What is quilling, and why paper for it? The history of this type of paper creation has its roots in ancient times. There were periods of loss of interest in him. But over the past few years, the popularity of quilling has increased significantly. Many do not know what paper is needed for quilling.
Crafts created in this technique will not leave anyone indifferent due to their unusualness, lightness, originality and grace. It turns out, perhaps, to create whole fantasy compositions from ordinary paper strips!
And the material for this magnificence is an ordinary leaf. Quilling paper is just strips cut in a certain way. They can be of a wide variety of colors and shades: shiny and matte, metallized, pearlescent. They can be tinted on both sides: one is lighter, the other is darker or with the effect of a gradual color change along the entire length of the strip. Special paper for quilling differs from simple paper in that it is necessarily painted in places of cut. This is necessary to create high-quality applications in the selected color scheme.
Quilling paper is most likely to be found in the philately store or in the stationery departments. There is no such close? And this is not a problem. Do-it-yourself quilling paper is fairly easy and straightforward. An ordinary color sheet of any format is passed through a paper shredder, or simply cut manually. The width of the strip can be from three to nine millimeters. Its length can reach about 30-60 centimeters. However, the work requires different sizes of strips, both in length and in width. In this case, ordinary glue for paper will help you. Indeed, sometimes in order to get a multi-color spiral, you need to combine several colors.
The paper for quilling must have a certain density. This is a really important aspect for such an elegant form of needlework. If you had to manually prepare strips, it is better to use paper with a weight of not more than 60 g per square meter (usually this information is on the package). It is much more convenient and pleasant to work with such paper. As a result, you get neat twisted parts for quilling. From them you can create any conceived craft.
Although quilling paper is the main component of successful needlework. But, for the production of parts and elements, you definitely need other tools.
This is a clerical knife, scissors, awl, stencils (templates) for forming spirals of the same size. As well as tweezers for holding and fixing parts. Adhesive for mounting quilling compositions.
The subjects are simple and familiar, but specific requirements are imposed on them for the paper spinning technique.
Awl. It should be one millimeter in diameter. An ordinary awl has a conical structure. This is inconvenient for quilling. Have someone remove the cone. Or just take a metal rod of the appropriate diameter and form a handle on it from insulating tape. It should be convenient, since it is with this tool that most of the work is done.
Tweezers. To perform high precision work, the tips of the tweezers must be sharp and as accurately as possible aligned. Particular attention is paid to the absence of any damage to the working surfaces: chipping, chips, the presence of such leads to damage to the paper. The tweezers should be comfortable for hands. This is necessary for reliable grip of the tool with the least effort.
Scissors. Since they are used for the most accurate cutting of fringes on paper, the pointed ends for them are also the main condition, as well as for tweezers.
Glue. To work in the quilling technique, we need glue that does not leave traces on paper. For the initial level, PVA glue or glue- pencil is quite suitable .
For compositional marking, you should have a set of drawing tools at hand : a pencil, a ruler, as well as a pair of compasses, and of course an eraser.