Architectural Quilling - New York City Skyline

A few years ago I met Allison Patrick via the message board of a New York musician whose songs we both like. We began emailing and soon were talking about our other interests. Allie had tried just about every craft imaginable while growing up... ah, except for quilling. I must have talked it up pretty well because in a matter of days she was experimenting with rolling paper around the tip of needle nose pliers and an open paper clip - that's determination!

When she mentioned she was moving to a new apartment and needed wall art, I remember jokingly telling her she would have to quill something... before I knew it, she was immersed in making this:

What a great concept! By simply rolling a variety of shapes and gluing them into position on matboard, there's no denying that even as a beginner, she'd done an admirable job of quilling the New York City skyline.

Allie explained that she created a line drawing in AutoCAD, printed it out, and attached it to foam core board. Next she wrapped outline pieces around pins that were placed in each corner, and lastly filled in the center.



She went on to do the Eiffel Tower and Seattle's space needle and framed the trio inexpensively, but effectively, with black-painted canvas stretchers.



Now Allie is a busy Columbia architecture student with little time to quill, but over the summer she co-developed Zipper8Design, a line of environmentally friendly, bamboo resin products. I'm looking forward to seeing where her creative mind takes her next!

[Edited to say Allie's new shop is Aster + Quail and she blogs about her latest designs at The 3 Rs.]



On another note, my mother had a serious accident last week. I'm not able to blog as often as I would like right now, but please keep checking back. I have lots more projects, artists, and crafters I'm excited about featuring... meanwhile, thank you for your patience.