I have always loved nature. Beautiful landscapes, plants, trees, leaves, flowers, waterfalls .....etc all mesmerize me. I wish I could paint! Maybe I should give it a shot. Anyways, that is a different train of thought all together :)Right now I want to show my latest ( weel not exactly latest but fairly recent ) work. A quilled maple leaf. Maple leaf is probably one the prettiest of leaves....the colours, the shape, it's somehow magical.
Here is my take on it. I've used beehive to play with colors and loved it. I don't know whether you can make it out but the beehiving is really teeny weeny and took forever to complete. The outlining was fast enough. But the filling up with tight beehive was really tough on the hands .I actually ended up spraining my wrist! Until then I didn't even know that it is possible to get such injuries while quilling. Oh well, the things you get to learn!!
For some of you who like to know how it is done ...here are a few pictures of the project as it progressed. At first the outline of the leaf:
And then when that is done you can see how it looks .....
After that is done, I did the veins of the leaf ..I forget to take the pictures at that point :( , sorry ! So we are at the next step that is the filling in with the beehive in different colors. This is the most time consuming and tiring step. Don't be over zealous and try to rush this ....believe me , sprained wrist hurts like hell ( even brushing your teeth or picking up a spoon gets difficult), so be careful ! Luckily I can manage a lot of work with my left hand as well. So the family did not get left hungry.
And finally when all is done take pictures like crazy ....before you get it framed . After framing the pictures don't look all that great and the work is hardly seen in the pictures.
And finally after framing .....all set to display.
These are the latest little projects that I have been working on. Well, not projects , but new ideas. I could hardly wait to share it with my friends. So what do you think? Before I get all the credit for this , let me make it clear that this is not my original idea. I saw it made by Erin Perkins and was totally hooked. I gave it a shot and here is what I came up with.
I love my crafts and can keep doing these for hours on end tirelessly....seriously, I can when I enjoy it. But then those are just a few phases, you know , like a particular project or a design or part of a design. I may not make sense to you, but I am sure that at least some of my crafty friends would agree that when we work on a project, there are some parts of it that seem great fun and then there are some that you just find a drag.
Loving crafts and making stuff is one thing but repeatedly making the same or similar stuff is a totally different story altogether. This are just my thoughts, I am sure many people feel differently. I prefer to have a little bit of challenge at least in each of my projects. Or at the least something new to me ( a technique or method or idea )to learn. Sometimes , of course , I feel like doing something simple and fimiliar and mind numbingly easy. Of course, I have enjoyed most of my projects completely.
But then somewhere along the way , there comes a time when your creative juices are refusing to flow ....you try and try but ...nope, it just does not happen. there is just no motivation. And just when you are about to resign and pick up another usual project hoping that somewhere along the way you will get the right spirit to enjoy it, it happens! Suddenly you come across something really unique and inspiring. Something that gives you a drive to to do more and work better. I saw these beautiful coils done by Erin Perkins and was totally mesmerized. I loved it and just had to make it. It took me a while to figure it out but I did. So here I am sharing my work with you.
Thank you Erin for inspiring and motivating me just when I needed it. The idea is simply amazing and shows what a brilliant mind can achieve. I loved the challenge and it felt great to see the end result. Enjoyed making these very much.
