It all started with these dollhouse-scale quilled bowls, plates, and urns. Note the size markings on my cutting pad in all these photos–some bowls are tiny, some are more “life size.”
Once I learned the technique, I expanded on it by devising a way to make an oval (green). I also learned that getting to a surface that truly replicates glazed pottery takes many, many rounds of sanding and coating. The blue shallow bowl, my favorite, took a month of repeating this process almost every day.
My first larger piece was this purple shallow bowl. After many rounds of sanding and coating I grew weary of it. So it’s shiny, but the surface is not truly smooth. I was not sure that this shape would have much utility, and I wanted to go deeper and bigger.
To make an oval base, I create two small discs and several smaller discs. I glue the two large one together, then glue in the smaller rolls to fill the gaps. When it’s all dry, I use this as the “form” for the base, creating an oblong shape instead of a round one.
I like the color palette of the orange bowl, and the way it transitions from light to dark as it grows.
I’m partial to blue, so the blue bowl is one of my favorites. It’s about five inches across at the top. It’s had a lot of rounds of sanding and coating, but there’s still room for more due to my sloppy shaping.
I’m much happier with the shaping, and therefore the surface, of the brown bowl. Even though brown isn’t a favorite color scheme.
Why make things in colors I don’t love? I buy bulk packages of multicolor packages of quilling strips. The brown bowl is made up of the range of cream to dark brown that comes in the “Brown” package from that particular maker.
The black bowl falls somewhere in between the miniatures and the full size bowls. It’s about three inches across at the top, and it’s found a home on my desk holding small odds and ends so they don’t vanish in the clutter.
Boats
With a top similar to Venice, with the sun shining down through a ring of clouds, America’s Cup celebrates the oldest competition in sports. The hardest part of this unlighted piece was holding the boats at the proper angle while the artificial water dried.
I’m contemplating plenty of other sailing themed projects.
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