Hello, my name is Marcela and I have a small business where I make quilling paper jewelry and other creations.
I'm not a highly recognized artist but I get so many compliments about my work... it seems to be very "neat".
This is my second year in the United States and I'm not really sure about what "neat" means, but everybody shows respect for my products.
The funniest part is the big question mark that I can see in people's eyes when they see my work for fisrt time at art events. I always get many questions: paper? paper rolls? how? what is the tool? what about water? ... and the top one question in Mexico and the United States is "how did you learn to do this?".
I'm an expert now, I have been doing this since 2019 and I cant talk a lot about it but, I'll start with the main question.
The first contact I had with paper quilling was on Pinterest. I always like crafts, and I saw a few cards and earrings that were visually attractive to me. Then I went to YouTube and searched for some videos, I cut some paper strips, and I did my first practice.
So yes, I learned on youtube. I never saw quilling paper work in real life until I made mine and, my surprise was that it was really easy for me to do this shapes from the videos.
There was not a lot of videos at that time about paper quilling and something you have to know is that I had never used the quilling paper rolling tool because, since the beginning I did my own.
In Mexico it took at least 20 days to get any packages from china, there was not amazon or another way to get that unusual tool, so my brain did some magic and I just create my tool, I don't know how, that part was so fast, I really needed to roll that paper!.
So, the same day I could figure out the materials in my mind, I proceed to build it as an experiment. I remember I left it the whole night to dry because I needed it to be strong.
When I got the real quilling paper tool from china I realized that mine was better to me for a few reasons that I can show you later on a video.
I have not stop making my tool when I need it.
My tools and other bunch of ways I found to develop my technique through experience are the main reasons why my final product has a unique quality.
That was just the beginning. The first year was really challenging, looking for a way to protect my paper jewelry and fix or avoid some design issues to make them strong. I improved my products by listening to people and kept improving until I felt confident about the results. Customers trust my jewelry since they see it or touch it.
Now I should probably make some videos to share with you the main ideas behind a strong design for paper quilling jewelry and my personal work tips in case you want to do some "neat" stuff but, for now, this is where you can go and see what I am talking about and maybe do some shopping: www.peinadodesigns.com
Thank you.
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