Quilling is thrilling
SPECIAL TO THE POST-DISPATCH
03/10/2006
Lois Lenz is a quick study.
There's never been a project she hasn't been willing to try her hand at. That's how she got into quilling.
Lenz, of Florissant, had just opened a shop in the Myers' House Barn in Florissant in 1978 when a customer started her on the quilling path.
"This gal came in with an invitation and wanted to know if I quilled invitations," Lenz says. "At that time I was hungry for any money, so I said, 'Sure.' "
The truth was Lenz had never quilled, but she figured she could - if only she knew what it was.
On the way home that evening, Lenz stopped by the library where she learned that .....
.....quilling is an old craft dating back to the 17th century. Italian nuns wound paper strips around a quill, then formed them into flowers, leaves and other shapes to make ornate designs and pictures and glued them on religious plaques as adornments.
"It's more or less a lost art," Lenz says. "It's one of the oldest art forms." She also learned that at the time there were only about eight people in St. Louis who could quill.
Lenz didn't even bother to check the book out of the library. She just jotted down some notes, made some sketches and "dashed to the old Ben Franklin" to pick up supplies.
"The rest is history," she says with a laugh. Soon she was quilling 10 to 20 invitations a week. Her work has gone to Italy, Ireland, France, Saudi Arabia and Canada and everywhere in the U.S. except New Hampshire, Oregon and the District of Columbia. Through the years, she's quilled baby announcements, wedding anniversary invitations, graduation invitations, ornaments, party favors, greeting cards and place cards. She uses special pre-cut paper to make her designs, but if she doesn't have the color her customer wants, she will cut her own.
Although Lenz retired a couple of years ago, her former customers seek her out to quill wedding invitations, which she decorates with flowers, leaves and other designs and trims with ribbons and dried flowers for a keepsake that's a unique gift.
"My old customers refound me and refuse to allow my quilling tool to gather any cobwebs," she says. "Thank you, guys."
Lenz, who worked as a commercial artist before she married and had children, made up her own designs from the beginning. "They've got a lot of books with designs but I think you should use this," she says, pointing to her head. "You get your own flair." For her, it's a free-form design for each project.
Recalling the way her mother made her "practice and rip, practice and rip" when she was learning to sew, Lenz says the same idea applies to quilling. "Patience and practice make for perfection," she says. "In time, I could quill with my eyes shut."
Quilled invitations are "all similar but different," she says. "You just can't put two different invitations in the same design. You've got to feel it."
For wedding invitations, she prefers to use shades of white with "touches of the wedding colors keeping in the pure, sacred feel of a wedding," she says. She advocates using the wedding colors sparingly "or else they (the quilled invitation) will wind up in a drawer through the years as decorating colors within the home change."
Lenz has always been skilled at teaching herself anything she needs to know. When she had her shop, she made barn-wood plaques, birdhouses and furniture by wielding a mean jigsaw. She's also been known to mix cement, install custom shelving she designed herself and build cabinets.
She acquired her fearlessness in trying new activities at her mother's knee.
"My mother could do anything," Lenz says. "She was an 'instrument baby' (a forceps delivery), and when she was born, they never bothered to put that little arm back into its socket. Everybody called her a cripple, but there wasn't anything that woman couldn't do."
Her mother made cabinets and furniture, upholstered, sewed all of her children's - and later her grandchildren's - clothes, and she was an excellent cook and baker, Lenz says.
"She was bound and determined to do whatever she set her mind to, and she told us, 'I don't want to ever hear you say you can't do something,' " Lenz says.
Lenz' father never seemed to mind that his wife was handy at skills husbands usually had, she says.
"He'd be her little go-for and maybe he'd help when she was working on a project by cutting out different lengths of wood for her," Lenz says.
When Lenz's parents moved to the country after they retired, Lenz's mother decided they would build a three-car garage. "They did it all by themselves with the aid of their little World War II jeep," Lenz says.
Both of her parents died at age 88, her father a couple of years before her mother, she says.
"Of course, after he died, she kind of lost interest," Lenz says. "But she was still trying to teach me things. She said, 'I hope before I die I can teach you everything I know.' At the last minute she taught me how to upholster. It got to the point where she couldn't get out of the wheelchair, but she sat there and talked me through different things, especially that upholstery. 'Now Lois, do it right,' she'd say."
Lenz still takes orders for quilled items. She can be reached at 314-838-4023.
_______________________________
Want to give it a try?
Quilling makes a great pastime. The supplies are relatively inexpensive and are easy to store.
Once you master the technique, you can even wind the paper while watching television. And quilled items make great gifts.
Lois Lenz has a few tips for you:
- You can use a quill, a hat pin or a slotted quilling tool to wind the paper. Experiment to find which works best for you.
- If you decide to cut your own paper, cut with the grain or the paper won't roll smoothly, Lenz says. Commercial paper has a no-grain quality, she adds.
- Quilling tools and paper for this ancient art can be hard to find. Lenz says she gets her supplies at ArtMart and Hobby Lobby.
- Experiment. You don't know what kind of designs you can come up with until you try. "I used to tell my students, 'Never ever use a pattern - even if it's the first time. Make your own pattern. That's the only way that anybody can tell that that's you.' Anybody can copy."
- Remember: Patience and practice make perfection.
