January 2023 MBR The Crafts Shelf

The Crafts Shelf

A Beginner's Guide to Quilling Paper Flowers
Motoko Maggie Nakatani
Tuttle Publishing
364 Innovation Drive, North Clarendon, VT 05759-9436
www.tuttlepublishing.com
9780804855716, $16.99, HC, 80pp

https://www.amazon.com/Beginners-Guide-Quilling-Paper-Flowers/dp/0804855714

Synopsis: With the publication of "A Beginner's Guide to Quilling Paper Flowers: Beautiful Japanese-Style Paper Art", Japanese quilling expert Motoko Maggie Nakatani demonstrates how to create breathtaking quilled flowers with just a few inexpensive tools and paper quilling strips. Her simple roll-shape-and-paste method is perfect for beginners -- allowing them to quickly and successfully create dozens of different flowers.

"A Beginner's Guide to Quilling Paper Flowers" has all the information needed to engage with this fascinating hobby using easy-to-follow, step-by-step photographic instructions.

The 32 different varieties of quilled flowers include: Roses (with frilly petals and ornate leaves for sweet and romantic gift decorations); Gerbera (with a graduated 3-level "wedding cake" effect that makes it the highlight of any display); Japanese Wisteria (whose contrasting colors and cascading blossoms make a memorable impression); Black-Eyed Susans (with clever arrangement of the petals creating a unique 3D effect); Dogwood Blossoms (whose intricate harp-shaped petals really showcase your skill as a quillist) -- and dozens of others!

This complete how-to guide has templates and detailed step-by-step instructions as well as information on how to use and display your beautiful paper flowers -- as gift toppers, framed displays, handmade cards, photo frames and in shadow box displays.

Critique: The perfect combination of instruction guide and how-to manual, "A Beginner's Guide to Quilling Paper Flowers: Beautiful Japanese-Style Paper Art" is an ideal introduction to Japanese style paper art. Exceptionally well illustrated, organized, and presented, "A Beginner's Guide to Quilling Paper Flowers" is unreservedly recommended for personal, professional, and community library Paper Art Making collections. It should be noted that "A Beginner's Guide to Quilling Paper Flowers" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $16.14).

Editorial Note: Motoko Maggie Nakatani (https://www.facebook.com/motoko.nakatani) discovered her love for quilling when she owned a toy and candy shop in Kobe, Japan. She taught herself to quill and began importing quilling tools and materials to sell in her shop beginning in 2003. After attending her first North American Quilling Guild convention, she was inspired to offer quilling classes to pass along the techniques that she'd developed herself and learned from other quillers. Maggie is also the lead instructor for Botanical Quilling Japan, a group that focuses on work expressing the seasonal beauty of plants and flowers. She is a founding member of the Japan Quilling Guild and the Japanese representative to the North American Quilling Guild.

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