The process of making a new quilling design involves me drawing a sketch of what I want to make, and breaking it down into the constituent shapes. In this case, I knew I needed the green head, black eye, yellow beak with black tip, a white neck band, brown chest, brown edged wing, grey lower body/back of neck, a black and white undertail, and orange legs. I also select the best colour match to the real thing, so I spend a while looking at lots of photos to see what's the closest shade of quilling paper that I have.
Then, it's a process of trial and error, of seeing what sizes the various lengths and colours of strips become as I roll them up (certain shades of paper are stiffer and uncoil to a larger size than others) and figuring out how to things the various constituent shapes together. This can involve coating the backs of shapes in glue and clamping them in order to form and hold a specific shape (like the white neck bar). From experience, I tend to know how large things will end up being, but when there are awkward shapes involved, it may mean a few attempts to make the right fit. I tend to work on a plastic surface, so if there's excess glue that squeezes out, the quilled piece can be detached from the work surface easily....in this case, I was working on top of a plastic case holding a printout of a map of Korea (as you do).
Once all the pieces come together, I double check that I've noted onto the original sketch the lengths of papers and colours I've used. That sketch will then be redrawn into my master book of designs, so I can recreate it in future.
And then...done! A mallard! It's bigger than I usually make, but I think it's worked out really well! *chuffed face*