Lenz likes to tell about the Cub Scouts she once taught to make quilled Christmas cards for their parents. She cautioned them not to copy from each other but to come up with their own designs. The boys took her instructions very seriously, and Lenz was very impressed by their creativity. And there wasn't a trace of extra glue anywhere, she says.
Remembering the Scouts' enthusiasm Lenz encourages everyone to give quilling a try. You never know who might be interested in trying something different, she says.
By Kathie Sutin
"It's more or less a lost art," Lenz says. "It's one of the oldest art forms." She also learned that at the time there were only about eight people in St. Louis who could quill.
Lenz didn't even bother to check the book out of the library. She just jotted down some notes, made some sketches and "dashed to the old Ben Franklin" to pick up supplies.
"The rest is history," she says with a laugh. Soon she was quilling 10 to 20 invitations a week. Her work has gone to Italy, Ireland, France, Saudi Arabia and Canada and everywhere in the U.S. except New Hampshire, Oregon and the District of Columbia. Through the years, she's quilled baby announcements, wedding anniversary invitations, graduation invitations, ornaments, party favors, greeting cards and place cards. She uses special pre-cut paper to make her designs, but if she doesn't have the color her customer wants, she will cut her own.
Although Lenz retired a couple of years ago, her former customers seek her out to quill wedding invitations, which she decorates with flowers, leaves and other designs and trims with ribbons and dried flowers for a keepsake that's a unique gift.
"My old customers refound me and refuse to allow my quilling tool to gather any cobwebs," she says. "Thank you, guys."
Lenz, who worked as a commercial artist before she married and had children, made up her own designs from the beginning. "They've got a lot of books with designs but I think you should use this," she says, pointing to her head. "You get your own flair." For her, it's a free-form design for each project.
Recalling the way her mother made her "practice and rip, practice and rip" when she was learning to sew, Lenz says the same idea applies to quilling. "Patience and practice make for perfection," she says. "In time, I could quill with my eyes shut."
Quilled invitations are "all similar but different," she says. "You just can't put two different invitations in the same design. You've got to feel it."
For wedding invitations, she prefers to use shades of white with "touches of the wedding colors keeping in the pure, sacred feel of a wedding," she says. She advocates using the wedding colors sparingly "or else they (the quilled invitation) will wind up in a drawer through the years as decorating colors within the home change."
Lenz has always been skilled at teaching herself anything she needs to know. When she had her shop, she made barn-wood plaques, birdhouses and furniture by wielding a mean jigsaw. She's also been known to mix cement, install custom shelving she designed herself and build cabinets.
She acquired her fearlessness in trying new activities at her mother's knee.
"My mother could do anything," Lenz says. "She was an 'instrument baby' (a forceps delivery), and when she was born, they never bothered to put that little arm back into its socket. Everybody called her a cripple, but there wasn't anything that woman couldn't do."
Her mother made cabinets and furniture, upholstered, sewed all of her children's - and later her grandchildren's - clothes, and she was an excellent cook and baker, Lenz says.
"She was bound and determined to do whatever she set her mind to, and she told us, 'I don't want to ever hear you say you can't do something,' " Lenz says.
Lenz' father never seemed to mind that his wife was handy at skills husbands usually had, she says.
"He'd be her little go-for and maybe he'd help when she was working on a project by cutting out different lengths of wood for her," Lenz says.
When Lenz's parents moved to the country after they retired, Lenz's mother decided they would build a three-car garage. "They did it all by themselves with the aid of their little World War II jeep," Lenz says.
Both of her parents died at age 88, her father a couple of years before her mother, she says.
"Of course, after he died, she kind of lost interest," Lenz says. "But she was still trying to teach me things. She said, 'I hope before I die I can teach you everything I know.' At the last minute she taught me how to upholster. It got to the point where she couldn't get out of the wheelchair, but she sat there and talked me through different things, especially that upholstery. 'Now Lois, do it right,' she'd say."
Lenz still takes orders for quilled items. She can be reached at 314-838-4023.
_______________________________
Want to give it a try?
Quilling makes a great pastime. The supplies are relatively inexpensive and are easy to store.
Once you master the technique, you can even wind the paper while watching television. And quilled items make great gifts.
Lois Lenz has a few tips for you:
- You can use a quill, a hat pin or a slotted quilling tool to wind the paper. Experiment to find which works best for you.
- If you decide to cut your own paper, cut with the grain or the paper won't roll smoothly, Lenz says. Commercial paper has a no-grain quality, she adds.
- Quilling tools and paper for this ancient art can be hard to find. Lenz says she gets her supplies at ArtMart and Hobby Lobby.
- Experiment. You don't know what kind of designs you can come up with until you try. "I used to tell my students, 'Never ever use a pattern - even if it's the first time. Make your own pattern. That's the only way that anybody can tell that that's you.' Anybody can copy."
- Remember: Patience and practice make perfection.
Lenz likes to tell about the Cub Scouts she once taught to make quilled Christmas cards for their parents. She cautioned them not to copy from each other but to come up with their own designs. The boys took her instructions very seriously, and Lenz was very impressed by their creativity. And there wasn't a trace of extra glue anywhere, she says.
Remembering the Scouts' enthusiasm Lenz encourages everyone to give quilling a try. You never know who might be interested in trying something different, she says.
By Kathie Sutin
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