Twisting from strips of paper fascinates and falls in love with the process on the first try, because quilling is so simple. From the very beginning, you understand that this art is subject to absolutely any person. No need to be a seamstress or an artist, as in other types of handmade, everyone, even a beginner, can twist and nicely arrange strips.
Simple pictures, made up of just a few elements, can decorate any craft or holiday card for a loved one. Quilling is an easy and beautiful form of creativity. Entire pictures and small figures are created from thin strips of different colors, you can make beautiful New Year decorations and original earrings, a key chain in your bag or effectively design an album for wedding photos. Working with stripes is interesting for both adults and children.
Today and talk about quilling. It will be useful for novice masters to find out what tools are needed for work, how to learn how to use strips, create various figures using a template ruler. Quilling strips have different widths and thicknesses of paper. The choice depends on the version of the craft. Quilling kits can be purchased at needlework and stationery stores. They are also different. There are huge and expensive options with many different tools, and there are cheap ones that contain only the most necessary for a start.
Paper curling hook
Of course, if you decide just the first time to try your hand at this type of art, to understand what it is, then you will not buy tools and materials for quilling. To get started, simply purchase strips of paper. You can wind them on any thin stick - a knitting needle, a rod from a plastic handle, a wooden skewer or a toothpick. Even with such a foundation, you will do great.
But if you love quilling and want to develop further, we advise you to purchase a special hook for twisting strips. This is a device resembling a pasta handle, only at the end of a thin metal tube with a forked tip. The edge of the paper strip is inserted into this slot and it is better fixed on the base. It remains only to perform rotational movements with the handle and the strip will be folded around the rod.
Template Ruler
If you simply perform tight twisting into a cylinder of paper, then you only need a hook, but even in simple quilling crafts you need not only dense, but also free twisting of the strips. In order for the elements for the picture to have the same size and shape, you will need a template. Such a line, as in the photo in the article below, has many different shapes of holes. Insert a sufficiently twisted circle into the desired template and press down with your fingers in the corners to get elements of different shapes - triangles and squares, drops and leaves, hearts and semicircles.
Template rulers come in many different configurations. When buying, you can choose any option you like.
First steps
Quilling for beginners is a workout for twisting strips into different elements. The very first and lightest one is a tight circle. From such elements, you can collect a flower or make it the center. They fill the voids in the picture between large parts, the eyes of the characters are fulfilled.
The remaining elements can be seen on any quilling scheme. We will deal with the description of each element below. Making them easy. The basis is a freely twisted strip in a circle. The larger the figure, the more diverse you can squeeze it with your fingers to form a square, star, or any other detail. For pressing, in addition to the fingers, you can use the plastic part of the hook. Press the circle with two fingers, holding the part with the other hand.
Create items
After you have purchased a kit for quilling, you can start training exercises that allow you to learn to master the technique of twisting paper strips. Start with simple elements. A strip is inserted into the slot of the hook and paper is free-wrapped around the base. No effort is required. After twisting, the circle is inserted into the desired template. Let's start with the circle. It can be any size. Then the hand is released and the strip, straightening, takes the contours of the template we need. Thick PVA glue is smeared on the edge of the strip, and it is attached to the last turn. Only then the workpiece is removed from the template line.
How to make a quilling leaf , see the photos above. The blank, taken out of the template, is taken with two fingers from one and the other, the opposite side, and slightly pressed. The principle of folding the figures is identical to this, only finger pressure occurs at different angles and in other places.
Quilling for children
With children, you can perform the simplest crafts or postcards, using only the ability to tightly and freely twist strips, forming circles and leaves. A chamomile will look beautiful with a dense yellow circle in the middle and white leaves located around it. The flower stalk is made of a green strip, which is placed along a drawn line on the end part. With a brush, PVA glue is applied to the very edge of the strip and it is placed on the end. It seems that she will not hold at all, but this is not so, the main thing is that the glue be thick.
Using quilling technique, children can make a picture of a butterfly or mom’s beads for the holiday on March 8th. For this, the ability to twist tight circles and pass a strong thread of kapron into them will be enough.
Voluminous flowers
Look carefully at the sample in the photo. Flowers are made of two or three different stripes. They differ not only in color, but also in the width of the quilling strips. If you didn’t find such wide parts on sale, don’t worry, they can be cut out of double-sided printing paper with scissors, a ruler and a simple pencil. Think first what the width of the strip should be, then using a ruler, draw a few details in length and carefully cut them with scissors.
