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| Summer Island by Paryse Martin |
Quilling—which is also known as paper rolling,
paper-scrolling, or paper filigree—is an inexpensive craft that anyone can
learn in a very short amount of time. The basic quilling technique involves
rolling a strip of paper into a coil, pinching the coil into shapes, and gluing
them together. The paper strips can also be looped, curled, and twisted into
various shapes. Nowadays quilling is mostly used to create jewelry and decorate
greeting cards and invitations, but it can also be used to embellish boxes,
pictures, or just about anything.
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| Detail from an 18th century quilled cabinet |
Quilling is thought to go back as far as ancient
Egypt. French and Italian nuns during the Renaissance decorated book covers and
religious items with quilling. Well-to-do European women in the 18th
century took up quilling as a leisure pastime. Back then quilling decorated everything
from cabinets to cribbage boards to ladies’ purses.
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| Detail of Summer Island with quilling filling a bell jar |
In the 1980’s quilling was very popular among
crafters in the United States, but I haven’t seen much in the way of quilling
in quite some time. That is, until my recent trip to Canada where I saw the
most unique piece of quilled artwork I’ve ever come across. It’s called The
Summer Island and was created by artist Paryse Martin in 2005.
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| Detail of base of Summer Island, covered entirely in quilling |
What do you think?
"Summer Island" is awesome!
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