Friday, December 28, 2012

Indian Quilling History



Hello All,

Here I am, facing a question I truly don't know the answer to! And for a change, I am posting it online, hoping that my Indian quiller friends will pitch in with whatever information they have.

I received an interesting e-mail from someone who wishes to write about history of quilling in India. As luck would have it, there doesn't seem to be any consolidated link giving information about this. Or, I didn't find any, so to say.

So, I am taking it upon myself to gather as much information as I can about it, so that we can compile information about:


  • When did quilling come to India?
  • What were the materials being used earlier?
  • Who were the people practising it initially (nuns in Churches used to practice it in Europe/USA)?
  • Where does it stand now, as an art and as a profession?
  • How many professional quillers are there in India currently?
  • Is there a formal body that meets/interacts regarding quilling and its future in India?
If you're a quiller, I'd request you to answer these questions:


  1. When did you start quilling?
  2. What/Who introduced you to quilling?
  3. Did you learn about it from a physical piece seen in India or online?
  4. Who all do you know from India who did quilling before you started out?

If we are lucky, we will be able to go back in time and trace who were the first people who started quilling in India and when :)

I'd be VERY glad for any inputs any of you may provide for this...........

Thanks a LOT!


Happy Quilling

Pritesh 

Monday, December 24, 2012

A quilled picture frame - worth a million words

Hello All,

After a big gap, I am back. It has been a manic busy time! And a GOOD manic busy time. After a spurt of illnesses (yet again!), I am back full throttle and making a comeback with  this project that has kept me sleepless for more than a few days :D

The sheer size of the project was a challenge! At 16 inches by 20, it was a "task" to fill this up without clutter or without glaring open spaces, and yet retain the "completeness" look. I pulled it off, or rather, so I think!

Here it goes, a picture frame, made memorable with quilling and punch-craft. I'd like thank the client for having such a clear idea about what she exactly wanted. It makes my life much easier :)


And some close-ups, for details of the amount of work that went in to it.......






Happy Quilling

Pritesh

PS: If my posts inspire you to create something on similar lines, I feel highly flattered. But please, do respect the effort I take in conceptualizing and executing, please give a direct link to my work when you are inspired by mine. Thanks for understanding........:-)

Monday, December 10, 2012

Love to Kyoto

Hello All,

I have been unnaturally silent for a long time but Pune weather decided to be a pendulum between summer and winter and illness took a tight hold of our family. Now that nearly everyone is on recovery path, here comes a long pending post.

Someone said, I like the swooshing sounds deadlines make when they go past you! I must admit, I hate that sound and true enough, there was a pushed in the corner situation here. For past 2 days, I've alientated nearly everything and been working exclusively on the second half of the assignment.

It all started one fine evening when a very soft spoke Japanese gentleman paid me a visit. I couldn't hide my surprised but well, he had seen the sign boards we had delivered to Beaute Naturelle and wanted something on those lines. A brief talk ensued and within an hour and a half, I knew pretty clearly what he wanted. Work started, got stalled, thanks to illnesses. But well, about 1 day shy of the deadline, I've managed to wrap it up! Now, I know what the expression "My blood and sweat went into this" means! :D :D I've been up late nights, early mornings, skipping afternoon naps and working on these pretty much non-stop.

So, here goes:

Musical Tree: The wife of the gentleman who came to see me is a Music teacher and she employs a unique method called Eurhythmics to teach piano to children. Music holds such a sacred part in my life that I was all ears. I must confess, I'd never heard of Eurhythmics before and had to Google it. The name of the school she runs is Music Tree and the gentleman wished something quilled along those lines.

I was honestly at a loss about that but he solved my problem. He provided me with 7 choices (I love it when I can choose!) and well, I was idiotic enough to choose the most difficult of the choices he gave. So, here goes, the Musical tree. The total working time in the piece is close to 24 hrs of work alone. I faced a question about whether I painted the background for the tree 'stem'. Answer is no. I've hand-cut that paper, pasted it on a hand-made blue shimmer paper and then, quilled on it. The original idea was to make the entire tree black but it looked almost ominous that way. I wish I'd saved a photo of that. So, I decided to fill in colours. The G clefs had to stand out, so they automatically were assigned red (ah, I can never let go of my favourite colour, can I?). The leaves were an obvious green. The notes, however, took some work. I settled for red as my husband said, the notes are the cherries on the tree :) A Cherry tree to send to Japan? OH YES! :) So, that is how the colour scheme worked out. The background alone took about 1.5 hrs to prepare. There is a white base to the hand-made paper as the blue paper is quite translucent. So, a double layer background, with drying time and then, allowing the board to straighten out. Phew!

This project nearly killed me but as they say, you can't enjoy water if you haven't a parched throat. And I nearly walked a desert country reaching THIS water! :) Worth it in the end! The project stands 18"x18" - minus the frame.



AND

Attitude towards Sustainability. This project's text was the toughest I've handles so far. It just went on and on! The words were long, the font tricky! It took almost 10 hrs to just do the text. I am almost swearing to never touch this font again! :D :D

The ladybirds in the project are quilled but the leaves as a merger of punching, paper-cutting and 3D outliner (the MOST useful piece of knick knack any crafter should have, in my opinion!). The leaves are punched with hand-drawn veins and distressed edges (I am swearing off distressing as well!). The 'stems' are spirals in brown and the 'berries' are styrofoam balls in peach colour. The flowers are modified daisy punch with a 3D outliner core. The project stands 12"x18" - minus the frame.


And a rare one here, me with the finished projects (will give you an idea how massive these ones truly are)



Well, now that this hurdle is cleared off, we (as in Aadyaa Originals) gear up for our stall at the Pune Wine Festival, the first Wine Tasting experience in India. So, drop by and check out what all Aadyaa has to offer :)

Till the next challenge excites me, I'll sign off. Hopefully, I'll be back with something challenging and striking soon :)

Happy Quilling

Pritesh

PS: If my posts inspire you to create something on similar lines, I feel highly flattered. But please, do respect the effort I take in conceptualizing and executing, please give a direct link to my work when you are inspired by mine. Thanks for understanding........:-)