Quilled Cottage & Garden in Summer

Back again after a long break. Been quilling a lot of cards and qulling a wall hanging got delayed, but here I am back a with a sweet memory in quilling.  I was on a tour of the Alps & the beauty of the countrysides in Italy & Switzerland in September was awesome. Loved most the wooden or brickwall little country cottages with the window boxes in full bloom in various colours of flowers which is not to be seen in my country (Sri Lanka). The little gardens with so many variety of beautiful flowers looked like a dream to me. I just wanted the memories to last for ever in my life. So this is the outcome of my memory. The dream house.

 the size of it is 32 × 25 cm

It took me almost 80 hours to complete. Every little detail is in quilling. Wish I had more variety of coloured strips. There are places that the strip are as thin as a thread cause it is a 3D quilling. You may notice it if you look closer. I think I love this the most, of all my creations. 

Medieval Art of Sri Lanka (Gajasinghe) in Quilling

Gajasinghe is a drawing of a mythical creature, which is part lion & part elephant. This dates back to the period we had kings ruling our nation somewhere in 377 BC or even before.It was in 1505 that the foreigners invaded our country and the end of Kings ruling. Mythical lions paintings at that period was common as the then Sinhala people in our country believed that they were descendants of  a lion and a human girl, who had a son and daughter together. The Lion symbol plays a major role, to date, in our country and is seen in our country flag too. These old paintings can be found even today in ancient temple walls. The colouring they used at the time must have been excellent cause even many centuries later the paintings are still visible.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              I enjoy turning and twisting the strips as I have got used to doing it now. So expect more of these pictures cause I intend doing more of these medieval paintings of Sri Lanka in quilling

Hansa puttuwa (Entwined Swans)

                Hansa Puttuwa is a traditional and a very important & popular motif coming down from ancient Sri Lanka. May be from the Anuradhapura Era. Probably around the 4th century BC. This motif is commonly used at traditional Sinhala Buddhist weddings, from Jewelry to back drop decorations at wedding ceremonies.The stage (Poruwa) where the couple stands for the rituals,  is decorated with this motif using various raw material like coconut palms or flowers in a very rich manner. The brides necklace is often in silver or gold, engraved with this motif.                                                                                                                                      I have quilled it in line art or graphic method. I would call it creative quilling. The paper of course is A4 and the strips are 1/8 inches. It took me some time cause it wasn't easy to twist the strip to shape. Hope you enjoy it. Happy quilling till I come again :)

Quilled Mandarin duck near water garden

Don't quill often now not because I have lost interest in this hobby but I am into other craft & I do not want to add those, on to my quilling blog. May be I will start another blog for those. Another reason for not quilling is I have lost ideas for quilling. I like to quill something that has not been quilled before. Now to this particular quilling. The mandarin duck is a beautiful creature like the peacock that it's beauty never cease to fascinate me. I love the bright colours and is a great idea for quilling but every duck I googled was different in colour from each other. So I quilled my own version. The entire picture is quilled with A4 coloured paper cut into 1/8 inch strips. I am a bit sad cause the real picture looks better than this & I cannot show it to you. Hope you like it :) 

Ancient African tribal princes in Quilling

African paintings fascinates me always. They add a lot of beauty on any wall in any place. The people of Africa, love multi colours & it looks so pretty. It never bore me to do quillings of this sort. Came across this picture on the internet. I did it my way, in quilling. Hope you like it

A quick & simple method of making a flower for a card

A lady in a quilling group on Face Book had commented on a picture of mine that the group admin had posted. It was the picture of my comb collection on my blog. She had referred to this particular comb tool in the above picture, as " torture device" and could not make out the purpose for it. It made me laugh but also made me think. So I stopped my current quilling project to quickly do a tutorial on how I make flowers with it. Now dear friends don't bother torturing  your brains on how to get one like this. I have used part of a hard tooth tintin hair brush that comes with some hair product. I got it from a friend so I have no idea what it is. But I can give you an idea how to make one. Call it AnastasiaW style ha..ha.. My way of creating tools. Just an eraser and 6 needles or pins. Insert it the way it is in the picture and create a flower. Happy quilling :)

