New Husking Cards

New Husking Cards

Here is some exciting news for those of you who love husking, but don’t want to design your own patterns. Elizabeth’s Creations has just introduced new husking cards; these are 3” x 5” laminated cards with pre-designed husking patterns. You use them with your own work board and pins which keeps the price down to a reasonable $5.00 each.

For those of you who may not be familiar with husking; it is an interesting technique. Instead of rolling the paper the paper is wrapped around pins. Starting with pin #1, wrap it around the pin several times or to make a tiny glued loop around the pin, then wrap around pin #2, back to #1, around #3 back to #1 and so on. It is optional as to whether you want to put a dab of glue each time you get to #1, but you might want to the first time out. Once the shape has been completed,, I suggest that you twist the pins to remove them (just in case they got any glue on them) and then gently lift the finished piece off the board/card. Husking with pins has the advantage of making all of the shapes exactly the same size. It is especially pretty when done with specialty papers like two toned or graduated strips. You really get to see both sides of the strips because husking is much more “open” than traditional quilling. I also like to use gilded edge strips when I make husked snowflakes (I actually like gilded edge strips on my regular quilled snowflakes too); I like to used the blue gilded edge on white for my husked snowflakes.

Of course you can “do it yourself” with a piece of graph paper (on which you mark your pattern), waxed paper, a work board and pins. When I teach this technique that is what I use rather than having students invest in materials for a technique they may or may not enjoy. The down side of drawing your own designs on graph paper is that it wears out pretty quickly; the holes get larger and kind of sloppy. The laminated cards eliminate that problem; if you don’t feel like reinventing the wheel the pre marked pattern cards are a good idea.

We have carried Elizabeth’s Creations wooden husking boards for years, our customers have been very happy with them, although sometimes they have trouble deciding which one(s) they want. The laminated cards are 1/3 the price of the wood ones so you can get a bigger “bang for your buck”, no small consideration these days.

These cards have multiple sizes of each design on a card eliminating all of the guess work. Mary Elizabeth has 10 cards to start with more to come. Designs include: T001 Butterflies, Dragonflies and Flowers which includes 4 sizes of each petal/wing, T002 Classic Hearts in eight sizes, T003 Original Hearts in 7 sizes, and T004 Primitive Hearts with 10 sizes. (Mary Elizabeth says “These hearts are fun to make and can be used for many different designs . . . angel wings, flower petals, borders, butterflies, and oh yes . . . hearts) T010 the Snowflakes and More cards have three styles of snowflakes. There are five “nothing but holes” T005, T006, T007, T008, & T009 cards each with a different scale (i.e. 4 holes to an inch, right up to 8 holes per inch). The more dots per inch the smaller the grid, we do still carry that wonderful Dutch book “Quilling for Cards” by Janetta van Roekel-Wolters that has instructions for 21 husked designs. The book is written in Dutch and English; it is a great companion to the nothing but holes card.

What is a fringer (quilling fringing tool)?

What is a fringer (fringing tool)?

A fringing tool is like a tiny paper cutter which cuts a fringe into one side of wider quilling strips (1/4” & 3/8”). There are two types of fringers - the Straight / 90 degree & the Angle/ 45 degree.

A straight / 90 degree fringing tool can be a wonderful time saver if you make a lot of fringe flowers. Quilling strips are fed through the guides of the tool and the handle is raised and lowered manually. The resulting fringe is very even and can be adjusted for a wider or in some cases a deeper fringe. If you are only making a few flowers at a time, quilling strips can be hand fringed using a small sharp scissor. (With some practice your fringed scissor cuts may become as even as those done with a fringer).

The fringer itself only does one thing, and that is fringe the paper. The uncut side of the paper is then rolled and glued; the fringe is spread out to create flowers and/or poms to be used in a project. There are, however, many different ways to assemble your fringed strips to create many different kinds of flowers.

Here are some examples

Glue a strip of 1/8” paper to the unfringed side of a ¼” or 3/8” strip of paper. Starting with the end of the 1/8” strip roll the entire strip up and glue at the end. Open petals and you will have a daisy like flower with a tight roll center. I generally use a 3” strip of 1/8”, and 4 or 5 inches of fringed strip.

Roll a 6” strip of fringed paper to create a single color Flower. The 3/8” fringe will make a larger flower.

Glue 4 or 5 inches of ¼” fringed paper to 4 or 5 inches of 3/8” in a contrasting color. When you roll start with the ¼” paper and you will end up with a flower with longer petals on the outside and shorter fringe in the center.
Glue two or three fringed lengths of different colors together, when you roll them your flower will have different color stripes.

Roll two fringed strips of different colors together at the same time. Your flower will look totally different.

You can also fringe dark center or graduated strips for a still different effect. These are just a few of the possibilities.

We carry several fringers that are manufactured by different manufactures on our website , or at our Ebay store; therefore we are sure to have one that will please everyone. Please see details below:

TIP: Since fringers can not accommodate 1/16” & 1/8” quilling strips .To make really tiny fringed flowers, simply fringe a ¼” or 3/8” quilling strips then trim fringe down to desired size and roll as usual.

The Angle / 45 degree fringer is most often used to make leaves. 3/8” quilling strip is folded in half length wise and fed through the guides with the fold placed at the back of the fringer. After the quilling strip is fringed, cut folded strip into leaf shape in desired size and unfold (open) leaf. Width and depth of fringe can be adjusted depending on the fringer model. (Angle fringed quilling strips can also be used to make fringed flowers Jane Jenkins has a delightful book (B172 “Fringed Flower Hybrids ") that gives some very interesting variations

T3189 – Paplin’s Angle Fringer / 45 degree fringer @ $55.00
All metal fringer, made in the USA, with adjustments for depth & width of fringe, useable with ¼” to ¾” folded strips (measurements before folding)

T3190 – Paplin’s Straight Fringer / 90 degree fringer @ $45.00
All metal fringer, made in the USA, with adjustments for depth & width of fringe,
Useable with ¼” or 3/8” paper strips (not folded)

T175 – Lake City Fringer (the original straight / 90 degree fringer) @ $70.00 this made in the USA fringer has adjustment for width only. WE DO CARRY THIS FRINGER, IN LIMITED QUANTITY DEPENDING ON AVAILABILITY.

T181– Lake City Fringer Straight/ 90 degree @ $45.00
Metal fringer, Imported, with adjustment for width of fringe only.

O305 – Quilled Creations Fringer Straight / 90 degree @ $49.95
Plastic base, Imported, with adjustment for width only

If we haven’t answered all of your fringing questions please let us know.