I took a break from quilling over the spring and summer of 2015 and didn’t return to it until the fall of 2016. The first thing I made upon my return was this Paper Quilled Dryad or Quilled Tree. She was a lot of fun to make and perhaps my first “fantasy” themed quilling. She was also the first piece I made that was based on a real object.
I found these cute little “dolls” on Pinterest that inspired my paper quilled dryad. They were basically trees with women’s faces, torsos and hands. Their legs were tree trunks and their hands reached up over their heads to hold branches and leaves. I pinned them originally because I wanted to buy one, but later on decided to try out a 2D quilled version instead.
So that was the basis for my quilled dryad. I added my own little touches like the vine sash and I chose not to give her a mouth. I felt like her real voice probably came from her leaves and branches. The doll I based her on didn’t have fruit either, but I felt like the red tight coils really made her branches pop.
I would love to remake this paper quilled dryad in the future. As always, hindsight is 20/20 and I have ideas on how I would rather have approached her. For starters I would definitely have left room around the edges of the background. Unfortunately, she has never been framed because I stupidly quilled to the very bitter edge of the paper. She is mounted on a sheet of 300gsm watercolor paper that is 11″ x 14″. The paper has discolored over time which is disappointing, but I guess it doesn’t really matter since she seems to stand out pretty good even if she’s not on a pristine white background.
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