Week Forty-One: Peacock

I'm a week late again, and this time I'm not going to try and catch up. My university courses are demanding a lot of me right now, like too much, and if I try to catch up I will compromise the quality of what I am making, and that wasn't the point of this year long quilling challenge. I wanted to make good quality stuff that would improve my skills and give you all some pretty things to look at and for my buyers to take home, so the one per week thing is the only part I'm willing to modify. I won't be catching up, I'll just add an extra week to the end date each time this happens, which could happen a few more times as one of my teachers seems to think that I can simply quit sleeping if I'm having trouble keeping up.

Anyway, moving on to the project! I have made a peacock card before, a very long time ago and it was a very simplistic design, so with this one I went detailed and as real as my paper supply would allow, and I just love him. He's gorgeous, elegant and dignified.

Isn't he magnificent? I just love when an idea in my head actually comes out right on the page.

Here's a little look at him as he was being made, you'll see I started with the head and worked my way down.

There's a zoo not far from by house in which there used to be peacocks that would frequently escape, there was a number of times that I had to stop as I drove past to wait for ones like this to cross the road...I haven't seen any out in a couple of years, I assume they have worked out how to stop this for the safety of the birds,  wouldn't want one to get hurt!

The colours are so vivid, it's wonderful that nature creates these colours, and wonderful that my quilling paper managed to mimic them too!

He took a long time to make, time I didn't have, but he has been a wonderful creative outlet and I'm sure will catch people's eyes at the next market.


See you for week Forty-Two, whenever that turns out to be!

xnata.

Week Thirty-Nine: Dragonflies

So, I'm over a week late, but as no one asked I'm not explaining why, HA!

It seems that plenty of people have been visiting the blog anyway, so that's lovely, nice to know that my little place can hum along on its own without me. Let's get on with it then.


This (or last) week I've used my butterfly technique to make some pretty dragonfly cards.

 

 

 

Anyway, they're cute, I'm in a hurry, I'll be back soon-ish to put up this week's post, so see you then.

 

xnata

Week Thirty-Eight: Ferris Wheel

Those of you from Brisbane will already know why I've chosen to create a Ferris Wheel this week, but for those reading from afar, this week will see the start of the Brisbane Exhibition, otherwise known as the Ekka.

 

The quote came first, and the ferris wheel popped into my head as I read it, and I just had to make it right away. It's actually been made for about a month, but I wanted to save it for the Ekka theme, but it's been hard keeping it a secret!

It won't fit behind glass unfortunately, but personally I think that would reduce the impact of the piece. I love this sooo much, both image and sentiment, I think I might keep the original, but I'm sure I'll make more to sell!

I used plain/metallic scrapbooking paper for the structure of the Ferris wheel and the carriages, then silver quilling paper for the actual wheel, and more quilling paper to edge the carriages and the love heart at the centre of the Wheel.

I wanted the quote to be small and in a simple sort of font, so as to not compete for the initial impact of the quilling.

I went for softer, pastel colours in a bit of a rainbow colour scheme, though I think one with shades of red and pink would also work.

Next week we're going to take a walk in the rain...

Have fun!

xnata.

Week Fourteen: Blog Header

I was looking over my blog last week, and it occured to me that my blog header is a drawing. And I mainly quill on here. Something doesn't make sense there...

So I quilled it!

Well...I quilled what it is in my head, which is apparently slightly wrong, but it's close enough that I'm sure as heck not going to start over. We'll call it artistic expression and move on.

I haven't put it up as the header yet (the thought of trying to fiddle with it to make it fit the space is not one that takes me to a happy place), but here are several photos of it for you to enjoy.

The finished product!

 



 

I might tweak  the colouring before I put it up also, to work with the background (I didn't have just the right shades at my disposal - though I will add that the turquoise edge is a shade of scrapbooking paper called 'rain', which amused me and I had to find some way to include it).

Now, one last thing. It's about to get pretty quiet around here. I start back at uni next week, and due to some confusion between me, the program coordinator and a lecturer, I'm doing 3 courses instead of only two, so I'm going to be crazy busy. I'll still be posting weekly, but don't be surprised if there are very few words to some posts.

xnata