Niyagala Flower better known as Glory Lily

The Glory Lily is the national flower of Zimbabwe. It grows mostly in jungles. The flower is extremely colourful and beautiful, but never grown in home gardens. Not in my country anyway. If eaten, it is as deadly as cyanide. There are many true stories about people committing suicide by eating the yam of this plant and I myself have come across a young boy who had a fight with his parents and died by eating it. It happened many years ago.

I wanted something to quill but not anything that would take long. I have this little crimpler that I made with my sons LEGO car wheels and was just crimpling some left over strips when I got this idea of the flower. The hardest part of my quilling is the idea of what to quill. Since I don't like doing what someone has already done, I need something different always. Creating it did not take long. The strips of paper is 1/8 inch. I needed just three colours. Red, yellow and green. It isn't a difficult flower at all.

          

Featured Artist / Anastasia Wahalatantiri

Quilling with cold porcelain on a cake.

My first attempt of quilling with cold porcelain.

My earlier porcelain flowers were done with ready made clay that I had to pay quite a high price. As I was too much into quilling just wanted to try out something new.It was something new but still involved quilling. This creation is with a cold porcelain recipe that I found on Gemini Arts & craft. The ingredients was the same but I microwaved it instead of cooking on stove.The clay came out better than I expected and I am so happy with it. My next idea is to do it with sugar paste. If it works out, I am out of all my other hobbies ☺. I really need to make use of my talent instead of just doing it  as a hobby. May be I will start a business. This was not easy quilling as paper. It cannot be twisted and turned as paper. It has to be handled very gently and take much more time to quill than paper. But I am happy that I achieved it, to an extent with cold porcelain. Only hope it can be done with sugar paste too. I will give it a try   

I will give you the link to the Porcelaine dough receipe I used. http://youtu.be/Kdv14HFbC2E

• 

Created for Mothers Day 2011

Created for Mothers Day 2011, a photo by anastasiaw2008 on Flickr.

This Picture is a dedication to all mothers. Especially the Queen of all mothers, THE BLESSED VERGIN MARY whom I have great faith in. It was one of a picture that my mum had received from her sister when she was ill. This will be framed and preserved. The face and the hand is not quilled.

Wesak greetings

Vesak greetings, a photo by anastasiaw2008 on Flickr.

This card is a dedication to all the Buddhist friends who are celebrating the Holy Wesak this year. I did not take much time quilling it. The tree is supposed to be a Bo tree which is very holy to the Buddhists. So you would notice the difference in my leaves from the other pictures. The moon, oil lamp, Bo tree and lanterns are symbols that is associated with Wesak

Easter Bunny with his collection of eggs

This was to be my quilling for Easter but due to unavoidable circumstances could not complete it in time. My little bunny was out collecting eggs, and lost his way in the woods. He was found by a giant bird, crying sitting on a stone in the middle of the woods, where lots of beautiful flowers were in full bloom. The big bird was really sorry that the bunny would not be able to go home in time for Easter. He was a friendly guy but foolish too. So not only did he give bunny a lift on his back  but gifted an egg that his mum had just laid. Little bunny is  happy  with the big egg. Mum is going to be so happy and not be harsh on him for being late. But his friend big bird, may have a lot of explaining to do to his mum on how the egg went missing. He is not going to have a happy Easter:(

This is what was in my head when I started quilling this item. I don't think I should explain about the quilling, as it is the same as all my other quilling. Hope you like it.

Happy New Year !!

Happy New Year to all who R celebrating on 14th April, a photo by anastasiaw2008 on Flickr.

Just a simple card to wish all who would be celebrating New Year on the 14th of April, A bright and prosperous 2011!!

Cards with collage designs

Two cards of collage designs, made for a friend by her request. The card on the left is made with bits of coloured stickers and the other card beneath on the left is designed with paper from a magazine. I just like variety in my work and always like to do something new. So the idea was from my niece who wanted some collage design for her class project. My friend whom I got to know on "flickr"  had seen the earlier pictures and wanted one for her too. So it is left to her to choose which she wants ☺



Quilling/paper on lace cut card

 This card is a combination of quilling and cut work on paper. After my "COBRA MASK" which took some time to quill, I wanted to do something simple and not take too much time. The card took me about 3 hours to complete. The quilling strips are all 1/8". Bits and pieces of left overs from earlier quillings.

