ALBANY-You won't find any fish bait or sinkers inside Catherine Nipple's tackle box. Instead, you'll find a wide assortment of quilling paper.
Nipple, a former employee at Swiss Colony and fifth-grade teacher who lives in Albany, has been quilling for about 38 years. She said it started with a wedding card she made using a kit from a craft store. When her coworkers saw what she could do, they started asking her to make things for them and her "hobby got out of control."
"I tend to get carried away with everything I do," Nipple said.
Quilling is the craft of curling or rolling long strips of paper and making them into decorative designs. Its origin goes back to 15th century Europe, when French and Italian nuns and monks would decorate religious symbols with rolls of pieces of old gilt-bordered books, according to information Nipple handed out at a quilling class at Albertson Memorial Library in Albany Thursday night.
Nipple has been in the Quillers Guild of Wisconsin for about 25 years. She used to be in the International Quillers Guild, through which she met her pen pal from Scotland. She visited her pen pal in 2000 and still keeps in touch with her via Facebook.
As for people in the area who are involved with quilling, Nipple doesn't know of many and says there's only a handful in the whole state. She's taught some of her friends the basics, but the closest person she knows involved with the Quillers Guild lives in Manitowoc.
"It's something that kind of comes and goes," Nipple said. "Not everyone has the patience to do it."
Dorota Andraski of Monroe said she didn't know what quilling was until Nipple convinced her to attend her class Thursday.
"It's a little easier than I thought," Andraski said.
Depending on the size of the project, quilling can take Nipple anywhere from 30 minutes to five hours to complete. She said the art is getting more popular thanks to scrapbooking and Pinterest.
Her favorite thing about quilling is it's not an expensive hobby. The tools and paper can be purchased at most craft stores, or people can cut their own paper to use for the craft.
Although Nipple enjoys quilling, she doesn't submit her work in any craft shows because "then it would feel like work."
Nipple will be teaching another craft night on paper snowflakes and snowflake ballerinas at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 16 at Albertson Memorial Library.
Nipple, a former employee at Swiss Colony and fifth-grade teacher who lives in Albany, has been quilling for about 38 years. She said it started with a wedding card she made using a kit from a craft store. When her coworkers saw what she could do, they started asking her to make things for them and her "hobby got out of control."
"I tend to get carried away with everything I do," Nipple said.
Quilling is the craft of curling or rolling long strips of paper and making them into decorative designs. Its origin goes back to 15th century Europe, when French and Italian nuns and monks would decorate religious symbols with rolls of pieces of old gilt-bordered books, according to information Nipple handed out at a quilling class at Albertson Memorial Library in Albany Thursday night.
Nipple has been in the Quillers Guild of Wisconsin for about 25 years. She used to be in the International Quillers Guild, through which she met her pen pal from Scotland. She visited her pen pal in 2000 and still keeps in touch with her via Facebook.
As for people in the area who are involved with quilling, Nipple doesn't know of many and says there's only a handful in the whole state. She's taught some of her friends the basics, but the closest person she knows involved with the Quillers Guild lives in Manitowoc.
"It's something that kind of comes and goes," Nipple said. "Not everyone has the patience to do it."
Dorota Andraski of Monroe said she didn't know what quilling was until Nipple convinced her to attend her class Thursday.
"It's a little easier than I thought," Andraski said.
Depending on the size of the project, quilling can take Nipple anywhere from 30 minutes to five hours to complete. She said the art is getting more popular thanks to scrapbooking and Pinterest.
Her favorite thing about quilling is it's not an expensive hobby. The tools and paper can be purchased at most craft stores, or people can cut their own paper to use for the craft.
Although Nipple enjoys quilling, she doesn't submit her work in any craft shows because "then it would feel like work."
Nipple will be teaching another craft night on paper snowflakes and snowflake ballerinas at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 16 at Albertson Memorial Library.