Video demonstration on quilling a flower

Today I would like to share a video tutorial on how I create this flower with a homemade tool. All you need for the tool is an eraser and 5 needles or pins. Also I have demonstrated a very easy and accurate method of doing the mount and valley fold & all you need to do it is a strp of aluminium foil. This is how I do it may be you too do this way but this tutorial is for people who do not know it :)

You can make the flowers big or small by the spacing of the three pins in the straight line. This design is suitable for earrings too. The mount and valley fold method is useful, if you don't have a crimping tool. Hope this video would be helpful to you. Have a nice day friend & happy quilling :)

Peacock design on a vase in quilling

A quilling with out a plan I call this. With no idea of what I should quill, I see a vase sitting in a corner & think why not a vase in quilling :). So this is the result. I do only wall pictures and no cards so it is a problem with ideas. The pattern is not clear so I have to mention that the dark brown at the top and bottom is in beehive design (invented by Susan of Susan's cards & quilling). I will do a very easy tutorial on how to do the flowers very quickly, in my next video. It is not much of a quilling but kept me busy from doing nothing ;)

Quilling - Birds in love

Managed a very quick picture in quilling. The entire picture is quilled in the manner of my tutorial, on a quick and easy way to quill a sprig of leaves making your own tool. Check out tutorial on You Tube. I am really enjoying this method as the projects are quicker to complete. Happy quilling & have fun :)
Will be back with a new tutorial soon

Quick and easy way to quilling a sprig of leaves with your home made tool

After I posted my tutorial on how to make a sprig of leaves with a comb, I had many emails from quillers, who could not find a comb like the one I used. I did a lot of experiment  & came up with a very simple tool that you can make at home and turn out even nicer sprigs very quickly & pretty neat too. All you need is three needles or dot pins with the head chipped off and an eraser. The space between should be even. With experience you could create lots & lots of designs to add to your bouquets, sprigs and flowers to fill in .I have created many designs with just this one tool. It's all imagination & creativity. My jungle fowl project is created with this design only. 

Quilled Jungle Fowl = The National bird of Sri Lanka

It's nice to be blogging again after a long time. Sometimes we feel that nothing is quite interesting in life and spend our precious time watching the idiot box. I feel that is the most appropriate name for the TV. I have been doing this for the last month or two not being in a mood for hobbies. Now I am back with my first project for 2014 & hopefully create more new designs in quilling.

 A LITTLE DESCRIPTION OF THE BIRD TAKEN FROM WIKIPEDIA

As with other junglefowl, the Sri Lankan Junglefowl is strongly sexually dimorphic: the male is much larger than the female, with more vivid plumage and a highly exaggerated wattle and comb.

The male Sri Lankan Junglefowl ranges from 66–72 cm (26–28 in) in length^[3] and 790–1,140 g (1.74–2.51 lb) in weight, essentially resembling a large, muscular rooster.^[4] The male has orange-red body plumage, and dark purple to black wings and tail. The feathers of the mane descending from head to base of spine are golden, and the face has bare red skin and wattles. The comb is red with a yellow centre. As with the Green Junglefowl, the cock does not possess an eclipse plumage.

The female is much smaller, at only 35 cm (14 in) in length and 510–645 g (1.124–1.422 lb) in weight, with dull brown plumage with white patterning on the lower belly and breast, ideal camouflage for a nesting bird.^[4]

The Sri Lankan Junglefowl is most closely related to the Grey Junglefowl,^[5] though physically the male resembles the Red Junglefowl. Female Sri Lanka Junglefowl are very similar to those of the Grey Junglefowl. Like the Green Junglefowl, Sri Lankan Junglefowl are island species that have evolved side by side with their similarly stranded island predators and competitors. Uniquely complex anti-predator behaviors and foraging strategies are integral components in the long evolutionary story of the Sri Lankan Junglefowl.

Hope you like it and will be back soon with another creation. Happy quilling till then :)