The other picture is what I did for my little  9 year old niece, who wanted a paper collage for her class project. Just used an old magazine to create the designs. May be someday she will follow my footsteps.My daughter has no interest in my craft, though she admires them. She is more into cake making and decorating which she is quite good at ☺

Cobra Mask

Masks in Sri Lanka are very famous for healing rituals, cultural pageants and shows. There are various masks resembling animals, birds and snakes. These are associated with the folks and religions of the ancient people of Sri Lanka and are still practised by the village folks during sicknesses they think, was caused by evil.

The masks are made of very light wood and are very brightly painted. They are hand crafted and is a cottage industry in the southern part of the country. The vibrant colours of these masks and the beauty of it made me want to try out one in quilling

This is a cobra mask which is worn to chase away  the demon from the possessed person by the man who performs and carryout the ritual.

As usual the papers are all A4 coloured, 1/8" strips. The length of each strip is only 1/2" and rolled in to equal size circles. I just don't know how many pieces I rolled, but it took me about 40 hours to complete the picture. The picture is done on 11"x 11" background cause that is the size of my frame. Next I hope to do a video of my leaves that many people are curious to know, and  is my own creation quilled my way 

Quilling on an egg

This is my first attempt of quilling on an egg. Monica Bergeron from Giddy Greetings has done some very beautiful quillings on eggs. It inspired me to do one too. A friend on face book had done ribbon embroidery on an egg too which I admired a lot. So thought why not give a try.

I first made a very small hole on the egg and took out the contents after which I had to wash it several times with warm soap and water and let it dry. As usual the strips are 1/8" cut from A4 coloured paper. The quilled designs of the petals and flowers are all my own creations. That is what I do when I am not busy with a project. I play around with strips of paper twisting and rolling till I have got some design that I could use on a new picture. I very rarely use a quilling tool.
I collect all the little quilled pieces so I don't forget the design and  use the patterns for a new picture. It took me about 3 hours to finish as I had to be very very gentle in handling the shell so it would not break and ruin my whole effort. I wonder how long it would last as I will have to find a safe place to keep it with out breaking:)

Quilled egg in a case

This is a case I made to keep my quilled egg safe from getting damaged. Guess how I did it. Simple. As I said before I am a junk collector and always find my junk coming handy. This is a plastic throw away bottle. I cut off the top and covered it with a rigifoam, pasting a red paper on it. Cut off the bottom to get the egg in and covered it too with a rigifoam. So... now my egg is safe:)

I have been so lucky this month and I feel important and happy about what I have achieved or rather of what other bloggers think and rate my blog. Three very important blogs have highlighted me this month.

1 - Monica from Giddy Greetings has chosen me Artist of the Month (Feb.2011)

     http://www.giddygreetings.co/

     Thanks Monica, I am so glad and it is a wonderful surprise too.

2 - Aljona from White Raccoon handicraft blog has awarded me her blog Award.

      http://blog.whiteracoonthank/      Thank You dear Aljona for the nice

    comments and award. I am so happy to have it.

3 - Angela from http://oklahomacricuteer.blogspot.com/ has awarded her blog candy too.

Thanks Angela for the lovely comment and award. I am really happy to have it

                                                                    

I am so pleased and thank you dear friends

Popup card for a Valentine

Every person who could make a card is very busy making cards for Valentine Day. So I decided to make  a card too. It is a  popup card. The one on top is how the card looks when it is closed. Got the Idea of the pop up heart while surfing the net for new Ideas. This gave me an opportunity of trying out my new card punches too:) 

Wood Burning/Pyrography

• This is my very first attempt of wood burning or pyrography. I  can never rest till I have at least experimented once with what ever craft I see. If it is something I would fancy then I attempt doing it again. If I don't, I just forget about it. I wanted something new to refresh myself. Quite a bit bored with quilling. Saw this piece of wood which is only 3"X7" lying a side and thought why not try pyrography. I do not think it is the appropriate wood but tried on it. The bout did not burned into the wood quickly so this is not the wood for it. Anyway I will look for the proper one before I try again. The bird is one of many that appears in the flags of our ancient kings. We had many kings ruling our country for years and they each had their own flags with fancy birds and animals.This creation of mine  does not look very nice, but I will excuse myself as it is my first attempt, Anyway thought of sharing it with you. It is left to you to judge

