yulia brodskaya - quiller extraordinaire

I think quilling is a difficult item on my Craftathon 2011 list. I used to do quilling when I was very little, but it was the usual flowers and cartoon dogs and whatever else and always looked a little on the rubbish side.

It was only when I saw these amazing images in the Guardian by Yulia Brodskaya (apparently way back in 2008 - yikes!) that I was inspired to buy some paper strips and get my twiddler out. That sounds rude, but you know the thing I mean, right?

Two and a half years later, I still haven't so much as made a single coil. I thought perhaps I was intimidated by Yulia Brodskaya's greatness (who wouldn't be?) so today I had a look for other examples of quilling on flickr to see if I could spot anything that would give me a little spark of less frightening inspiration for a starting point.

It turns out I can't find a single example of quilling by anyone other than Yulia Brodskaya that I even remotely like, except for maybe this one which is very Yulia Brodskaya in style, and certain aspects of this one. (Please let me know if you have seen any quilling you think I might like!) So I'm thinking it's likely to be the high probability of naff that's put me off quilling rather than intimidation. My attempts are probably going to be closer to the naff side of quilling than the great side, I would expect, at least to begin with.

Anyway, having realised it's Yulia Brodskaya's quilling I like more than quilling in general, I thought maybe I should just aim high and start off with a Yulia Brodskaya tribute (rip-off?) and try to do something typographical.

I'm not expecting it to turn out all crisp and clean and stylish like hers, but it would be a good start and worth a try and, after all, Craftathon 2011 was meant to be about trying just as much as (if not more so than) succeeding.

p.s. I tried and failed some macrame today too, but more on that later, when I have the energy to fathom out how to do a pesky double half hitch.