36 Days of Quilled Type
written by Ione Parsons
Digital Designer at D8
After finding myself down yet another Pinterest hole earlier this year, I decided to start quilling to try and make use of the free time I’ve had during the multiple COVID-19 lockdowns we’ve had here in the UK.
Working as a Digital Designer at D8, the majority of my day is spent on a computer designing digital solutions and liaising with clients on how to improve their online experience for users. Whilst I enjoy the challenges the digital world brings as technology constantly evolves, it’s certainly refreshing to take a break and disconnect from the online buzz from time to time!
I was drawn to quilling as I knew it would be a great way to flex my creative muscle without the need to be glued to a screen. Fellow crafters may resonate with the fact that I live in a graveyard of unfinished personal craft projects, and so originally I set out to design birthday cards for friends and family to make sure I had a deadline that wasn’t my own.
As I began to explore this new hobby, I found that the art of carefully rolling up and gluing down thin strips of paper into intricate shapes felt very therapeutic; I could zone out and become lost in creating for several hours a day.
The best part? With each finished piece, I was left with something completely unique — to me, quilling adds a striking 3D feel to each piece of tangible art.
Never one to shy away from pushing my creative abilities, I decided to accept the 36 Days of Type Instagram challenge in April of this year. For those who aren’t familiar, it’s an annual project inviting people across the world to design the letters and numbers of the Latin alphabet. For 36 consecutive days, participants upload their entries to Instagram using the project’s hashtags.
Since the challenge began in 2014, it has grown hugely in popularity, building a really lovely community of designers, illustrators, and graphic artists who follow the project year after year. The support and affirmation I received from them (as well as my friends, family, and the D8 team!) really encouraged me to stay motivated and make it through creating and posting through all 36 days of the challenge — even when those days caught up with me and I found myself rushing around after work to finish a piece for the next day!
To keep things fun and organic, I set no rules for the challenge — just that I wanted to quill consistently for the specified time period. I really enjoyed pushing myself to come up with something fresh and unusual for each letter or number and it was lovely to find out which pieces became favourites amongst my friends, family, and colleagues.
This challenge may have come to an end, but I’m pleased to say that I’ll be continuing to quill in my free time and am planning on working on some larger pieces going forward — each piece for this particular project took me between 2–6 hours to make and was created on a 4” squared piece of card. In my opinion, quilled pieces look even better in person and I won’t be surprised if my walls at home are filled with them in the not too distant future!
Combining my newfound love for quilling and papercrafts with my digital design experience is something I’m certainly looking forward to exploring more, whether that be through campaign projects, product photography or even some animation work!
To view the full type series check out Ione’s Instagram @ioneparsons
