An Introduction to Quilling, Paper Filigree, Quiling

Quilling (often called paper filigree or quiling) is a paper art form where you learn to coil, curl, twist, or fringe long strips of paper into a large variety of shapes, creating intricate, beautiful patterns and pieces of artwork. Quilling takes some practice to get the hang of but is a much easier craft to do than it seems. You’ll certainly be complimented by many people when they see your quilled creations since this is a paper craft that looks very detailed and time consuming. However, you will find with simple to follow step-by-step instructions, the basics of quilling are easy to master. Then you can start to make your own patterns and designs with ease!

The history of quilling dates back hundreds of years but is recently gaining a renewed popularity since quilled paper art is a great way to embellish scrapbooks, invitations, announcements, and home-made cards. Besides that, the cost to get started with quilling is comparatively lower than almost any other craft you could do! Although this craft has been around for quite some time, it is not very popular in craft stores so you may have a hard time finding supplies unless you know where to look.

Often people wonder what types of designs they can create with quilling paper. The majority of work you will see is probably flowers since quilled flowers are a lot of fun to make and are very popular. Beyond flowers, you’ll find that you can quill almost any design you can think of! Everything from animals to letters to fire engines are great items you can learn to quill with paper! You will have a lot of fun experimenting and trying new ideas with quilling even if you don’t have a pattern to follow (although it definitely helps for beginners).

Quilling is a fun and easy craft to learn but as a beginner you’ll certainly need to have some patience as you learn the basics to quilling and start making cool quilling designs. The tools you’ll need are easy to find once you know where to look and they are inexpensive. You can spend as much time as you want quilling; it can take just a few minutes or a few days to created a quilled design, depending on how detailed and intricate you would like to make it. Quilling is a craft but also an art form so don’t be discouraged if your quilling does not look exactly like the pattern you used or the design you anticipated. Your work of art will be unique and beautiful if you take the time to learn the basics and understand the proper tools and supplies to use.

I will say that if you’re good at learning something new just by seeing a photo and being able to replicate it, then grab a quilling book from your local craft store (if you can even find it…they aren’t available in most stores but you can sometimes get them on the craft store’s website). However if you’d prefer to learn how to do quilling with step by step instructions, hundreds of color photos, and an instructional DVD that you can watch while you do your quilling craft at the same time, then you’ll want to get a beginner quilling course and learn how to make all the basic shapes and coils. Then you can learn how to put the shapes together to form larger patterns. After that, you’ll learn more advanced patterns and really make this a form of art that is unique to you and a beautiful way to decorate all sorts of crafts such as scrapbooking, card making, and other craft projects you’ve already created. Quilling does not have to be a stand alone art and instead it can really be something great that you can add to other projects you enjoy working on. Learning how to quill will give you an additional way to jazz up so many of your craft projects and can be learned by following step by step instructions.


Grab your free quilling lesson at: LEARNQUILLING.COM