Karon asked me to share a few hints about quilled jewellery making, so here goes:
A great book to get you started is Malinda Johnston’s ‘Paper Quilling - beautiful paper filigree to make in a weekend’ in the Weekend Crafter series (the publisher’s website is www.larkbooks.com ). Malinda has a chapter on jewellery-making with some nice patterns for brooches and earrings - this is what first inspired me to have a go!
To make any kind of jewellery, you need to get some ‘findings’ which means the earring wires, metal jump rings (for connecting things together) and brooch pins etc. I have found eBay to be the most economical source for these. A lot of people are sensitive to certain metals, especially nickel, so I usually try to buy silver plated earring wires which are less likely to cause an allergic reaction when they are worn.
For jump rings, it’s best to buy the ‘open’ kind which have a split in them that can be gently eased apart and reconnected with tweezers in order to attach a quilled item. When working with 3mm quilling strips, you need a ring diameter of at least 7mm otherwise it’s almost impossible to insert the quilling and re-close the ring without crushing your work!
Also on the subject of jump rings, I find that ‘thin’ ones where the gauge of the metal wire is less than 1mm are best because they are much easier to pull open and closed than those made from thicker gauge metal.
Don’t ever buy jump rings which are described as ‘split rings’ because these are like little mini key rings and it’s impossible to attach quillings to them!
When it comes to designs, you can just let your imagination run riot! I’ve made earrings out of tight and loose coils, teardrops, huskings, heart-shaped scrolls - you name it!! But it’s worth bearing in mind the robustness of the finished piece: tight coils are obviously stronger than loose ones, and eccentric coils are stronger at one end and therefore more suitable for attaching things to if you are layering your work.
Every earring design needs some kind of opening through which a jump ring can be threaded. The jump ring is then attached to the loop on the base of an earring wire. With open coil designs you can often thread a jump ring directly through them, but I prefer to create a little paper ring attached to the top of the design using a short length of quilling strip. (See my earrings in the gallery for examples.)
To make these rings, I simply wind the strip around a plastic quilling tool like the one in this picture:
http://i38.servimg.com/u/f38/15/48/60/78/dscf3613.jpg
This type of quilling tool has a useful ridge half way along which you can wind against to make your ring. Wind one complete turn, add a spot of glue, then continue winding until you’ve got a neat little ring. Remember to keep the tension as you wind, and fasten the end with another spot of glue. Slide the ring off the tool, level the edges if necessary and it’s ready for attaching to the top of an earring motif.
If you mount your ring at right angles to the actual earring motif, you’ll only need one jump ring for attaching to the earring wire in order for the earring to hang face-forward. Try doing it the other way, and you’ll see what I mean - you would then need a second jump ring.
Before attaching your quillings to the jump ring and earring wires, you need to strengthen them as much as possible so that they are durable and shower-proof. I brush them all around the outside edges with PVA glue, and also put a good coating of glue on all sides of the quilled attaching ring. Then, once the glue is dry, I spray each quilling on both sides with a good covering of varnish, and leave them hanging up to dry on little hooks (e.g. opened-out paper clips) for a few hours before adding the jump rings and attaching them to the wires.
When making brooches or hair slides, I attach quillings to the pins/slides using super glue.
That’s it ... then just have fun wearing your earrings (they’re light as a feather!), give them away as presents or have a go at selling them! People seem to love quilled earrings because they are so different!
Home 
