Teaching/Learning Quilling Part # 3 (Wide Quill & Dimensional Quilling)

Teaching Quilling-Part 3

Wide Quill and Dimensional Quilling

The second class I teach is using the wider papers, and some dimensional quilling basics. Each student gets a multi pack of ¼”, and 3/8’ papers. I ask them to bring their tools and 1/8” strips from the previous class. I begin with the wide quill roses, because that is such a popular flower. The rose seems to take more practice than any other flower I’ve taught so that is usually the one I start out with.

Once again, in the interest of saving time, I precut the 3/8’ paper into the size pieces I use for roses. All of the quillers who take this class have already completed the basic class so they are pretty comfortable using the slotted tool, which is what I use to curl back the edges of each rose petal. When you look at the instruction sheet, you will notice that I do my rose centers a little differently than shown in most of the quilling books. (When I was taught to make roses, I was taught to put a loose coil in the center of the flower.) I like to continue making rose petals for the center by using ¼” hole punches. I fill the center of the flower with tacky glue and then stand the curled smaller petals (1/4” dots) up in the glue. I roll one dot into a tube and glue it shut for the very center of the rose. I also like to use several shades of the same color to make the roses more realistic. Ex: the first row of outside petals a very pale pink, the next row a little darker, and the center petals a darker shade. After the class members have completed their first rose, we move on to other flowers that can be created using ¼” and 3/8” papers. The class then learns how to “fringe” strips using scissors, and then how to combine different fringed strips to create an interesting variety of flowers. Once again, I “pre-fringe” some strips so students will have time to practice combining the different sizes.

I spend a little time in this class talking about dimensional quilling. This includes stacking or layering traditional shapes to create more of a 3-D effect and actually creating 3-D figures. Of course we cover the basics, learning to make tight rolls and then shaping them so they can be used to make tiny flower pots, or teddy bear bodies. I also show some outstanding examples of 3-D figures. I think Virginia Alexander’s (also a NAQG member) “Jinisans”are unsurpassed examples of quilled figures. Her book “Quilling in the Third Dimension” gives very detailed information about creating quilled figures . . . and yes we try to keep that one in stock as well. Examples of some 3-D quilling are shown in our gallery, I have a few of my dimensional pieces there, like the tea cup and the Christmas tree, and one of Sherry Rodehaver’s little tea cup critters, and be sure to look at the “Jinisans”, they are favorites of mine.

The last topic we cover in this class are some very basic “punch” flowers. While they are probably not considered to be quilling in a technical sense, punch flowers combine so well with quilling, that I like to include them in my classes. Again, I just cover some very basic ones to save time, I have some punched circles and hearts all ready for the class and then show them how to assemble them by using a tweezer to stand the petals up in a little dot of tacky glue, and then adding a quilled center. Sherry Rodehaver (yes she is also a NAQG member) has a great web site with lots of punches. If you enjoy playing with punch flowers, it is a must see. Here is a link to her site which we will also put on our resources folder.

FYI-in case you hadn’t noticed, we have some extremely talented people in the North American Quilling Guild (NAQG). If you haven’t already joined our ranks, you can join too.