Quilling

Group project I have organised with my classmates have made me appreciate forms of handmade art – I have always admired them but haven't considered creating them. As I focused more and more on our lessons I found it enjoyable to create ornaments from i.e. scraps of paper; it calmed me down and I felt relaxed during this activity. As a highschool senior and IB student I have been subjected to a lot of stress in previous months, so this kind of relaxation during which I could ease my mind from constant stress, focus only on pieces of paper in my hands and think of nothing was really helpful. That is why, after my quilling classes, I have decided to engage in this activity myself.

Since I have gained a little experience before and during my classes I knew what I was supposed to do. To begin, I have found pictures of ornaments I liked and tried to creat similar shapes.

It is incredible how with paper straps, glue and a few moves of the wrists one can quickly create complex looking ornaments. The best thing about quilling is that you do not have to be constantly focused on what you are doing. I could watch a movie or talk with somebody and in the same time create a great amount of colourful spirals which then were to be parts of snowflakes, stars, flowers and many other interesting shapes.

Despite the good and easy things about quilling I have also encountered some difficulties. Rolling straps of paper into spirals is just the initial part of creating an ornament. Then I have to fold them so they resemble various shapes and connect them together to finish my work. At the beginning it was difficult for me to do some of the folds and it has taken some time after I managed to make them each time properly. Also I need to make sure that the spirals are of similar size if I need to create ornaments with repeated shapes. When I started to use quilling I often forgot to control the size of the spirals and then I was not able to construct a decoration resembling the one from the picture. But with time and with more created ornaments I rarely make these kind of mistakes.

Despite the relaxing effect of quilling on me unfortunately I was not able to focus on this activity recently. Now I hope to return to it and entertain myself with creating ornaments more often.

Learning outcomes:

- Increased awareness of strengths and areas for growth