Quilled Shapes-2

Loose Coil

In the previous post we have learnt about "Tight Coil". Now we will learn about "Loose Coil". Both belong to "Closed Coils".

Roll the paper strip as explained earlier. While rolling, hold the paper a bit loosely. To make loose coil, after rolling the entire strip, gently ease it off the quilling tool or tooth pick and drop into the circle templates, to make circle of your choice.

If you don't have one, while rolling itself lessen the tension on the paper. That is don't pull it too tightly while rolling. Once rolled gently ease it off to let it fall on to your work surface. The coil will expand or loosen itself. Adjust the roll with a toothpick to get the size and coil of your choice then glue the end. 

                LOOSE COIL

This is known as "Loose Coil" or "Loose Roll".

Watch out for my next lesson......

Rangoli-114

Flowers

This is 17 to 1 dots. That is 17 dots in middle row, then 15, 13....3 and 1 on either side. Join as shown above. This is very simple design. Hope you like it.

Quilled Shapes-1

Tight Coil

Quilling is an art of rolling paper strips. The Designs are made out of rolled paper. So the most basic shape is the "Coil" or the "Roll". All the other shapes are created by pinching these coils.

Now we will see how to roll the paper. If you have the quilling needle you can use it or else you can use a tooth pick or a big strong needle(or knitting needle).

When using the quilling tool, hold the tool in your right hand (or left if you are a left hander) and paper strip in your left hand. You should hold the plastic handle firmly. 

Now insert the paper through the slit in the needle, so that a small bit of the paper comes out. Now with your index finger hold the protruding end, by pressing it on to the needle. Roll it once by rotating the needle towards the left hand. While doing this the paper strip held by your left hand should be held a bit tightly. But not so tightly that it may tear off.

                Using Quilling tool

Now keep on rotating the needle again and again till all the strip is completed.

If you are using a tooth pick or a needle, hold it in your right hand and the paper strip in your left hand. Just roll one end of the paper on the pointed end and keep rolling the paper . The rest is all same.

When you reach the end, smear a bit of glue on the edge of the paper and stick it to the coil. Hold it for a few seconds before gently easing it off the tool to get your coil. Or you can turn the tool upside down, ease off the coil and then glue it. This is known as "Tight Coil", "Tight Roll" or "Peg Shape" .

                    Tight Coil

Keep in mind the following things:

• While rolling the strip around the needle, see that the paper is being rolled evenly.
• After every few rolls pull the strip of paper (held in your left hand) a bit tightly so that you get a tight coil.

See even my rolls are not perfect. I need more practise. As they say practise makes a man perfect...So keep practising...

Watch out for more tutorials....

Rangoli-113

Stars N Diamonds

This is one more design on Stars N diamonds:

For this you have to place 15 to 8 dots. Center row 15, and next row 14, 13 till 8 on either side. join as shown above.

Rath ki Rani in my Garden

Night Blooming Jasmine-Raath ki Rani (Hindi) meaning Night Queen as popularly known in India,  blooms at night and its fragrance is quiet heady.  Its  near the window of my sitting room. So my sitting room is filled with its fragrance at nights as it blooms profusely.

However when I searched for Night Queen on the net, I got a huge white flower which blooms very rarely(?). Any way here is my night queen...

The whole bush is full of such blooms, which give out fragrance during the night. the plant does not require much looking after accept for water and some dose of fertiliser now and then. But it requires lot of pruning as the plant grown very quickly into a huge bush.

There was a colony of insects, very busy on the leaves and blooms. I don't know what it is. A fly or a wasp? But I like its colour and its wings.

Well I love all my visitors of my garden...

Rangoli-112

Flowers N Berries

Here is a very simple but very beautiful Rangoli:

The dots to be placed for this are-12 dots -4 times and then 10, 8,6, 4 on each side. Join as shown above.

Pendant Sets

Once again I am sharing with you one more pendant and ear ring set. 

This is once again, gold plated with little Meenakari work, white stones and colour beads. This can be worn on gold chain or fashionable string or with beads. May be I will use this with one of my beads.

This can be worn with any dress or sari-ideal for office wear or party wear. This is not too heavy jewellery so can be worn on simple dresses/saris, should  be teamed with some good gold or multicoloured bangles. If one can get those Meenakari Bangles or Bracelets, well that is excellent. 

