Quilled African lady - with tutorial

My latest work…silhouette of an African lady. On my trip to East Africa a few years ago I was struck by the lovely colours and jewellery they wore. I’ve been wanting to work on a project that would portray both and here it is!  

I first did a sketch of the picture I wanted to work on and cut it out so I had just the bust (see the 3rd pix) 

Then using the cut-out I did the outline of the face and body on  black background. I used a toothpick to put the glue on one edge and then held it in place for a few seconds (counting to 20 usually works!) 

Worked on the turban using the comb husking method and placed them with pins. I put them in sets of four. When I was satisfied with the look I glued the four husked pieces together and wrapped them with yellow strips.  It took some trial and error because I had to keep changing the positions of the pieces to try and make it look like the folds of a turban. 

Then made the individual pieces of jewellery  and glued them all on the black ground. Voila! 

Below is what my cut-out looked like after I had finished...notice the many pin holes from moving around the bits until I was happy with the look :) 

Please feel free to leave a comment and visit/like my facebook page here

If you need any help with your work please do ask and I will be happy to try and help. 

Quilled Lampshade

I love working with and upcycling lampshades and am constantly changing the look of my table lamp with shades that I make. 

This is my last shade which I made from a planet poster 

I've been wanting to combine this hobby with quilling so when I got tired of it I decided to experiment - again! Here's what I came up with: 

I used the inside bits from my old ^ lampshade and created the 'new' shade with ivory card-stock that I had sitting around. The ‘window’ is waxed paper from my kitchen. I used the old shape to make sure the wax paper stayed curved. 

I also laid out the flower arrangements to my liking and to the size that the window was going to be. Then took pictures so I wouldn’t forget! (Yea I do that sometimes :) ) 

Feel free to leave your comments and check out my facebook page here to see how my shade has evolved over time.