Quilled keepsake RAGUL

Finally after a very long time finished the entire picture.

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Quilled Banyan tree

    Always enjoyed Quilling these trees. This is for a special request from Daphne. The names of the families are to be added to the hanging roots.  These are the two pictures the completed tree and the one after I added the small details of life under the tree and sheltered by the tree. I have made several Banyan trees and most of them are requested by customers who want to gift there mentors. 

   The pictures are taken at different times and I like both . The technique used for the leaves  here is called beehive quilling . 

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Banyan tree quilled

This is a smaller version of my banyan tree. The leaves are made using 5 mm green strips in three shades. The stem is made using four shades of brown hand cup from card stock.

  

Some Customised Quilling.

    I was recently requested to make a card with the sentiments , 'Celebrate' and 'U r Loved' on it. I was also asked to include rainbow colours if possible in the card. I made this almost white on white card with white flowers with rainbow centres. I really love how elegant it turned out!

      This twenty fifth anniversary is customised in purple shades in the exact pattern as  my earlier version . 

This Rosary is another first , Would have never thought of making one if I had not received this request. I used metallic paper for the beads as well as the cross. I painted the cross with a thin coat of pearl gold.

    I have been making a lot of tree it seems this year and this one is very special. I was asked to add the words' Kalpa Vriksha ' or the wish giving tree at the top . I am very fond of this font and took this opportunity to use it. When Nirmala called me to place the order she told me that almost an year ago she had seen my husband at the framers with a quilled tree and that she having not heard of Quilling before had been curious about it. She learnt about my blog from my husband and mailed me when she needed to gift someone a special gift.

   Recently I worked to make a lot of Quilled jewellery sets for a college reunion.  The colours they had chosen were red, black and Gold.  After a lot of though it was decided that the ladies would each receive a Quilled set and the men would each receive a Quilled hanging for their car. You can see the Quilled jewellery I made on my Page . The past many weeks have been very stressful as there was a lot of confusion in this year's seat allotment to the NITs. It included us having to make sudden travel plans to NITs in other states. I took my Quilling along with me and this particular hangings I made on the train, it did attract a lot of attention and I also found some Quilling enthusiasts . But all our confusion has a happy ending , my younger son Akhil is now in NIT Trichy , our home state NIT along with his elder brother.

Thanks for stopping by, Have a creative day.
 

    

Quilled banyan tree

   Last month I was surprised to receive two requests for quilled Banyan tree at about the same time. The first one is the small version, about 17cms X 21cms. The second tree is a 30cms X 30cms. I did not make many changes in the type of little quilled life around the tree. I am happy both the recipients liked the tree a lot and found it more beautiful in person.
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Quilled Banyan tree For St Kevin's School

        Class of 1984 from St Kevin's school are having a reunion today , I was requested to make a gift for their beloved school. The banyan tree was chosen as it fitted with their idea of expressing what each letter of the school stood for them.
        I had secretly wished I will not have to repeat quilling a banyan tree as my first tree turned out perfect and I was afraid my next attempts might fall short. This tree is at least three times as big as my earlier tree and in one place it has three layers of beehives. I used four colours of hand cut heavier paper for the trunk , I also cut them in slightly different widths to give the trunk a more natural texture.
       The letters were the most challenging , I printed them out and got the impression of the letters on the paper and quilled over them. The back ground is white metallic paper, I did not measure the exact size of the work, it is considerably more than A4 size.
     
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Quilled banyan tree.

       A Banyan tree has a special place in Indian believes and myths. Princes are said to have learnt their lessons from their gurus under the shelter of the Banyan tree.  It is considered as a symbol of sacrifice and wisdom. A Banyan tree gives refuge to a whole lot of life forms under its huge protective canopy. 

      Some people are also like the Banyan , in the way they support and enrich a lot of lives during their life time.Dr Gnanasoundari was recently honoured by Vijay T.V with a  life time achievement award for this year's Woman's day. I was requested to make a card for her. The first thing that came to my mind was a Banyan tree. My idea was immediately approved by the president of our woman's wing of our library.

      Dr Gnanasoundari was the first president of our women's wing at our library. It was long before I became a member but I still hear about her influence  and the changes she has brought about in many people's lives. She has motivated many stay at home women to come out and take courageous steps in their personal and social life that she is affectionately called as 'amma' which means mother.

      She started her career as a Gynecologist in the year 1957, Overseeing more than 30,000 deliveries spanning  more than fifty years and three generations of mothers. To fulfill her husband's dream to bring health care to people in rural areas living below poverty line she along with her husband worked to establish Dr Kumaraswami Health Center, A multi speciality Hospital at a place called  Agasteeswaram in Kanyakumari district, with every mordern medical equipment. Even before the hospital started functioning her husband ,Dr Kumaraswami passed away . Carrying her husband's vision forward Dr Gnanasoundari started the hospital in 1998. She became the President of Indian Medical Center and Director of Dr Kumaraswami Health Center and Dr Kumaraswami college of Nursing.She is also the President of Gnanadeepam Matriculation Higher secondary School at Agasteeswaram . Her contribution to health care and education is unprecedented. She is a living legend and continues to inspire many women not by preaching but by being an amazing example of humility , hard work and gentleness.

      I looked at lot of quilled trees on the internet and particularly here on pinterest. . I made a sketch of a banyan tree and then got the impression of the trunk alone on the paper. I cut brown colour card stock for the trunk.

At first I thought of quilling the leaves on the tree individually , later I decided to make chunks of bee hive quilling for branches .

I added some colour in the form of small creatures that live in the shelter of the tree .

A tiny nest with a small bird and egg.
Linking my tree to Wondrous things: spring tree

Thanks for stopping by , Have a creative day.

Quilled peacock

      Me and my sister have always been fascinated by peacock patterns and designs . Quilling a peacock therefore has always been on my mind.. I am visiting my mother and I am with her today on mother's day .  I wanted to gift her something special  .Since my brother bought her an ipad she has been my regular reader. As soon as I post something new she calls me to say how much she liked it and  she also shares it with my father.
    I found a beautiful oil painting of a peacock on the internet and tried to quill mine to look like it.The most difficult part was to make and arrange the feathers. When I first arranged them I couldn't do it in a natural way without a lot of gaps in between the feathers .To make the tail more full, I first made a lot of eccentric circles with 2mm green colour strips and stuck them  together to form a layer and then arranged the feathers over them so that the green strips underneath showed in the gaps and also helped in giving dimension to the tail.
    I used only Pre cut strips and a needle tool ,it is such a joy working with pre cut strips as the finish is so much more fine

     Though now I like big projects , I would like to go back to the comfort of cards and small projects for sometime.I did not get much time to photograph this project,  I was working till the last minute and it had to be taken for framing . This picture I shot in Sunlight .

    It has been a very busy month with me crafting along with my summer English classes at our library, I still have a week of classes and looks like I am already behind in my Arathi plate decorations ,I wonder where time goes.

     Thanks for stopping by, and happy mother's day.

   

     

White on white

         Ever since I started quilling I spend a lot of time searching for quilling ideas and bookmarking them  . I found a page bookmarked long ago but quite forgotten here, I found this beautiful white on white quilled work. I was amazed all over again at how the coils can be shaped into so many ways to give life to strips of paper.
       Every quiller has a different talent and strength and I feel a lot of respect for the ones who can come up with such wonderful ideas.I quilled this and learnt (and enjoyed) some more  quilling. I don't own a single book on quilling, and I am thankful to talented people around the world who share their work and help other people learn the craft .
       Thanks for stopping by.