Jade Hillaire brought quilling to the Rotunda at the Red House on Abercromby Street, Port of Spain. Quilling is an artform that uses multi-coloured paper rolled, shaped, and glued together to create decorative designs. The paper can be rolled, looped, curled and twisted among other methods to create shapes that make up the designs.
The 40-year-old said her art journey began after a huge loss in her life in 2012.
[caption id="attachment_1017469" align="alignnone" width="736"] Quilling is an artform that uses multi-coloured paper rolled, shaped, and glued together to create decorative designs. - AYANNA KINSALE[/caption]
“I turned to art, sketching and drawing really, as a form of therapy. As a self-taught artist, looking for tutorials on the use of different media, I came across a photo of a quilled piece of artwork by Yulia Brodskaya and immediately became intrigued. I ordered a quilling start-up kit online similar to those embroidery and craft ones.”
Hillaire said after following the first three tutorials from the kit, she realised she was onto something very exciting.
[caption id="attachment_1017468" align="alignnone" width="713"] Jade Hilaire with one of her quilling pieces at Woodford Square, Port of Spain. - AYANNA KINSALE[/caption]
“I immersed myself into this new world of paper I knew I wanted to explore way further than the booklet as they showed nothing close to what I had seen online. I became obsessed you can say, with the art form and would spend hours looking at other artists on Pinterest.”
Pinterest is an image sharing and social media platform used by many for inspiration from home ideas to hairstyles to art designs.
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She said looking back, she realised she has always had a fascination with paper and using paper to create artistic designs.
“I tried origami and collages as a kid, but the quilling technique turned out to be the one for me. After all this time I'm not tired of it at all and eager to keep rolling paper strips. I sometimes am able to incorporate all the methods, so it’s a win-win.”
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To create her pieces, Hillaire uses paper and glue and a “simple technique” which involves the placement of carefully cut and bent strips to make a three-dimensional piece. She said she also “draws with paper” to give the pieces defining characteristics, those strips are cut with an exacto knife and a ruler. She sometimes uses colour pencils or paints as well.
Hillaire said she uses quilling tools such as a paper crimper and tweezers and a few household items such as straws, pots, vases, toothpicks and pins.
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Her creations are done at her Marabella home in her “art corner” and the fastest she has ever finished a piece was in 15 hours, but it depends on the piece.
“I have a table which is the main working surface and a few paper storage containers ranging fr