Any way this reminds me that I have lot of pending projects in jewellery. I also have to organise all my jewellery pieces. I have been simply dumping every thing I used in a box. Now I need to sort and store them properly.

Well bye for now...Keep a watch on my blog for more latest fashions in indian jewellery.

I am Happy!

I am happy. My mother is well and recovering. This is a great relief to me. But she still needs proper care for at least two more months before she is completely recovers. 

My heart felt thanks to all my friends and relatives who prayed for my mom.

Butterfly Sampler

Day-11

I have again taken up my Butterfly Sampler for adding some more creative ideas.Till now I have posted embroidered or Kundan and other work butterflies. This time it is paper craft-Quilling. Here is my quilled butterfly.

This is my day 11 of the sampler.

Watch out for more ideas.......

HI

I have been busy for the past three weeks or so with my mom's surgery. She was recovering but again had some infection. Any way now she is recovering but needs to be looked after another eight weeks or so to fully recover. I have to take care of her take her for her check ups and all. With the temperatures reaching unbearable levels, I just am barely coping with all my responsibilities.

I could not post much. I am sorry that I could not post my Free Pattern this week. I will try to post if possible because all my stuff is in a muddle and I need to sort out.

Hmm by the way, these days I have a Tom cat- a stray gold coloured one who has made my  home as his adda (hangout). he tries his best to steal a drink of milk or curd. But till now we have out witted him. He is always snoozing around. So lazy, I don't know when he gets to have his food. 

His favourite place is under the diwan (a wooden cot) in my back yard. Its cool there because of the shade of the trees. Hmmm he is lucky. I wish I could also sleep like him  with out a care in the world.

I have my hands full right now with my mom. but still I am trying out various new crafts. Keep a watch on my blog... I will post some soon....

Punkhas-2

Here is one more variety of hand held fans:

This one is made of Palm leaf-dried. You can see how efficiently the leaf and its stalk have been used to create this. The stalk has been used as a handle and the leaf as fan.

Here is a closer look. You can see that a small strip of the stalk has been used on the edge to keep the leaf in place tightly avoiding flip-flop when used. The thin string used to tie down this strip is also derived from the palm tree.

This type has been in use since ancient times. It is so simple to make from locally available materials which don't harm environment. In fact this is one way of using a dry leaf instead of throwing away or burning it. It means reducing the waste and utilising it for some purpose. More over the rural folk don't have money, material or time to waste. They extract maximum out of everything. After all they work very hard.

These fans are actually dipped in water and used for fanning. They give cool air. I don't know whether this is true or not. But we used to use it like that as children and still do. 

These fans along with mangoes are distributed in this month of Vaisakha as it is believed that distributing them in summer will not only benefit others but we will also gain lot of good blessings. It is a tradition in our region.

I have bought around 101 fans this year to give away sometime during this month....hope you do too at least some what ever you can afford....

Keep watching my blog for more.....

Punkhas From India

India is a country where summers are very hot and humid. If  it is near a river or sea the humidity is still more. In order to combat this humid climate, one used fans known as "Pankhas" in Hindi and "Visenakarralu" in Telugu.

Pankhas were of two types. The huge ones, rectangular in shape, made of wood and cloth were hung from the roofs. It was operated by a servant by pulling the rope or cord attached to it. These were used by the Royals and rich. It required a man/woman to operate it.

The other type were hand held fans. These were made of natural materials like, bamboo, palm leaves, Vattiveru (Telugu) (khas in Hindi) a fragrant root, cane and cloth etc. Every house had them. Right from a simple model to those decorated with embroidery, painting zari etc were used. Even today we do use them as there are frequent poser cuts and also while travelling. These days fans made of plastic are also available but the traditional ones are still in use in towns and rural areas.

Giving away, an umbrella, a hand held fan, a pair of slippers along with ripe mangoes to  brahmans as well as our relatives, friends and well wishers in the month of "Vaisakham" is considered as good. Those who cannot donate all these do donate, a hand held fan and some mangoes.

Here have a look at some of the Pankhas:

http://www.siddharthadas.com/museum_1_1.asp

Here is one from my collections:

This is from North East, made of Bamboo and foldable. Above you can see the folded one. below is the unfolded one.

This is a simple one. Painted ones are also available. I have preserved this carefully. we do use them in summers.


