Posted on April 29, 2010.
The origins of paper filigree Nobody really knows where and when the paper watermark actually started. However, we believe it will develop very soon after paper was invented. Since precious metals have been used to create ornate ironworks and fencing, the art of rolling paper is intended to replicate the same designs in a more simple and smaller. Because the paper does not age very well and can be destroyed when it is wet, they are not very many surviving examples of filigree paper drawings.
The belief that this art form originated in religious institutions such as monasteries and convents, is quite possible. These institutions were considered places of learning and academics. People have spent considerable time preparing their religious books with gilt edges. They have cut the edges so that pages of the book have been uniform. Instead of throwing the remains of strips of gold paper, they rolled the paper and created models to decorate the covers of books.
Watermark with paper, also called quilling paper, can easily be created to look like gold or ivory carved complex. When you look at images of book covers from the 19th and 20th centuries, you will see examples of this trade. It was at this time that the work of art went beyond religious purposes, as for decorating boxes. Some finishing school for girls learned the trade as one of the subjects in the program. In Victorian times, it was quite common for girls and women from wealthy households have spent their spare time rolling papers to create different patterns, often of flowers. Wherever they were, they still had a quilling tool because they had hat pins, they could use.
Examples of paper made in the 19th century were used to decorate the wall sconces, tea boxes and cribbage boards. They were also used to decorate the arms of the family so that they have borders, flowers in the corners. At that time, the job was known as the mosaic of paper and mosaicon. When the settlers moved to America, they brought with them this hobby and have used paper strips to add a decorative touch to items in their homes. That's when it became known as quilling because the tool used was a goose. Some colonial women used porcupine.
In the 18th century, the practice of rolling paper was considered a waste of time and many thought that young women would better learn to run a household. The practice disappeared in favor of the embroidery. It took until the 21st century that the interest of paper quilling once again became popular with the interest in the pages of decoration used in the creation of albums. Although you can buy paper decorations already, many scrapbookers want to do each part of the scrapbook pages themselves.
Paper Quilling takes time, but the results you produce such an activity are well worth the effort. You can decorate invitations and cards of all kinds of flowers and models taking into account the elements of nature like the animals. There are basic shapes involved in quilling and using variants of these techniques, you can do much more.