The Paper Arts site talks about everything related to paper including stationery, scrapbooking, and DIY paper projects.

I must admit when I first saw this packet of Twirled Paper I was a bit confused. I mean they look exactly like multi-colored shoelaces or something! How could you make anything useful out of this paper?

Well, it turns out there are some pretty cool things you can make with these curls of paper, least of not are the twirled paper animals featured in the book. The book is written by Jacqueline Lee and published by Klutz, who make a ton of these interesting paper project packs for kids and adults alike.

One thing I didn’t know is that the art of using these small curled strips of paper to make decorations and other things is not really new or anything. According to the book, it was first done by the French hundreds of years ago and they called it paper filigree. In more recent times, it’s been called quilling because they wrapped the strips around quills to get them to spiral. And in this book it’s called “Twirling“. (I have no idea if this is the official way that people call it nowadays.)

So as I said before, looking through the index it seems like there are quite a few animals you can make… here’s one example from the book, a fun looking green goldfish with a purple tail and multicolored fins. The kit comes with long strips of the thin colored paper, a “twirling wand” for curling the paper, plastic eyes for the animals, and glue to attach them.

I would think that other than the instructions for making the animals, you might be able to do this paper twirling by cutting up thin strips of colored paper on a paper cutter and using a chopstick or ballpoint pen shaft as the curling wand. But it’s kind of cool to have it all packaged together to give to someone as a gift.