No matter how many times I quill, I always feel like the final step when all of the pieces are assembled is magic. A stack of paper becomes a book.
Paper becomes a fern.
Of course, it's not really magic as I spend hours--sometimes days--making the parts for a quilled piece, but I still love it when the piece finally comes together.
Here are a few pictures showing how I made the ferns for Just a Worm:
My quilling usually starts with a walk around my garden or neighborhood. There are several lovely gardens in Columbia, SC, where I live. I look for interesting textures, colors, and shapes. If I see something I like, I try to take a picture on my phone. If the plant is in my yard, I'll often pick a few pieces, which I will then dissect and photograph or press. I supplement the flowers I grow and find with flowers from a local flower farm, Boone Fox Farm.
For the ferns in Worm, I was inspired by these ferns I saw on a walk:
Isn't the color and texture gorgeous?
I then looked for paper in a similar color and selected this green, which I thought captured some of the vibrancy of the ferns.
I cut the paper into strips, shaped it, and used it to create fern fronds.
Finally, I glued the fronds to paper stems and added some paper roots.
Here is a final quilled paper fern:
Can you spot a quilled fern on the cover of Just a Worm?
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