Ty Wilson-inspired Quilling

Perhaps you're familiar with the romantic illustrations of artist Ty Wilson. I was introduced to his wonderfully spare and sophisticated line drawings via my quilling friend Nandini Rao of Dubai, U.A.E.

She had come across Ty's work online, recognized how perfectly it would translate to on-edge paper design, and wrote to ask if she might replicate some of his art with narrow strips of paper. Permission granted, Nandini has enjoyed creating a series of romantic works that are for her own enjoyment; not to sell.

She uses fairly stiff 1/8 inch black paper strips to create the outlines and 1/16 inch red strips to make the folded roses. I asked Nandini about her method for gluing on-edge paper, as tried-and-true tips are always happily received.

She lightly embosses a design and then goes over the indented line a little at a time with a blunt needle that has been dipped in glue. It's very slow work, but Nandini is careful to use the smallest amount so there is no shiny trail once the glue dries. If an extra small strip needs to be adhered, she holds it with tweezers, dips it in a shallow glue puddle, taps it once or twice to make sure there is no excess, and places it into position.

Nandini got into quilling by chance after coming upon a book by Trees Tra and Malinda Johnston at her local bookstore. Her then four year old daughter was on a school break and Nandini needed a project they could work on together. Later she searched quilling online, found the Yahoo quillers group, and has never looked back.... those of us who have been down the same path know how addictive quilling can be!

Nandini blogs at Dream Scapes and posted more about her Ty-inspired work here.