Quilling, keep it rolling!

There are two exciting news that I'm sharing with you all.

No.1
I met local artist Mr Gerald Goh during SBC Biodiversity Day. Mr Goh is also the managing director of Sarakraf. He was invited as one of the judges for the colouring and also pottery colouring contests. His children were with me at the make and take quilling session. While the children were quilling, he was there observing. And he bought a set of quilling tools and some paper supplies from me before he left. He also bought some of my quilling cards. Few days later, he came up with this

A quilled Hornbill. The Hornbill is the symbol of the place that I live in - Sarawak. Sarawak is called the land of Hornbills. So you can see the motifs of hornbills in a lot of our native crafts eg. weaving, wood carving etc. Mr Goh paints with oil paints and acrylic paints. So his creation has some oil painting feeling to it. This is his first piece of quilling work and he didn't even have to sketch before he quill! I guess for some people, it's just in the blood. He told me that he actually quite enjoy the process of rolling, and it's really addictive. He had to forbid himself for bringing it back home (he did the quilling at his centre).

He has also set up a quilling corner in the Colonial Chinese Museum Gallery in his centre. Yeah, those are my quilling cards. Very simple cards but I made them with love.

No 2.
One of my earliest quilling class students is an art student majoring in graphic design. She had chosen paper quilling to work on for her final year project.  Few days ago she told me that her work has been selected for display to public and so I was invited to the exhibition. She actually utilises paper quilling and paper sculpture to illustrate the story of mooncake/mid autumn festival. Furthermore, paper quilling was also incorporated into product packaging design - for the boxes of the mooncakes. 

By the way, we are both admirers of Yulia. Hahaha!
And here's a recent interview of Yulia during her recent and ongoing exhibition in Hong Kong. http://hk.asiatatler.com/culture-lifestyle/arts/interview-yulia-brodskaya
Cheers to quilling!

Note: All the photos were taken with granted permission by the respective artists/quillers. I do not own the artwork copyright of these quillwork.

Quilling with the community

Okay, as promised - the quilled tree created by staffs of Sarawak Biodiversity Centre (that I mentioned in my earlier post) - here it is

Close up view

To give you an idea how tall the tree is

One of the staffs showed me a print of quilled tree they found on the web that inspired them to creating this, I'm not sure whom the quiller is but the design is quite similar to the banyan tree by Suganthi, except that there's no little animals but little red flowers.

Next is a photo of me posing at my booth. I was invited to join the paper art booth featuring origami and quilling. I was given 2 tables, so I used one to display my own work and some supplies whereas the other for the make-n-take activity. I also exhibited the few quilling artwork that I brought back from Hanoi.

And here's the crowd who were attracted by the quilling display. Many of them had never heard of quilling. Some asked me where it originated from, some even asked if I came out with this idea myself, despite the fact that I actually prepared a nice printed intro of quilling. Well, I guess there's too many words. Haha! Although there's a sign saying 'please do not touch', they just couldn't help it. I mean if you haven't been exposed to quilling, it's not easy to believe that the earrings are made from paper strips, or that the sturdy solid basket is made of coils of paper strips. Cameras are of course unavoidable. There's even an middle age uncle from Melbourne, he took a photo of every pieces of quilling work that I displayed on the table. He said he wanna tell his grandchild who loves craft about this paper art.

 

I had fun at the make-n-take section. I had to speak Chinese, English and local Malay languages when teaching different people. There were girls, boys, and adults. Most of the quillers were kids. I noticed kids were more keen to trying something new than adults. We used bamboo skewers and also shredded magazine strips prepared by SBC staffs for the quilling.

For more photos of the make and take session, please see HERE.

Last but not least, I wanted to share this meaningful piece created by the staffs and also the public who came by our origami/quilling booth.

Combining quilling and origami to promote biodiversity awareness - an interactive activity for the public. The quilled map is the map of Malaysia.

Quill quill quill

Alright, this is going to be a little lengthy post as I have 3 things to share.

No.1
I have always wanted to try quill a camera like what Sandy of The Sweet Spot does (you can check out her range of colourful cameras on her blog or her etsy shop). And so I finally did. I quilled a simple card, with a black camera on it for my brother's birthday. He's a photographer, and the quilled version is based on his real Nikon, though simplified.

Can you see the 'protruded' camera lens?

No. 2
My cousin wanted to handmade a special gift for his friend's house-warming party, so he came to me (yes, a 'he') asking if I could help him quill something. So we discussed and I came up with this idea to set the scene as seen in the cartoon 'up'. He suggested some typography quilling to incorporate the name of the couple. And so after about an afternoon and a night, we came up with this (we haven't added the strings that hold the balloons)

My cousin did most of the actual quilling and gluing, I only helped with the ideas, tips and techniques, and of course quilling a little so that he can get it ready on-time. Can you believe he's a first time quiller?  

No.3
I have been invited by Sarawak Biodiversity Centre to their Biodiversity Day this weekend. I'll have a booth selling my quilling supplies (+ some handmade cards), display some of my work, and most importantly to teach public quilling using re-purposed magazine strips. The staffs of the center had created an amazing big quilled tree as centerpiece of our booth using shredded catalog book paper strips. I'll get to see it in person this weekend. Don't worry, I'll snap a few shots and show you guys then. Meanwhile, here's some of the 'recycling or re-purposing' projects that we'll work on.

The hand that rocks the cradle - Happy Mother's Day

The Hand that rocks the Cradle
Is The Hand That Rules The World
Blessings on the hand of women!
Angels guard its strength and grace,
In the palace, cottage, hovel,
Oh, no matter where the place;
Would that never storms assailed it,
Rainbows ever gently curled;
For the hand that rocks the cradle
Is the hand that rules the world.

Infancy's the tender fountain,
Power may with beauty flow,
Mother's first to guide the streamlets,
From them souls unresting grow--
Grow on for the good or evil,
Sunshine streamed or evil hurled;
For the hand that rocks the cradle
Is the hand that rules the world.

Woman, how divine your mission
Here upon our natal sod!
Keep, oh, keep the young heart open
Always to the breath of God!
All true trophies of the ages
Are from mother-love impearled;
For the hand that rocks the cradle
Is the hand that rules the world.

Blessings on the hand of women!
Fathers, sons, and daughters cry,
And the sacred song is mingled
With the worship in the sky--
Mingles where no tempest darkens,
Rainbows evermore are hurled;
For the hand that rocks the cradle
Is the hand that rules the world.
--William Ross Wallace

p/s: I handmade this card and a gift for my mom.  Find out what I made for her HERE.

Melbourne Trip

Was in Melbourne for about 2 weeks. Just some photos to share

Aboriginal Artist exhibition at Melbourne Museum

One of his paintings - the colours are so vibrant

 

Visited the State Library of Victoria

the ceiling of La Trobe reading room (the photo above)

Quilling cards sold at one little stall in Victoria Market

Pop up cards of the same stall

This public art on Yarra River walk reminds me of quilled roses

Found this in one of the exhibition of National Gallery of Victoria

Graffiti - street art in one of the laneways near Flinder's Street

Flinder's Station

Quilled Lotus Card

Something simple

Featured in local newspaper

I just got home from a short break and was delighted to see this

Yes, I'm featured in another local newspaper which has more readers. Unlike my previous interview, this interview focuses more on my personal quilling story - about how I came across quilling, the learning process etc. 

And for the sake of comparison, the following photo is when I first appeared in local newspaper in 2011, introducing quilling.