Quilled Rosella

This is my first craft project for 2011. Was not in a mood to get back to my craft after all the travelling and too busy trying out all the new punchers and tools that I purchased  on my way back home. Now back to my normal lonely life, where it is me my laptop and paper,paper, paper:). This picture is something that got deeply rooted in my mind while travelling through  a forest during my vacation. We were travelling at high speed and could not get a photo of it but the beautiful tree in full bloom and the multi colour parrot stuck in my memory. It might not look at all as the one I saw, but managed to quill something close to my memory. The picture is 8" X 12" and quilled with 1/8" strips of A4 coloured paper. It took me about 16 hours to complete

Snowy my little white man:)

Could not put my quillings away and get along with other work that comes along with the holiday season. There was a 8 hour power cut and could not get other work going so I sat to do another card and this is the result. As usual the strips for the quillings are all 1/8" cut from coloured A4 paper. I  always love bright colours in my pictures, but I had to limit it for this one. It had to be more white to get the snowy effect. Snowman is done with 3 tight rolls, a tiny gold bell made of gold paper. I always love a scenery at the back ground. It is much nicer than only a tree and a Snowman as I love to look at my picture and imagine was there. The snow on the ground is regiform powder and the grass is saw dust coloured in green. Hope you like it:)

The card on top is before I added the frame and droping snow. I think you would like to get a clearer picture to find out how it is done.

Christmas Card 2010

          This is dedicated to all of you, who visit my blog during this festive season. This card is 6 1/2x8" in size. Santa was a bit time taking as it is only 2". The length of a strip I used for Santa was just 1" each. I used a lace cut design to make it more nice. So this is going to be my last project for this year. I would not have made this card too if I was not ordered to rest. Come down with chickenpox and compelled to rest. As I am not a person who could lie on bed idle, I started this card and I feel it came out to my satisfaction.
       
          Enjoy the festive season  and don't forget the joy of Christmas is in good will and sharing. Wish you all a Merry Christmas and a bright and prosperous 2011

My 4 favourite Ladies

Wanted to have all my ladies together so you could have a better look at how I quilled them. They are all quilled with 1/8" strips of A4 coloured paper. Hope you like them

Christmas fiery

Since Christmas is around the corner and everyone are getting into the festive mood, I wanted to do something to match the festive season and this was the outcome This is my first 3d fiery and I am very happy the way it turned out. It reminds me of the girl in Avatar. Since the 1st attempt came out ok, I think I will try out more of these:)

Poinsettia are flowers, that are popular with Christmas, and red green yellow are the colours in use. So I did it to match the theme. The picture is 10"x12" and the strips I used are 1/8", cut from A4 coloured paper. This would be my last quilling for this year as December is a busy month with plenty of work and activities and I am off to Australia to spend a few weeks with my daughter which I am eagerly looking forward to. Hope to do a lot of "craft tools" shopping while I am there. Wish you all a happy  festive season :D

A little more details about my quilling technique in the fiery:-
 I am obsessed of getting things perfect as far as possible in what ever I do. Be it quilling,cooking,house keeping or whatever craft. I try out things I see even if I do not know how to, in my own way by experimenting over and over. Sometimes skipping meals and breaking rest till I get it wright. As I have mentioned before, quilling too was something I did with out knowing how to, or seeing one. So it is different to the traditional way. The hands and legs of the fiery was made with tight rolls. I made many hands and legs cause it kept on coming off when I pushed it out to get the shape. But I got it after several attempts. After I pushed it out to get the length I needed, very very gently and patiently I bent it to shape. This was the most trickiest part of the fiery. But I loved the way it shaped at the end. You have to have patience and 100% concentration to get any project well done. There is no wire inside the hands or legs to shape it. The entire picture is done only with strips of paper

Golden Swan on the run

Golden Swan on the run
Originally uploaded by anastasiaw2008

This is another picture I did as an experiment with gold paper. The size of it is 8"x10" and the strips are 1/8". Twisting the paper is a bit tricky as it is not very flexible. But these pictures does not take time as the others I have quilled but need very steady fingers lots of patience and a sharp eye too. I hope to do one in silver before I start on a new hobby. My home is getting crowded with all these hobbies of mine but this is my life and as long as my fingers could take it I will go on with it