Griffin Carrick

QUILLED PAPER DOILIES

In my current body of work, large scale quilled paper doilies, I aim to celebrate the creative labor of women, who have toiled over decorative items, like the doily, as a means of self-expression and for the beautification of their homes for centuries. Yet these items hold little monetary or artistic value outside the four walls of the maker’s home. In time the paper doily replaced the crochet and lace handmade doily for its ease of production and low cost. In this series, I stick to paper; however, I return the doily to its labor-intensive and handmade origins through paper quilling while also exploring the motifs, patterns, and designs found in traditional crochet and lace doilies. Most importantly, I enlarge the doily 3-fold, making it more monumental and, in turn, celebrating this underappreciated domestic object and its maker.