Keep a watch on my blog, more to come.......

Learn With Me -Quilling

Basics

I want to share with you my experiments and experiences with Quilling Craft. I want to share with you the techniques, designs patterns and how I did them. I will post tutorials, links and my creations.

So come Learn With Me Quilling.....

A Little about Quilling:

Quilling- is the art of rolling strips of paper, shaping, sticking together and on some back ground. In case of 3D shapes no back ground is used.

Since the Quill or feather was used for rolling the paper strips, this art got its name Quilling.

There is lot of uncertainty as to the origin of Quilling or Paper Filigree as also known as. Some say the French and Italian nuns and monks used this art. Some say this is an old art form and originated after the invention of paper and hence may be in China. 

Metal filigree-filigree in gold, silver etc was much in vogue since ancient times in making of jewellery and other things. This was and still is popular in India where we have silver nd other filigree works. But this was restricted to rich and royal because of its cost. Subsequently filigree in other metals like iron etc came into existence. So some believe that paper was used as an inexpensive material for creating filigree items and this became popular as Quilling Craft.

During the 18th century quilling was popular with elite European ladies and from there it spread to America. Furniture, purses etc were decorated with quilling. But it lost its popularity over a period of time. 

Any way today this craft has become popular across the world and there have been changes in the art form, materials and styles/techniques used. At present dimensional or 3D quilling is also popular.

Materials Required:

Paper: Quilling paper is (acid free) available in solid colours, two toned, graduated etc. solid means one colour through out, two toned is solid colour one side and a softer shade on the other side and graduated means the colour starts with darker shade and slowly fades away into lighter shade or white. Apart from this today we have metallic and jewel shades too.

We can get sheets and cut into desired width. But it is better to buy the strips available in the market. These are available in 2mm, 3mm, 5mm, 8mm and 10mm strips in Indian markets. They are available in bunches(packs) of single colours or rainbow colours.

Quilling Tool: This is of two types, needle type and one with a slot. Both have handles made of plastic for easy holding. The slot type has a small slit in the needle through which the paper is passed. This helps to grip the paper strip and thus easy to roll. One can always use a tooth picks, pins or hat pins etc too for rolling.

Quilling Circle Template Board: This is an useful tool for creating rolls or circles of various sizes. This is available in many sizes.

Quilling Comb: Is useful for some techniques. But one can manage using ordinary hair comb or pins too.

Pins: long pins with pearl or bead head are ideal for holding the work in place while coiling or making the desired shape.

Scissors: Small one with sharp point is good. Use any simple scissors used for paper cutting or in crafts.

Tweezers: Quilling tweezers with pointed or fine tips are useful in handling small rolls or when working on rolls, soils etc.

Ruler: This comes in handy for measuring.

Glue: Any craft glue is enough.

Crimper, Fringer are other tools which come in handy while creating designs. Crimper helps in crimping the paper strips where as fringer helps in cutting the fringes.

But the basic tools required are paper strips, needle or toothpick, pins, scissors and glue to start with.

    My tools

  Quilling Papers

In the next post we will learn the basic shapes and how to make them...So keep an eye on my blog...

Friday-Free Patterns

Paisley 

It is Paisley design once again. I am fond of these shapes. Here is one I created long back for my blouse. 

I embroidered this in Satin stitch. But this would look great with Chain stitch too. This is again created from inspirations of classic motifs form Indian textiles, temple sculpture etc.

Hope you like this.

Jewellery-Latest in Fashion

Pendent Sets

Here is one of the Pendent Sets I picked up recently.You can see the white stones, multi coloured stones and beads on gold background with a little Meenakari work. This is gold plated and can be worn on gold chains or with pearls, crystals colour beads etc. It has got matching ear rings to go with. This set is not too heavy at the same time not too simple.

We can team up this set with multi coloured stone bangles which are in fashion now.

The bangles below I had bought long back will go well with this set.

Keep a watch...More to come....

My Quilling-Swastika and OUM

Here are my Quilling creations:

                   Quilled Swastika

                 Quilled OUM

Both are auspicious symbols for us. I am only trying out small designs since I have just started. 


I would like to know what you think of them....Keep watching my blog....

My Posts

I lost four of my posts-two published and two scheduled for publishing. Today morning I just could not sign in. first I thought something was wrong with my blog. But then came the message that some problems were noticed during the scheduled maintenance . So the services were placed on read only mode.

