One type of project that I enjoy making with paper quilling is frames.  Specifically frame designs inside of recessed frames, so that the quilling is protected by glass.  Usually I put the quilling around a quote, or around a wedding invitation.  Giving a quilled wedding invitation frame makes a very special gift for good friends.  Here is one wedding frame design I made.

Sometimes it takes awhile to choose the right design.  That is where today’s post comes from.  When I was trying to think of a design for a friend’s frame, my husband suggested Indian instruments, since the couple liked music.  We looked up some photos of various instruments, chose which ones we wanted, and printed them out.

The sitar was the first instrument I made.  Actually it turned out that the paper quilled sitar was taking too long and didn’t turn out as perfectly as I wanted, so we changed gears and made a different design.  And I never got around to taking photos of this sitar!  So I finally had to sit down and take some photos of this design!

To make the sitar, I placed the printed out photo underneath a plastic cover on my cork workboard (at Custom Quilling or Amazon).  I used pins to outline the main part of the instrument and wrapped paper around it for the outline.  I filled in the outline with quilling shapes to match the original design, though much more simply! For the gold frets on the neck of the sitar I painted the quilling pieces with gold mica watercolors.  Click here to view a post on how to use those with paper quilling.  You can also use metallic markers to color the edge of your papers (at Custom Quilling or Amazon).

I used very thin wire for the strings of the sitar.  It isn’t perfect since the wires are so bendy, but I figured it was a better option than using strips of paper.  Maybe some sort of nonbendy wire would be better, but that would be more difficult to attach.  Any ideas on what would be better for strings?

Since I never used this paper quilled sitar for the intended frame design and never made any other instruments, it has just been sitting in a safe place on my crafting desk for more than 3 years!  I thought it was about time I shared it!

Have you ever quilled a design and then you weren’t sure what to do with it?  I’ll keep this around and maybe someday I’ll use it for a project.  Who knows!

Stick around, there is a lot of great content on the site to browse!

• Click HERE to view many more tips and tricks for paper quilling, divided into subjects!
• Click HERE to view free tutorials for paper quilling projects!
• Click HERE to find where you can purchase paper quilling supplies – many sources listed from around the globe!

*All products and supplies that I used in this post I purchased on my own.

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