Quilling
Quilling is an art form that involves the use of strips of paper that are rolled, shaped, and glued together to create decorative designs.
The paper shape is manipulated to create designs on their own or to decorate other objects, such as greetings cards, pictures, boxes, or to make jewelry.
It is believed that in the 300s and 400s, silver and gold wires were quilled around pillars and vases, and jewelry made using this technique.
These pieces were wrapped around goose quills to create coiled shapes for decoration of reliquaries and holy pictures.
They used paper and then gilded or painted the finished work replicating expensive intricacies of wrought iron or carved ivory.
Many sources claim that in Europe the ladies of affluence were taught quilling along with the needle work in Edwardian and Victorian times.
Special recesses were made in tea caddies, baskets, portraits, screens and even in furniture sides to allocate the surface for intricate paper coils and shapes.
Quilling guild of England makes references to The New Lady's Magazine of 1786: "... it affords an amusement to the female mind capable of the most pleasing and extensive variety; and at the same time, it conduces to fill up a leisure hour with an innocent recreation ..:' Another source, an Edwardian book of household management entitled 'Floral Mosaicon,' provided a reference to Queen Mary and Queen Alexandra purchasing paper pieces.
Only those with money could afford to purchase the supplies needed for quilling such as foil, mica or flaked shell, which were often used as backgrounds.
Wooden frames were sold for the sole purpose of being decorated with pieces of paper rolled, shaped and glued into patterns.
The ladies were to use quilling to while away their hours in the pursuit of becoming accomplished women, comfortable knowing that in time, an eligible bachelor would likely take them as a wife.
She has mentioned the American Quilling Guild, surviving suppliers, exhibitions, and overall growing popularity of the craft in 1970s-1980s.
The British quilling guild staged festivals of the craft across the country since the 1990s, and hopes to have a permanent display of its archives.
(Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen, Chapter 23) Many examples of quilled art can be found on cabinets and stands, cribbage boards, ladies' purses, a wide range of both pictures and frames, work baskets, tea caddies, coats of arms and wine coasters.
It is sometimes used for decorating wedding invitations, for Christmas, birth announcements, greeting cards, scrapbook pages, and boxes.
When using a graduated paper, a quilling ring begins with a dark shade but ends up being faded to a lighter side.
On the contrary, some graduated papers begin as white, or a lighter shade, and then slowly fades into a solid, darker color.
