Spotlight on Leah Huntley

Today we meet Leah Huntley

 

What is your business called and how did you come up with your business name?    I don’t have much of an imagination and everything else I thought of was already taken e.g. Quilling me softly; Quills 4 Thrills; Quilling Shack and Quiller Queen and as my sister-in-law had bagged LH Dezines for her jewellery I decided on L Quilling 

So where are you based?  I am in Neath

Tell us about your craft?  I do Quilling – pictures; 3D items such as tealight holders; dolls house/miniature items; trinket boxes and other things.

Where do you craft? My crafting place is a small round table covered with a large glass bread/chopping board in front of my settee so I can keep up with TV at the same time.

The cork board is to stick in pins to use a technique called husking.

How long have you been crafting?  I started last November when I was asked to take a craft group at work. Unable to think of anything else, I suggested Christmas cards (yawn!). In January 2013, I was looking for more card embellishments and saw the craft, quilling. I had no idea what it was about so I asked the shop owner about it and she told me all I needed was a quilling tool (£1.57) and a pack of quilling paper (£1.57). I bought the both and an extra pack of paper and I’ve been quilling addictively ever since.

If you specialise when did you start? I don’t feel I have fully developed my own style yet but I do now want to specialise in quilling.

What other crafts/skill do you have? I have a knack for interior design: colour coordination, wall art, choosing the right ornaments etc. but nothing I’ve ever thought to make a hobby and certainly nothing I’ve ever thought to make money from.

Have you got any special qualifications or are you self- taught? I’m self-taught but hope one day to gain accreditation from Quilling Guild UK.  I achieved 5^th spot in an international best quilling of the month of April competition.

What inspires you? At first it was other people’s quilling but now it’s just about anything. I look at everyday items, pictures, flowers and I think, “Can I quill that?” or “Can I quill ON that?”

Do you ever get “artist block”? Regularly. As I said earlier my imagination for “art” is limited as I’ve never tried to be arty and always accepted my family’s view that I had no artistic talent. I’m doing my best to improve my imagination and I think it’s working.

What do you do to get out of an “artist block”? I look on the net at quilled pieces: a fabulous social networking site I belong to called Quilling Café; Pinterest and Facebook 

What keeps you going?  I find quilling totally addictive and I’m fascinated by the beautiful artistry that comes from curling long thin pieces of paper where no two items will ever be identical.

What others artists inspire you? Ngoc B H Nguyen; Gordana Mudri; Elena Hoang and Zoe Brener are my main inspiration.

Do you listen to music while you work? Sometimes

What music do you listen to? Anything rock from the 70s & 80s and some new music by artists from that era. (Oh boy, now I’ll have to admit to my age!!!)

Where do you sell/exhibit? I have a Facebook page and I’ve attended one fair/market so far but went into a panic this morning when I realised I have 6 booked in the next couple of weeks. I’m considering an Etsy account but I want to sample the saleability of my work first.

What is your all-time favourite creation? My “Meet the Moody Blooms!” it was so much fun to make and a completely new technique for me to master. All the faces and pots come from coils made from 15 to 18 x 18 inch lengths of paper. 

  

Meet the moody blooms

What do you do if something you make doesn't turn out how you envisaged it? I usually start with an idea in mind but the piece often takes on a life of its own and develops into something completely different. As long as the work is well done and is identifiable even if abstract I will complete the work. This picture started as one small sized flower for a small frame.

 

Obviously, for an order/commission I have to stick to the original idea but any shapes that don’t “fit” I will put aside for use on another project.

Do you do this full-time, part-time or just as an hobby? Quilling started as a hobby and a fascination but as I’m now unable to work due to ill-health it’s turning into a full-time work of love.

Do you recycle? I do where possible but if the shapes have been glued prior to going wrong it often isn’t possible to re-use the paper strips. Of course, a lot of old, damaged items can be made beautiful again by quilling onto them, quilled designs can be used to cover damage on even large items of furniture. 

Do you use materials made by other artists? I do quill onto mirror/picture frames, use tea-lights as centre-pieces, glitter varnish where appropriate and sometimes adhesive gemstones.

Does the Welsh landscape/Culture inspire you? Yes, but I haven’t yet tried to make 3D Welsh women costumes and I want to make the feathers of course but I have to tackle quilled letters for the Ich Dien part. Scary!!!!!

What is your favourite colour? I tend to have different favourites for different items but white always works for me.

Does it feature a lot in your work? I love the white items I’ve made such as my dolls house size Patio Garden.

Do you have a favourite subject? Flowers lend themselves most easily to quilling but new techniques are constantly emerging together with new tools so anything is possible. As I said earlier, I haven’t developed a particular style yet.

Do you have any pets? Do they “help”? I have 3 dogs: Oscar, Jack and KoKo. The 2 boys are pretty good although they seem to think they can come onto my lap while I’m working but here’s a photo of KoKo’s quilling effort when I forgot to put my papers away one evening.

Do you think you value your work enough- do you find pricing hard? I hate putting a price on my items. If I tried to calculate an hourly rate the prices would be prohibitive but I don’t want to suggest that my work is worthless then again I want my work to sell.

Do you get together with fellow artists? It’s unfortunate that I only manage to connect with other quillers online but I enjoy mixing with other disciplines to learn and develop my own work.

What was the first thing you sold? A tiny pinwheel/windmill for 25 pence.

Do you remember what it felt like? Awesome!!!!!

What gets in the way of your artistic endeavours? Life.

What is your favourite tool? My quilling comb which looks like an onion holder.

Anyone else in your family or a close friend who enjoys crafting? None, a slightly pathetic bunch I'm afraid.

Are you on Pinterest, Tumblr or other site? I am on Facebook with my page called LH-Quilling

Show us some of your work in progress. This is the centre of a snowflake Christmas tree ornament alongside a 20 pence piece. There are already 19 quilled shapes in this tiny  piece.

These are front and back views of what will be a 3D owl.

Anything else you want to share? It’s fantastic to be a part of a group and a community like this. Thank you a for starting this group and thanks to all the members who I know are going to visit LH Quilling and give me loads of LIKES! lol