Priyaz Creations: Quilling Project 1: Wedding gift for Azeem

In my previous post, I had introduced my romance with quilling, which started when I first made Quilled Corner Bookmarks and how that inspired me to take up an ambitious project since I was (and I still am) just a novice in the grand art of Quilling. As mentioned, my first stint with this art was in Feb 2014 when I made these bookmarks. After that stint, unfotunately neither did I get enough time nor opportunity to try my hand once more.

When my best friend Azeem announced his wedding date to be in first week of October 2014 , my mind started whirring to think of an idea as to what should be his wedding gift from me. Of course, there was a gift from all of us friends but I wanted him to give something personalized, something which I have made myself, something to mark the beginning of a new phase of his life. And what would have been better than giving him Quilled "Basmala".

The Basmala , also known by Bismillah, is the name of the Islamic phrase "b-ismi-llāhi r-raḥmāni r-raḥīmi" meaning "In the name of God, the most gracious, the most merciful". The Basmala has a special significance for Muslims, who are to begin each task after reciting the verse. The Basmala is used extensively in everyday Muslim life, said as the opening of each action in order to receive blessing from God. So now you can understand why I wanted to gift him Basmala in Quilling, as a blessing to start his married life.

But since I don't know how to write in Calligraphy, that too in Urdu, I got help from Internet. I got it printed on an A4 sheet. However, since my idea was to make it in size of about 1.5 or 2 times of what was printed on that sheet, I literally did calculations to scale up each and every twist and turn in the writing and mark it on my handmade paper.

Scaling Up of the Calligraph

Now the next part came of quilling the outline of the verse. Since this was the first time I was doing quillography, my natural curiosity led to inventiveness and I thoroughly enjoyed the process.

After this came the most tough part of finalizing the color combinations and how to quill it. I decided it has to be colorful with almost all the major colors of the rainbow. After all, it was supposed to be a blessing to make my best friend's married life full of bright colors!

I have to confess that my drawing is very bad. That's why I always let the design develop like in Zentangles. I like to make abstract designs, where I don't have to premeditate and draw a particular design on the paper. Believe me when I say this. The only pencil marks on the paper were the ones I made when I wrote the scaled up Basmala. That's it. So I decided to fill the outer portion of calligraph with abstract design so that the empty written words would come up due to contrast of positive/negative space.

Deciding the color combinations

Close up of the quilling

Many a times my mind went blank and I was stuck as to what should I make next. Here my Maa and my Papa came to my rescue. They would give me suggestions, "yahan yeh bana lo", "do something like this here" etc. Needless to say that although I didn't comply with their each and every suggestion but these suggestions did help me to switch on the idea bulb in my head!

It took me exactly 5 days ( almost 7 - 8 hrs each day, in total 35 - 40 hrs in total) to finish it. Finally I was happy with the outcome.

Final look (without framing)

After Framing and stuff, it finally looked like this:

Final look (a foot scale beside the creation to give an idea of the size )

Needless to say that my buddy absolutely loved it. And now it adorns his living room!

At Azeem's place

This post won't feel complete unless I say thanks to some very important people:

Maa and Papa - Thanks a lot for bearing with all my crazy ideas, encouraging and supporting me and allowing all my whims to be fulfilled.

Niharika: my chaddi buddy! Thanks for saving the day by suggesting use of self designed white handmade paper (and so introducing me to this wonderful thing) rather than just using plain white chart paper for background. It just magnified the beauty of the whole creation by more than 10 folds! Thanks for accompanying me multiple times to find out the shops in Kanpur to buy the raw material for it and partnering with me in all the bargaining bouts with the shopkeepers. And last but not the least, for encouraging me and motivating me (sometimes even by mild scoldings)!

Azeem: You have always, directly or indirectly, inspired me in life. You have countless times inspired me to come out of my comfort zone, push my boundaries and explore the world (both within and out). It was because of you that I thought about undertaking such a magnanimous task in my second attempt at quilling on such a scale. Thanks for letting me be me, thanks for pushing me to explore the unknown possibilities. Thanks for just existing in my world!!!

Entering this creation in Try It On Tuesday's New Beginning challenge.