Quilled Decagram

Since I've started selling at the Handmade Showroom, I've enjoyed coming up with different quilled art designs. I just finished gluing down the final circles in this Quilled Decagram.

In October, I made a eight pointed star, do I thought I would tackle a ten pointed star, a decagram.

I started with an outside. Each bend of the star was outlined with a dark blue quilled strip that was measured and hand cut to size.

Once that dried and set, I made the filling. I made 33 red loose coils, 33 tight red coils, 33 loose orange coils, 33 tight orange coils, 33 yellow loose coils, and you guessed it, 33 yellow tight coils.  This gaves the piece a total of 99 tight coils and 99 loose coils*.

Here they are pictured in a fun designed I placed them in while I was making them on my desk. And it has given me an idea for the next quilled project!

Originally I made green triangles for the center, but my family (and the online community) was so so on the idea. That is why there are green triangles in the heart above. Here is the original design. (Bonus tip - the dark blue circles were made by wrapping a strip around my quilling tool and then gluing down.) Here is everything before anything is glued in.

Since then I've decided to remove the green and add a flower to the center for a warmer feeling. The body of the flower is 3 dimensional, which makes it look really exceptional in the shadow box. To make the flower, I started with a small strip of red and a precut strip of pink.

I quilled my red into a tight coil and keep it on my tool, then added the pink, gluing down at the joint. I then coiled the pink, and taking off both from my tool before the final gluing. I took the circle you can see in the middle of the photo above and glued the flower inside that to give it stability. (Bonus tip - I created that solid blue circle originally by wrapping my paper around my glue bottle.)

I've set up another informal online poll on my Instagram account to see if people like the pink flower. Some have suggested leaving it off.

I have a few days to decide before I take it into Seattle for sale. I've finally found a perfect white frame for it and have taught myself how to mat cut so I can do my own framing at home.

*99 is a significant number in Islam as it's the number of names that God posses.  I've been doing a number of 99 projects lately that you should check out.