How to make quilling crafts, we will consider further on the example of creating three-dimensional colors. First, try to create a flower from two types of stripes. A dense circle is twisted from a thin color. If one strip is not enough, then at the moment when one strip ends, we get another one and gently glue it to the edge of the previous one. Winding continues further. If necessary, you can add a third.
How to make petals?
A wide strip is cut into ½ "noodles." Try to keep all cuts of the same depth and equal distance between them. If you need frequent use in the work of such parts, you can purchase special scissors that perform several cuts at the same time.
Then a wide prepared strip is attached to the middle of the flower and tight winding continues. When the required thickness is reached, the edge is glued on the PVA to the last turn, and the petals are pressed gently by hand so that they are distributed over the entire diameter of the circle.
Read on how to make quilling of volumetric flowers from two types of petals. The principle of the work is the same, only strips are cut not only in different colors, but also in thickness. First, the middle in width, cut by the "noodle" strip, joins the middle, then the widest. When pressed and distributed along the diameter of the petals, all layers of the flower will clearly stand out.
Beautiful snowflake
If you have learned to create dense circles and leaves from stripes, then you can do it for the New Year by decorating a Christmas tree with snowflakes made using the quilling technique. It’s easy to do. The craft begins with a central, tightly twisted circle. It will have to be glued from several strips, since it should be large.
Next, you need to roll fifteen identical, freely twisted circles and form leaflets, pressing the circle on both sides with two fingers. In order for the leaves to be the same, you must use the template. Quilling for beginners requires mandatory work with such a line.
Then bonding of the parts between each other begins. Elongated elements are attached to the central circle in the form of flower petals. PVA glue is smeared on a sharp corner and a little on the side parts at the base. Then the gaps are filled with the rest of the leaves. Each corner on the outer diameter of the craft is additionally decorated with three tightly twisted circles. They are wound on a thick hook or on the rod from the handle so that there is a hole inside the element. When the snowflakes performed in the quilling technique are finished, it remains to attach rhinestones, which in the light of a Christmas garland will sparkle very effectively.
How to make drops and hearts?
See the quilling master class for beginners. The photo shows in detail how to make different elements for crafts. The edge of the tape is inserted into the slot of the hook and torsion begins. In this case, not too tight winding of the strip is required. At the end of the winding, you need to smear the edge of the strip with thick PVA glue with a thin brush and attach it to the last turn of paper.
To make a drop, you need to take the resulting free circle with the fingers of one hand by the edge of the circle and gently squeeze. The resulting detail is also often used in the work of the master. But let's consider the next stage of work, when a heart is made from a drop. As can be seen in the quilling step-by-step master class for beginners, the end part of the hook needs to be slightly pressed down in the center of the rounded part of the droplet. To keep the heart in shape, a little pressure also appears on the opposite side with the fingers.
Candlestick
After the novice master learns how to make circles, drops and leaves, you can try to create such a beautiful candlestick. It consists of all previously mastered methods of twisting strips. You will need PVA glue for work, a circle cut out of red cardboard. In the middle of it you need to indicate the location of the candle with a simple pencil. Work will be done around this circle.
First, the same lilac, freely twisted circles are made using a template ruler so that they are the same size. When 10 pieces are made, stick them around the place designated for the candle. Then take raspberry-colored strips and create drops in the same amount. Have finished elements in pairs, with sharp angles to each other. Details look like hearts. From green stripes make leaves. All 10 parts are first twisted in the form of a free circle, then flattened on opposite sides with two fingers. It remains to slightly bend the leaves in different directions so that the sides are not even, but wavy.
Fasten the leaves in pairs and attach in the gap between two adjacent circles in the center. Such an article holds firmly due to a cardboard stand. The original candlestick can be rearranged from place to place, nothing will fall away and the craft will not fall apart after movement.
Basket
When mastering quilling, beginners can try to complete such a spectacular basket. The bottom of the craft is drawn by a pair of compasses on thick brown cardboard. Then on a cut circle collect crafts. Work is done by tightly twisting the same size cylinders. The height of the basket and the color scheme depends on the wishes of the master. The sides are assembled from parts in a checkerboard pattern.
The handle also has a cardboard base and is assembled from two different strips. Their differences are not only in color, but also in that the inner light strip has a large width. You can decorate the craft with flowers or butterflies.
Conclusion
The article describes in great detail the manufacture of individual elements from quilling strips, gives examples of the easiest crafts. After reading these works, both children and novice masters will be able to do - they love to create something special, original with their own hands. Imagine and implement your ideas in quilling crafts. It is very interesting and will certainly captivate you!