The Art of Paper Quilling: Designing Handcrafted Gifts and Cards

Quilling, or the art of paper filigree doesn't require much in the way of expensive tools. You could even start off with narrow strips from a mini paper shredder (the author's suggestion), plus glue, scissors, tweezers, straight pins, and something to roll the paper strips around, such as a toothpick or an awl."The Art of Paper Quilling" is a good guide to start with, and it is also the most beautiful quilling book I've had the opportunity to read. Most of its projects use 1/8" (3 mm)-wide strips, but the one I wanted to try right away, "A Blue Cornflower and Daisy Arrangement" involved cut-out and fringed petals, plus a fringed center using ¼" (6 mm)-wide strips. A fringing tool would be very useful for many of this book's projects, if you don't want the tedium of fringing strips by hand.The patterns in this guide vary from 60% of actual size to full-size. (I wish authors would stick to full-size patterns, but I suppose this isn't always possible). They range from simple to complex, but even the complex designs consist of a few varieties of paper coils, repeated many times. Most of the projects involve flowers and/or butterflies, but there are also a few Christmas designs and a pair of Easter bunnies. The finished quillwork is used to decorate picture frames, plaques, boxes, greeting cards, and gift bags (sachets).Colored photographs decorate this 128-page craft book, including a gallery of paper quilling art by Claire Sun-ok Choi in its final pages. I am especially fond of her fanciful, multi-colored butterflies. This author has also published "" (2004).

This was a very informative book, it had the history, tools and patterns that make new quilters look pro. The flowers and wreaths are taken apart so you can see how it's really done. This book gives you confidence because these patterns will make your work look professional. I've seen a lot of these books but few are this helpful, they are pretty unfailable. This book will teach you what to and how to make beautiful quillings.

If you've never heard of quilling, it's not surprising. Quilling consists of rolling long, thin strips of paper around a large needle or quilling tool, resulting in a coil of paper, either loose or tight. This coil is then pinched to form components of various shapes, and the components are then assembled to create objects both flat and dimensional. Although developed in the 1500's, it has mostly languished in the backwater of crafts. The advent of scrapbooking has recently made it slightly more popular, but nowhere near what such an inexpensive and versatile craft deserves. As eye candy, this book rates 5 stars. It's a good size at 8 1/2" x 11" (21.5 cm x 28cm) and is 128 pages long. The photos are mostly large and there's plenty of white space, resulting in a clean and uncluttered look to the book. The author does beautiful work and has a real feel for elegant composition. There are no 'country' or overly cutesy projects. Where this book falls short is on technique. It does have nice sections on tools and tips, and a really good section on basic shapes with a brief description of how to make them, but there are no photos that actually SHOW how to make them. The book jumps straight to projects after that. Each project is illustrated with a single large photo, has a list of the coils and colors needed for that project, brief instructions on other additional techniques and a line drawing of the overall design. Here's where a couple of major flaws occur. There are no lengths given for the strips used to make most of the coils, and there is no pattern. When I started quilling in the 1970's, all you really needed was a paper pattern. You copied it, cut it out, covered it with plastic or waxed paper and pinned it to a cork board. You then made the coil, pinned it on top of the pattern and glued and assembled as you went along. Once finished, you removed the pins, peeled off the plastic and there you were. The drawings that are given show no detail as to the type of coil, and aren't really usable as such. It's true that most of the flower designs are easy enough to eyeball, but with the two drawbacks I mentioned, proportions can get REALLY off. Another thing that is barely mentioned is the importance of making uniform circles, both in tension and in size. The author does show a quilling board in the tools section, which does help. She also mentions bamboo skewers as a quilling tool. Am I the only person using plain, round wooden toothpicks? Cheap, replaceable and smaller than skewers, they have the perfect texture to 'grab' the paper and hold it as you spin. So much easier than the needle and it doesn't leave an annoying bend like the quilling tool with the slot. You then just drop the circle in the right sized hole in the quilling board, pin the center where you want and glue. Pinch to shape and all your components are automatically the right size. When I first started quilling, the only books available showed it mostly thru a historical perspective with just a few chapters on technique. Quilling was originally developed to imitate fine gold filigree. Recent books on quilling rarely show projects like that. Most all of them are just flowers on cards, or some variation of that. This is a lovely book if that's what you're looking for. Quilling is so much more than just a way to jazz up a greeting card or picture frame though. You can assemble the component coils flat, raised, or 3-d in an infinite variety of patterns and shapes. You can also cover almost anything with them, in any design. I wish the author had explored some of these possibilities as well. Overall, this is a lovely book. For me though, the problems with techniques and the limited range of uses outweigh the 'prettiness' of the designs, thus giving it 3.5, maybe 4 stars.

But used Kim in great condition exactly what I needed

A beginner could use this book as it has basic instructions for most of the techniques. What I like about the book is it covers a wide variety of quilled pieces from cards to boxes. It also has a newer technique for hand fringed flowers. The pictures of the finished designs and the techniques are large and clear. It is a nice addition to a paper quilling library.

日本の本を何冊か買いましたがあまり満足できませんでした。しかし、この本は眺めているだけでも飽きません。色の組み合わせや様々な花・花・花で、とてもきれいでかわいらしいです。人形などの作品はあまりないので、それを希望の方にはお勧めできません。

Good book

Era un regalo y quedo muy contenta.

Love the detailed diagrams and easy to follow instructions

bonsoir, j'adore se livre car il est bien consul les images sont très belles, j'ai commencé à faire quelques essais mais cela m'est un peu difficile car ce n'est pas écrit en Français. Mais je me débrouille en faisant la traduction sur internet. Cordialement CLAUDINE GUICHEMERRE