Anyway now the problem is fixed. But only thing is some of our posts made after 11th May have disappeared. I lost four of mine-two published and two to be published. Anyway they are working on it.

Thanks a lot to the team of Blogger, who have worked for restoring our blogs. I know they have worked very hard to fix up the problem and restore the services. Thanks a lot.

I just hope we get back back our lost posts back. I am going to wait and see. No point in posting the same again, if it is going to be restored.

You can read about all that here, if you have missed it:

http://buzz.blogger.com/

My Quilling-Diyas

Quilling is also known as Paper filigree and said to have originated in France and Italy. I am intrigued by it because of its intricacy and the creativity involved in it. I have been wanting to practise this craft, but could not lay my hands on the supplies till recently. I have not attended any courses and am self taught like most of the arts N crafts I experiment with.

I have just started and need lot of practise before I can create with some degree of perfection. But I can't stop myself from sharing these amateur creations of mine, as I want your opinion, guidance and suggestions in improving my self. 

Here is my first creation(s)

Like every devout Hindu, i started by lighting a lamp. The above is the straight view and below side views.

I am sorry, the light was not enough and I could not bring in extra light for a clear picture.

I will keep on my quilling as and when I make them. Do guide me, leave your suggestions, comments especially criticisms as I new to this art and learning on my own....

Jewellery-Latest in Fad

Brooches

I love Brooches as they can be used on saris or dresses. I collect them in a variety of shapes and materials. here is the latest additions to my collection:

           Butterfly Brooch in Blue

I loved these butterflies on sight-light and dark blue with stones. This will match my other accessories in blue.

             Floral Wreath in Pink

This flower and leaf wreath, in pink and red I picked up to match my accessories in pink or red.

Sometimes I just pick up a piece for no reason at all. Later on I get other accessories to match them by chance or by luck. But then I have to wait patiently...:)..Shopping on budget and being very choosy to pick up very unique and classy ones is not easy...

Just keep an eye more to come......

On Embroidered Butees-1

I have been receiving a lot of questions on embroidered butees. Well I will answer them one by one.

Availability:

These butees are not custom made. They are available in the shops where they sell laces, kundans and other embroidery materials and embellishments. 

These are available in different shapes and sizes and also colours. But the colour range is limited. Mostly we find white, red, green stones with gold work. Sometimes we also find butees worked with threads of rare colours like pink, lavender etc. But mostly it is white, dark red and green as these go with any background and are also traditional.

The patterns/designs and sizes keep changing. Ask for specific design-like peacocks flowers etc and the shop keepers will show you. Most of the shops have a display of all the motifs they sell.

Selection:

Take the sari or dress material on which you want to attach these, with you to the shop. It will be easy to place the butees on it and check whether the colour combination and other things go together or not.

Then go through the butees available there. Select the one you like, depending upon the colour, texture, thickness, material of the sari/dress(background) and the colour of the butees. 

If you want a very rich look go for silks(thick ones) as back ground and heavy worked bigger sized butees. Thicker materials like Bhagalpur silks, Matka silks, Dupion silks or jute and heavy cottons can hold the weight of big and heavily worked butees. Or else the material will sag easily with the weight of the butees and by the time you wear it a few times, it looks saggy and old.

Decide how you want to place them on your dress or sari and then calculate the required quantity. These butees are sold in numbers and in case of smaller ones, in packs of 50 or 100.

Buy the entire quantity at a time. Most of the times, we may not get the required shape or size or colour if we want to buy them next time. Check each butee carefully and minutely to see that the embroidery/embellishment work is complete and good. Or else you will end with damaged or with flaws.

The cost depends upon the size and work done. If you are buying large quantity, it may be cheaper for you. Heavily worked or bigger ones cost more. So we can use a combination of bigger sized ones as well as smaller ones depending upon the design and the way you want them to be displayed as well as your budget.

The back side of these butees  are covered with a cloth. So even if you are using them on very thin back ground (that is see through materials like crepes chiffons etc), it is OK.

Select the laces for the borders if you are planning to use them on the saris or dress materials along with the butees. There is a lot of variety available in the markets. These days laces from very narrow to broad ones, simple to heavy work are being used. 

How to attach them to the fabric, I will post in my next post...so keep an eye....