Museum series celebrates traditional art forms
Photos by Larry Launstein Jr. Ellen Hoisum and her granddaughter Estella Styer, both of Marietta, are busy creating their own heart design using quilling at the Campus Martius Museum in Marietta Saturday.
Photos by Larry Launstein Jr. Dan Hedges, the program coordinator and education specialist with the Campus Martius Museum and the Ohio River Museum, and History major and public history intern at Marietta College, Jaisen Williams, check out the supplies for the class.
From left, Ginni White of Athens, and Barbara Ward, of Marietta, spend their class time Saturday at the Campus Martius Museum in Marietta working with paper strips.
Dan Hedges, the instructor for the quilling class, demonstrates how to curl paper strips.
From left, Ellen Hoisum and granddaughter Estella Styer watch as history major and public history intern at Marietta College, Jaisen Williams, demonstrates part of the craft.
Photos by Larry Launstein Jr. Ellen Hoisum and her granddaughter Estella Styer, both of Marietta, are busy creating their own heart design using quilling at the Campus Martius Museum in Marietta Saturday.
Photos by Larry Launstein Jr. Dan Hedges, the program coordinator and education specialist with the Campus Martius Museum and the Ohio River Museum, and History major and public history intern at Marietta College, Jaisen Williams, check out the supplies for the class.
From left, Ginni White of Athens, and Barbara Ward, of Marietta, spend their class time Saturday at the Campus Martius Museum in Marietta working with paper strips.
Dan Hedges, the instructor for the quilling class, demonstrates how to curl paper strips.
From left, Ellen Hoisum and granddaughter Estella Styer watch as history major and public history intern at Marietta College, Jaisen Williams, demonstrates part of the craft.
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Those throughout the Mid-Ohio Valley interested in learning the art of quilling, a centuries-old craft, gathered Saturday at the Campus Martius Museum's Nitty Gritty Series in Marietta.
Jaisen Williams, an intern from Marietta College majoring in history and minoring in public history, said "Quilling (the process of taking paper strips and making designs from them) has its origins in the medieval period and sort of come-and-go and returned and picked up in the 1970s."
It got its name because traditional quilling was done with a bird feather quill.
Dan Hedges, the program coordinator and education specialist for Campus Martius and the Ohio River Museum, started the class with a brief presentation of his own following a slide show by Williams, and showed them the materials they would be using -- card stock, red paper, strips of red, pink and much lighter pink, as well as the tools they would use to create their own heart design for Valentine's Day.
Participants were given a white card for a backing for a red heart, and a white card strip to outline the heart's shape.
Instead of laying it flat like construction paper, it was glued to the edge of the strip to make it look as if it's coming out from the paper.
Hedges then showed the students how to curl it so it would outline the heart's shape a bit easier, and how to glue it into place.
He then gave them a stick (similar to a large toothpick) so they could etch their design onto the red sheet of the heart so they could follow it when they made their designs.
After that, he showed them a technique on how to make rolls on the multi-colored red strips, using a modern tool that resembles a quill, rolling the end of one strip one way, and then rolling the strip on the other end to curl the opposite way.
Hedges then provided golf tees to help with rolling the paper. Participants then began gluing the various strips to their heart, following the etchings they made on their paper earlier.
The class, which lasted two hours, was just enough to help everyone get started, and they could finish their designs at home.
They were allowed to take the materials they needed to finish their projects, as they paid for it with their fees for the class.
Hedges said, "we just started doing this series this year (2022) and it's called the Nitty Gritty Series. In this series we look at the finer aspects of the exhibits of the museum."
"I got into it as an elementary school teacher. I had my students do a project that was very successful. I started getting into it," Hedges said.
Hedges served as an elementary school teacher for Warren Local School District in Ohio for 35 years.
Ellen Hoium and her granddaughter Estella Styer, both from Marietta, got into the course with some help from a family member.
"My sister signed us up and it sounded like fun," Hoium said.
Styer said she saw it as an opportunity to hang out with her grandmother.
Hoium also said, "we're having fun and we are learning to do this… I think."
About whether they were getting the hang of quilling, Hoium said, "yes, but it does take a little practice."
Susan Hill, of Parkersburg, said about being in the class, "I've seen the art before, and it's beautiful."
Hill said her reason for participating in the class was, "There's not much going on with COVID. I wanted something to try, something to do."
She also said, "it was interesting. It made me appreciate the people who did it," adding that she admired the people who quilled throughout history, and those who sell quilled work today at craft shows.
"I appreciate it more now," Hill said.
Upcoming classes in the Nitty Gritty Series include:
Apr. 16 – Weaving Machines and Basic Weaving Techniques.
May 21 – Steam Power on Land and Water.
July 9 – Civil War Cannons, Mortars, and Projectiles, Oh My!
Aug. 20 – Modern Hand Quilting
Nov. 12 – Timber Tools and Farming on the Frontier.
For more information, contact the Campus Martius Museum at (740) 373-3750.
Contact Larry Launstein Jr. at llaunstein@newsandsentinel.com.