The dull lessons of work in a secondary school were far behind. Boring knitting, weaving knots using the macrame technique and endless sewing of aprons are what schoolgirls did from year to year. Surprisingly, such monotony did not discourage beautiful ladies from hunting to create masterpieces with their own hands. Besides the fact that they have developed the talents of knitters and dressmakers, girls across the country are successfully mastering new types of needlework.
One of them was an amazing skill in creating paper masterpieces called quilling. Daisies, tulips, roses, dandelions and fancy flowers look alive. Collected in a variety of compositions, they attract the attention of the viewer with their delicate and original appearance. Beginners and masters of this creative process draw their inspiration from numerous schemes and master classes, apply their own know-how ideas and, over time, can give odds even to eminent specialists in this matter.
Spiral art
Simply put, quilling is creativity, which involves the creation of crafts from paper ribbons twisted in a special way. From spirals it is necessary to craft figures that base the whole composition. In theory, there are only twenty basic figures. It can be circles, droplets, leaves and hearts. They differ in size, circumference and occupancy.
Europe and Korea are places from which such a form of art as quilling has spread around the world. Daisies, lilies of the valley, bells and other flowers are just the initial ideas for inspiration. You don’t have to look for further plots for too long or painfully, because the work process of creating paper masterpieces is so fascinating that, creating a craft according to the same template, as a result, you can get different results.
Such a different torsion
In today's article, we will mainly focus on how to create flowers using the quilling technique (daisies). This gentle field plant only at first glance seems simple and straightforward. In nature, there are many varieties of this wonderful flower with snow-white petals and a bright yellow core, as if warmed by the sun itself.
Paper is a versatile material. With its help, you can create different flowers using the quilling technique. Pharmacy chamomile flowers are small and very fluffy. The garden chamomile variety has a corolla with long narrow petals located one side by side, but artificially bred flowers often reach huge sizes, they have magnificent heads with wide petals and a terry core. Sometimes the buds are not painted in traditional white. They can be pink, blue and purple.
The quilling chamomile can also be small and fluffy, but there are also such schemes and instructions that suggest how to make a large razlogo flower, consisting of several layers. Paper daisies are flat and voluminous. They can be issued in the form of a panel or volumetric composition.
What are we dealing with?
The main ornamental material for quilling are paper strips 3, 5, 10 and 15 mm wide. In addition to standard blanks, plain sheet paper is also needed. The main thing is that it be strong enough, but not too tough, otherwise working with such material threatens to turn into hell.
To create the majority of plant elements using the quilling technique (chamomile is no exception), the torsion contour method is most often used. The master will need narrow strips of paper, it is advisable to use sets purchased in office supplies. Of course, you can cut the blanks yourself, but this business requires extreme accuracy, accuracy and a good tool. Due to the mismatch in the size of the paper strips, the petals of the flowers will differ in thickness and width, and the appearance of the daisy will not be as perfect as the creator would have liked.
Paper beauty
So, now we will talk about how to make daisies. Quilling allows you to turn plain paper into a real work of art and recreate the plant in the form of an openwork flower. It is worth saying that this is not the level of beginners. It is not necessary to deal with simple rolls, but with their complicated modification, which implies the creation of silhouette figures that have a contour and are filled with beautiful veins from the inside.
The classical school of quilling teaches that to create a volumetric petal it is necessary to take paper strips 5-15 mm wide. The blanks are wound into tight rolls using conventional toothpicks. Finished rolls bloom a little and form into a standard shape called a “leaf”. To prevent the workpiece from unwinding, its edge is fixed with a drop of PVA glue.
For one chamomile flower, you need to make from seven of these "leaves" that are glued together at the base. You can diversify the craft and alternate this form of petals with other elements (for example, a drop shape) or use the option of blanks that you like most.
They are mounted on a paper rim. If you make a base in the form of a cone with a wide base, the product will turn out to be more voluminous and realistic. The core is filled with a fluffy roll. To do this, take a wide strip of paper (10-15 mm) and make thick cuts along its entire length by about 2/3 of the depth. This fringe is very tightly screwed onto a toothpick, fixed with glue and fluffed, after which it covers the bud in the center.
Volumetric masterpieces
Crafts from paper strips can be made by another, slightly simplified method, including chamomile. Quilling (with your own hands, without the use of improvised tools and a special tool) is a very difficult and painstaking work, which not every needlemaker can do. To help lovers of torsion, a special comb for quilling will come. If you find or purchase this tool there is neither the opportunity nor the means, it can easily be replaced by a hairbrush with wide and long teeth. This usually tidy luxurious curls and curls.
The technology of creating a flower is simple to disgrace. It is necessary to tightly wrap a strip of paper around the cloves (alternately), each time fixing the curl with glue. For one chamomile you need to wind seven petals. You can do more if you want to make a two-layer nimbus. The core is also a tight, fluffy paper roll. Such a daisy turns out to be very openwork and weightless, as similar to a wildflower as possible.
Your 3D reality
If you are a supporter of an extremely realistic image of natural objects, it is worth trying to make a chamomile using the quilling technique with a fringe method. It will be either field or pharmacy chamomile. The principle of operation in both cases is practically the same, it is only necessary to adjust the length of the petals. The core in both cases is a twisted strip with a fringe. For naturalness, you can use strips of two shades, which will achieve a shading effect. In the center, it is better to use bright yellow paper, and make the bezel from strips of a more delicate shade.
Petals are narrow strips (3 mm), cut into equal lengths. For a large flower, this is about 6 cm, for a miniature daisy 3-4 cm will be enough. The petals-stripes are glued crosswise one on top of the other. Thus, a corolla is formed, then its central part is covered by a core. The final stage will be the bending of the petals (they can be slightly twisted outward using a tube, scissors or a simple pencil) inward. So the flower will turn out even more refined and natural.