Quilling was a new craft to me.
Although I had seen quilling works, I had never tried it before. So when in spring this year I had an opportunity to participate in the Silver Quilling Certification training at Art Clay Headquarter, Japan, I had zero expectations.
I wasn’t familiar with paper quilling, and was about to spend four days learning quilling silver!
Quilling or paper filigree is a technique to manipulate strips of paper to create different shapes by rolling, gluing, and shaping it by fingers. These paper elements can then be arranged to decorate cards and other items such as boxes or jewelry. Story tells that in the past they used the tip of a quill to roll the paper strips, hence the name. To quill, you can indeed use a simple pin, but the best tool would be a slotted tool. This way, the slot secures and holds the end of the paper strip while rolling.
A quill use to be used in rolling the paper strips in the past.
And now we have this little handy tool.
During the training, we first practiced using regular paper strips. Although it looked simple to do, I had to ask our teacher quite often. Ms. Motoko Maggie Nakatani is a renown Japanese quilling artist who was also the curriculum supervisor of the Art Clay Silver Quilling Certification. She’s so wonderful and very patient in explaining the steps, especially to a total newbie like I was :)
With Ms. Motoko Maggie Nakatani
After our hands got use to quilling with paper, we moved to work with silver clay. Art Clay Silver paper used to come as a square cut, and now it has a new long rectangular shape of 200x40mm. While retaining the same purpose to use for origami jewelry, it is now also perfect for quilling projects.
The beginning of silver clay paper quilling is similar to regular paper.
We cut the paper clay into strips, and then start to quill different shapes, according to the patterns. However, regular paper has a very different nature than silver clay paper. So in the following steps of assembling, firing and finishing, we use especially developed silver quilling techniques which makes it possible to create beautiful silver quilling jewelry. In the curriculum, there were an abundance techniques to learn, including how to make fringes and ‘bead’ shapes, integrate punched pieces, and more. We combined the paper clay type with the clay type as well and created all the six silver quilling certification projects.
Art Clay Paper also make it a breeze to create elements which then can be incorporated with Art Clay Silver clay type.
Dahlia pendant. I made it, following the design by Ms. Motoko Maggie Nakatani.
After the trip, back at my studio, I started to experiment with silver quilling. Again, I didn’t really set any expectation on my attempts, but the more I tried different designs, the more exciting quilling became.
‘Leaves’ Earrings. I’ve created these several times, they make such special gifts!
I love the look of silver quilling jewelry. They are pretty, delicate, and unique. While filigree jewelry and paper quilling jewelry are quite common, silver quilling jewelry is a rare beauty. I especially love how the silver quilling jewelry looks so rich while at the same time has that ‘folksy’ feeling.
Silver Quilling is an amazing technique to create fine and delicate, yet captivating jewelry.
Although in the beginning I wasn’t sure as I knew practically nothing about quilling, I’m happy I did the training. As an artist, I found it beneficial to learn the silver quilling techniques. Now I’ve got new jewelry ideas -exciting ones- as I also plan to combine silver quilling with other metal clay techniques.
If you’re interested in Art Clay Silver Quilling Certification, feel free to contact me for classes schedule. I’ll give the Silver Quilling Certification also on October 18-20th 2016, in Legnano, Milan, Italy and you can check the details including their Early Bird package offer (a very good one) here. In the same week there I’ll also give a one day class ‘Marbling of Silver & Copper Jewelry’, another fascinating metal clay technique.
The pieces in the picture above are my own Silver quilling Certification jewelry
If you have questions about the classes, please contact me (or for the class in Italy please contact the host). I’ll add any related updates here.
Update Monday August 15 2016
Here are pictures of the Silver Quilling jewelry made by my wonderful students Anita & Tarja:
We had so much fun at the class. Learning and hard working, very happy with the results!
Please contact me for more info on Art Clay Silver Quilling Certification.
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