling tool before glue. A tight coil you glue without it relaxing a bit. There are also ovals which are loose coils squeezed at the end. These are the basic shapes you need to make a design. 

I choose a snowflake. It required 6 full strips of paper, 6 1/2 strips of paper, and 6 1/3 strips of paper. All the paper came in a package. There were multicolored packs. I choose double blue and gold. (Shocker). You can get these packs at any craft store or on Amazon.

Basically you slide your strip of paper in the edge of your quilling tool and then wind it around itself. I found it out it easier to hold with my left hand (non-dominant) and roll it with the right. Then depending on the shape, you let it relax or not. Then you glue the end to itself. 

Once I had all my coils rolled and the 6 full strips pinched into ovals, I attempted to make my snowflake. For whatever reason my full coils ended up being different sizes so it wasn't perfect. In order to glue the coils to themselves, it's best to use wax paper or something so it doesn't stick to what you are glue it on. However, we didn't have that and I just used scrap paper. It stuck to the paper. Now I have a random piece of neon yellow paper with a funky looking snowflake on it.

I tried. Would I do it again? Probably not. It was fun but I don't see myself having a use for quilling. I'm much too impatient to sit and coil paper strips and then glue them into shapes. Reading is so much better.

I am glad Kaukauna library does these Make and Mingle projects so I am introduce to a wide variety of crafts that I probably never try on my own.