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The Art of Quillery

How to Make Decorative Paper Scrolls

Quillery, or as it's known today - quilling, the art of paper filigree, was an almost-lost art form before it was reintroduced to the general public in kits about 30 years ago.

Quillery originated in 17th century European monasteries. Because all paper was laboriously hand made at that time, the monks were reluctant to waste any scraps.

They collected the strips left over after trimming their manuscript pages and tried to put them to other uses. In time they devised the technique of curling the strips around their goose quill pens; and the lacy intricate designs known as quillery were born.

Though the results can be remarkably intricate, the component quilled strips are very simple to make. In fact, there are only about 20 basic shapes and these can be simplified into two basic categories: scrolls (which are not glued tight so they form relaxed scrolls) and coils (which are glued tightly to form more elaborate shapes like bells, tear drops and cones).

Today’s quillery kits come with the very thin multi-colored strips of paper in the weight required for quilling, a large corsage pin or t-pin to quill around, design templates to follow and detailed directions for all the basic quilling shapes.

Some also include tweezers for handling and positioning the quilled shapes and PVA glue for securing tight coils and laying the pieces into the overall design. After doing one kit, you’re practically an expert.

Quilled art makes lovely dimensional wall art as well as original adornments to greeting cards and scrapbook pages.

CreateForLess has a nice selection of quilling kits, paper and tools. Click here to get to the website and enter "quilling" in the search box.

A book you might want to consider if you want to learn more about this craft is Concepts in Quillery: A guide to the antique art form of paper curling with 8 original patterns By: Betty Meisenbach. This book is now out of print and its availability is limited.

For a modern day application of quillery, please visit Quilled Pastry Hearts with Key Lime Curd.

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