Quilling
Techniques & Inspirations
By Jane Jenkins

     Quilling, the art of paper filigree which involves rolling paper strips into intricate designs, has been around since the days of the pyramids, according to some sources. It is inexpensive, endlessly fascinating and suitable for people of most ages. If you want to try your hand at it, this well-illustrated primer seems to be a good place to start. The author’s tremendous enthusiasm comes bubbling over all over the place and certainly spurred me on to blow the dust off my quilling set and do some more, and I think it would have a similar effect on a beginner. Two other things stand out in this book as being excellent: firstly, the superbly detailed photographs showing how to make the various shapes (and just about all of them are covered, something which not all books do) and secondly, the projects themselves are genuinely attractive. There aren’t that many of them, and it helps if you like flowers, but they are all pretty and professional in appearance. This is not a book for those who love cute designs but since there is so much already on the market for this taste, this counts in the book’s favour for being different!

     To its detriment, the two projects alluded to on the reverse (a bird of prey and a fantasy wizard) are not among those for which there are instructions, but they are merely in the gallery. An expert quiller could reproduce them with a fair bit of careful planning but this is not who the book is aimed at, so it is a pity that these two rather splendid designs are not included. At least one more masculine subject for a male card would have been a good inclusion and assured that this very pretty book had a different flavor. This aside, this book is remarkable for the truly excellent chapters on how to make the coils and filigrees, although if you can quill with just your fingers you are certainly better than me and a number of other experts…

     One bonus about Search Press books is that you can write them for a list of stockists (although these are generally in the UK) or visit their website at www.searchpress.com and read it from there.