This is a project that I have made several times, usually as Christmas gifts. It is a quilled sculpture, made completely with paper. Quilling is the art of using rolled coils of paper to create what is essentially paper filigree. You would think that a project like this would be incredibly delicate, but the tensile strength of the paper is pretty impressive and it only gets stronger once each piece is glued down.

The paper is regular scrapbooking paper, usually in 12′ x 12′. I also purchased quilling paper that was already pre-cut in narrow widths. You can occasionally find quilling paper at your local craft store, but there is a lot more available online. The paper comes in a variety of colors and widths.

For this centerpiece, there are candles, white Christmas roses, greenery springs, tiny pinecones, and holly berries. Total construction time for the first one I made was about 10 hours all total, but successive ones took less and less time, as I got more comfortable with each of the elements included.