Quilled Orange Ornament

At some point I bought a ton of quilling paper and supplies and they've just been sitting in a box for ages. Decided to to a larger project and this is what I came up with. Be warned, the rind uses a lot of quilling paper, I thought I had plenty, but towards the end I needed to go buy more. But it's a fun relaxing summer project and definitely worth making

1. Quilling paper strips in white and two shades of orange
2. PVA glue
3. Plastic Christmas ornament, ideally one of those diy ones that split into two halves
4. Quilling tool
5. Toothpick for adding glue to spots
6. Clear base, such as a sheet of glass or plastic
7. Scissors, paper, pencil
8. Protractor
9. Quilling ruler (optional but very helpful)

Measure the circumference of your Christmas ornament and choose a diameter for the quilled circles so that the ornament circumference is divisible by the quilled circles diameter.

The rind is made with dark orange paper strips. Cut your quilling paper strips in half. Place the end of your paper strip into the slot of the quilling tool and roll it tightly. Place it the desired diameter half circle hole of the quilling guide ruler, allow to expand then pinch the corners to make them sharp. If your ruler only has circle shapes, press the coil into the top of the circle and pinch the corners. Glue the end of the coil.

Dip the bottom of the coil in glue and stick it onto the bottom of your Christmas ornament half. Repeat this while also adding glue to the corners of the half circle shapes so the stick to each other until the circumference is covered. If there’s a loop on the ornament that’s in the way just leave it blank for now, you will fill it in later.

Use whole strips to quill full circles. Add glue to the top of the half circles and the sides of the full circles. Dip the bottoms of the circles in glue and attach them to the base in rows. With new rows I chose to use half strips and slightly smaller diameter of circles.

Once the remaining gap is too small for multiple coils, create one large coil that fills the entire gap. Add glue to the sides and bottom as usual and glue it in. Allow the whole thing to dry overnight, then carefully detach it from the Christmas ornament.

Place your orange back on the ornament in such a way that the gap left by the loop is no longer on the loop and fill in the gap with one last half circle. Leave to dry for a few hours and then remove from the Christmas ornament again.

Place your Christmas ornament half on a piece of paper and trace it. Draw a straight line across the center of the circle, then use a protractor and draw lines every 60 degrees, so you get six pieces.

Inside your circle draw a slightly smaller one, and a tiny one in the middle. For every of the six pieces draw a rounded triangle shape leaving gaps between them similar in width to the distance between the largest and second largest circles.

Push down on your coil on four sides at the same time to create a rectangle. Push with one finger while pinching with two fingers to create a triangle. For the first row glue a rectangle, a triangle, then another rectangle side by side. To the bottom glue two triangles, so they follow the guide you drew the triangle points won’t be touching. To the bottom glue a small coil made from 1/8 of a strip. Repeat this to make 6 slices.

Measure the gap between the slices. Fold a white paper strip back and forth accordion style to the width you measured slightly widening it as you go. Continue folding until the strip is a few millimeters longer than the height of your drawing when allowed to spring open naturally. Cut off the excess and repeat until you get six pieces. Use half a white strip to create a coil for the middle.

over one side of the orange slice with glue and glue the accordion folded white spacer to the side, then glue another slice. Use a piece of tape to keep the spacer pressed to the correct length. Repeat this for all the spacers and slices.

Cover the cross sections shape's bottom in glue and place it on your clear base. Allow to dry for a few hours then carefully peal off from the base and remove the tape. Fold another white strip accordion style until it goes around the whole cross section, you might need to glue together multiple strips. Cover the sides of your cross section in glue and glue the white strip all around connecting it at the ends. If you want to make sure it's sturdy you can also cover the bottom of this strip in glue and allow it to dry.

Take a piece of orange ribbon string it through the dome of the orange, through the gaps between the coils. Tie the ribbon with a regular box knot so the knot ends up on the inside of the orange when the cross section is glued on

Take four small bits of darker orange paper strips and make tight coils, glue the ends. Use a spare strip to measure a strips width away from the edge of the dome and glue on the small coils so they are evenly spaced. These will act as the shelves for the cross section. Add glue to the inside sides of the dome and the top of the small coils and glue in the cross section. Allow to dry and you're done. 🍊