Good Quilling Tips

Good Quilling Tips

Paper

• Identify the correct side of the quilling strip - the side will be smooth at the edges when you feel it with your thumb or forefinger. The wrong side will have edges curling down ever so slightly. The coil behaves better if the wrong side is coiled in.
• Run your nail lightly along the length of the strip to get it to curl and quill along the natural curl.
• To get uniform size , use a quilling board or a drawn guide placed under a transparent sheet.
• Each batch of paper may differ so experiment with rolling to assess size before you start an important project.
• Roll all the coils required for a project at one go to get even tension.
• For loose coils do not pull on the strip while rolling just use your fingers to guide the strip and keep it even.

Glue & Pasting

• Control your glue. The slightest bit is enough to seal a scroll.
• Use a  toothpick or a thin brush to apply a very slight dot of glue to the scroll and lightly hold your finger over the spot to a count of three to let it dry.
• Before sealing the edge  scratch it with your nail slightly so the it flattens out. This way you will not see the pasted edge. Tear rather than cut the edge.
• Dilute the glue with water if too thick. ( Make sure its water soluble)
• I have found that, attaching a slightly wet, pencil-tip shaped sponge  to a toothpick, to remove excess glue from the surface is very useful when doing strip work.
• If using a glue bottle make a hole in a sponge to hold the glue bottle tip (placed upside down) and stand it on the damp sponge when working. This prevents the glue bottle tip from drying up.
• When applying glue with toothpick just pick up a bit on the tip and roll the toothpick over the quilling to apply.
• Its a good idea to apply glue to the tight rolls and the centres of quills instead of dabbing glue all over your quills.
• Stick the quills to each other and once the piece is complete stick to onto the backing.
• If you want it to look better use the relevant color as backing. For example, if you bird has green feathers,  use green backing paper for that area and create a mosaic design before you paste your quills. (I created a  mosaic for both Jesus carrying the Cross and feathery discussion.)
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Work board & Design Guide

• If you do not have a work board make one. I use a piece of box board pinned on top of a cushion sponge. You can even use a piece of Styrofoam so that you can pin your design.
• When quilling landscape or art use a polythene on any non stick see-through paper so that you can keep the design underneath and create your quilled mat. 
• When quilling designs where the size of the quill matters, use a design guide. You can make your own by cutting the sizes required on a  a thick paper or board or by placing a paper with a drawing of the relevant size circle required, on your work board and placing each coil on it before gluing.
• Use grids for symmetric designs. Place the grid under the polythene and work on the polythene.

Shaping Quills

• Roll the strip of paper leaving a small straight piece at the end.Apply glue with a toothpick and attach the end of the coils leaving a loop. The larger the loop the larger the coil. Allow to unroll after glue dries.
• To get off-centre coils, hold the centre with the fingers and with the other hand hold the sides. Press the centre towards the side while you pull the coil up to form a tear drop.