A castle and some sand

Hello All,

One never really knows when a challenge will come one's way! When this frame order came, the deadline was highly inflexible - ONE WEEK (including courier) and there was no concept whatsoever. Starting from scratch becomes a little hard when you don't even know what to scratch! :D

The starting point finally became the initials of the family this frame goes out to. Their initials make the word SAND. So, sand castles, yay! Since the family is moving and will mostly likely be furnishing a new house soon, sand castle was all the more relevant :) The criterion was that the entire frame be colourful!

When time is short and order complex, beehive always comes to save the day! And since the last time we made a frame, we have acquired this additional expertise of polymer clay. Polymer clay saved the day by being both quick and 3-dimensional. The alphabets were sliced out of black clay and jazzed up with orange. While they baked, a simple castle was outlined using quillography and filled with beehiving. I was extremely lucky with the background paper as I had bought this beach themed paper almost 10 years ago and never did anything with it (talk about hoarding!!!)......

A work in progress photo (the only one that I took, unfortunately!). The alphabets aren't stuck there yet.....

And here it is (after a burnt night!)......

The extra shaded touch is acrylic paints 'rubbed' onto the beehive pattern :)

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........:-)

Two years of Art'zire - A simple tutorial........

Hello All,

Here comes a simple tutorial for quilled studs, that, according to me, look very royal once done :)

Make one strip cones, a simple video is here: Video for Cones

Use head pins (or ball head pins or even eye-pins)

Put them through the wider side of the cone, towards the narrow side and pull completely

Your cones should look like this.....

Now, very gently, start bending the cone down. Go very carefully while doing this because one misstep can lead to the cone opening up completely....

This is roughly how your cone will look after bending

Fill the cone completely with glue (my recommendation is Tacky glue but you can use any resin glue)

Spread it completely on the inside

Let the glue dry completely

I've used teardrop crystals in amber colour (contact A 1 Craft Supplies for these crystals and E6000)

Apply the E6000 glue to the edge of the cone 

Push in the teardrop crystal until it comes to rest comfortably in the cone

Allow E6000 also to dry completely. Paint the outer surface with your choice of colour. I've used Camlin Antique Bronze acrylic colour

On the edge of the cone, glue 1.5 mm rhinestone chain (I've used amber finish) using Tacky Glue/E6000 (for amber chain, contact A1 Craft Supply)

Allow the layer to dry completely

On top of amber, I've used black rhinestone chain

To make the design look coherent, 1 mm ball chain (available with A1 Craft Supply) was used. Allow all the glue to dry properly and your studs are good to go :)

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........:-)

A blog hop with a difference

Hello All,

After a long long break from writing, I am back with a very unique blog hop, where I got involved, thanks to my College classmate and an avid crafter, Kripa Koushik. The number of years I've known her can't be counted on the fingers on our hands! We did Graduation together and then, recently got back in touch through the world of crafts.

She works magic with her mixed media layouts, and unlike me, cards! She has a distinct style, which often begs careful examination, for there are so many tiny details that add up to the big picture :)

I agreed to be a part of this hop because of the different format! This hop actually helps us all get to know each other better, as people and as crafters.............idiosyncrasies included! :D

More about me:

1. What am I working on?

A lot of things, like always. Quilled jewellery is something that always adorns my table. In addition, there are a couple of frames in various stages of non-completion. I just finished this jewellery piece (which took quite a bit of time, split over 3 days, to make). This is my attempt at recreating the ancient jewellery making technique - Thewa

2. How does my work differ from others of its genre?

I don't know if there is a lot of difference between the work I do and the others do, but I try to play by my strengths, namely, free-hand drawing and an understanding of the chemistry of the materials. The combinations of materials become a lot easier to devise once you know how they work in tandem. I try to exploit that information to get better at my work.

3. Why do I write/create what I do?

The simple answer is: Because that's what I can see myself doing day after day, for years to come. My husband once asked me: Where do you see yourself five years from now, and the only vision that I could come up with was: In a giant craft workshop, doling out really good craft pieces. I craft, because I live for it :)

4. How does your writing/creating process work?

This is a complex question to answer. Most times, the most difficult/tricky part is to come up with an idea. Often, ideas strike seeing something completely unrelated. And sometimes, something similar sparks an incremental idea. Often, it is the craft material itself that makes me think about how I can use it in a different way. 

Once the idea is in place, the first thing I do is a strength test. In my mind, I run through the process of creating it (earlier, I used to draw them but with experience, I am able to visualize them now). On the way, I look for loopholes like a hawk. I've an almost manic obsession with sturdiness. If my work is not sturdy, I take it as a  personal insult. So, making designs sturdy or devising processes to introduce sturdiness is what comes next. Often, I modify the design/idea to keep strength a priority. Once the process is clear in my head, I start with the actual execution. There have been rare times when I have been stumped by hurdles (largely, because of lacunae in my information database) but mostly, I've been able to foresee mistakes. If some mistakes get the better of me, I restart the whole process, subtracting the mistake.

I'll give one example. There was this one time I was making a yellow jhumka and no matter what I did, the yellow colour kept "leaking". It'd separate into a pale yellow part and dusty brown part. It took me 4 trials to figure out that it was the problem with the yellow paint (which I figured out after trying three different and top-of-the-notch brands) and the 4-step process finally because 7-step process to eliminate this pigment separation. 

To pass this baton on, I choose two of my favourite crafters: Manuela Koosch and Cecelia Louie.

Although neither of them need any introduction to crafters and quillers alike, I'll go ahead and introduce them (pardon me if I sound like a star struck teenager, but both these women are my role models!)

Manuela (or Manu, as I call her) is a crafter with superlative capability to transform the mundane to magic and if you think I am exaggerating, drop by to www.manuk.ro and see for yourself :)

Cecelia redefines "Design isn't when you can't add anything more, it is when you can't take anything away". She gives simplicity an elevation the way I haven't seen anyone do. Minimum talks maximum is a quote written for her.

Happy Hopping and thank you for dropping by!

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........:-)

Vrrroooom vrrroooom...........

Hello All,

A very quick post (while I nurse myself back to health) about a very interesting and different frame I got around to doing :)

Profile: A car lover's B'day, and he has a long name :D

So, I got to work. When I got this order, I had a very different idea in my mind. But when I aligned that idea on the frame, it just wouldn't work out properly. So, I had to abandon that and start afresh. And this is where I landed up! :)

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........:-)

Hobby Mela Tutorial Video

Hello Everyone,

When Avani called me for a video interview, it sounded too good to be true..........and when she did turn up on my doorstep, it was wonderful! :D Making tutorial videos is hard work, there is loads of planning that goes into it. Avani has worked very hard at editing this video and boy! Am I thankful or what :)

She has done a terrific job with the speeding up parts and the clipping as well......thank you from the bottom of my heart Avani :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o22KAGmQVx4

Some snapshots.............

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........:-)

Bead Soutache Jewellery Tutorial on Hobby Mela

Hello All,

Bead soutache is a jewellery form that has fascinated Art'zire for a while, so I decided to develop my own version of it, thanks to the unavailability of soutache cords in India........

For the curious ones, the soutache type jewellery I made looks like this:

And don't let that complexity scare you! These are rather simple to make..........don't believe us? Here is the video tutorial for it :) [The tutorial for the paper "base" is HERE]

VIDEO

Blogger just won't embed the video, so I'm providing only the link! Apologies for that.........

I want to thanks Avani Shah and Hobby Mela, for giving us this opportunity.......

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........:-)

Interview with Artistoreel

Hello All,

When I was approached by Shweta Duseja for an interview on her website Artistoreel, I really thought she was pulling my leg. But the sincerity in the follow-up mails was unmistakeable and here we go, an interview with Jyoti Sharma, one I thoroughly enjoyed writing.............more or less an insight into my mind and history of my becoming a quiller :)

Artistoreel Interview

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........:-)

Send your quillography frames safely - Tutorial

Hello All,

I am sure all of us face it at one time or the other.............how to send our lovingly crafted quillographed frames safely? It is obviously safer to send them inside a frame but that poses the great and often confirmed danger of the glass breaking. Acrylic framing leads to opacity over time. Also, glass framing increases both the weight and the volume of the frame substantially and it can be a crippling number as far as International parcels are concerned. So, Priyanka and I once brainstormed about it and after discussions with Richa, we came up with a solution that worked beautifully for us.

Here is a tutorial on how you could possibly do it......this is merely an indicative tutorial, you might need to improvize according to what you intend to send.

When I made this frame and needed to send it to Singapore, the challenge was to pack it with minimum weight and volume gain......

What you will basically need is TWO boards of the same size. This is a precaution you'll need to take from the very beginning. On one of the boards, you make the pattern and use the other board as the guard. You should create "spacers" of a width more than that of the quillography part. I have quilled with 4 mm strips and the width of the spacers is 10 mm. 

The spacers are TIGHT COILS made using 10 mm quilling strips

A representative layout is here:

And this is how it will be in reality:

On the right hand side is the frame (wrapped in cling wrap for protecting it from dust) and left side is a blank board with the "spacers" (10 mm blacks). 

After you bring the two boards together, wrap them together tightly using bubble wrap and newspaper to prevent their movement against each other. Adding spacers in the middle of the board can be a bit tricky, make sure you place them carefully before adding the second board from top.

Hope it helps you all :)

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........:-)

Quilled Name Plate - Sharon and Mårten

Hello All,

After almost a week of now-on, now-off work on this name plate, here it is, in all it's glory :) [Size: 22" x 14"]

Some details and WIP photos :)

And then, an insect decided to inspect my quilling ;) 

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........:-)