Jenny Ray is a native Georgian with a passion for arts and crafts.  She has had three years formal college instruction in the field of visual fine art and has plans to later return to school to pursue a full bachelor's degree.  Jenny has been quilling for several years and has even taught classes at a local art store.  She is a member of the North American Quilling Guild and the Douglas County Art Guild.  Jenny promotes her business mainly by word of mouth and through demonstrations at Civil War Reenactments throughout the South Eastern U.S.  She has been a reenactor for 11 years.

Balancing her paper quilling business with being a wife and co-parenting four children ages 9, 8, 3 and under a year, Jenny admits laughingly that "my cup runneth over...and then some!"  Possessing experience with nearly every art medium known to man, she says of quilling  that

"One twirl of the paper and I was hooked!  What a unique opportunity to share God's grace and goodness!  Everyone who meets me at open houses and meet-the-artist events are astonished that, (and I quote,) "you make these yourself?  By hand?"  I laugh and plead guilty to having such an endless patience, but I try to relate that it isn't me creating these works of art, but that God has given me this talent for His use and glory.  Quilling is kind of like us- all shapes, sizes, colors... but we're fragile and all need to be handled with patience, gentleness and respect.  Also, quilling is fragile and can't be handled too awfully much, but it always turns out to be just a little more resilient than it looks to be.  I dropped one by accident one time and I just knew it would break into pieces, but it didn't.  Kind of like the human spirit."

And when she says all shapes, colors and sizes, she isn't kidding!  To date, Jenny estimates that she has quilled over 300 individual designs and probably at least 300 or 400 variations on those designs.  Things are looking great for the Artful Quiller!     

Jenny's studio space in Winston, GA.

 Heather Ray, Part-time Artist

Heather and Jenny have been friends since their school days and now find themselves sisters-in-law.  When Jenny chose quilling as her profession, Heather became interested in the craft as well. 

Heather is a science teacher by trade, but in her free time lends a hand with some of The Artful Quiller's projects.  Heather will be co-artisting this year's piece for the Chairish the Future auction for the Atlanta Furniture Bank.  She is also always on hand with The Artful Quiller at civil war reenactments.  2008/2009 is her 8th year as a reenactor. 

Heather and her husband Zack live in Dacula, Georgia.

 Claire Thompson, Apprentice Artist

Claire Thompson has been quilling for two years.  She joins The Artful Quiller as an apprentice until such time as she has finished her formal art education.   Claire is also a Civil War reenactor, where she often applies her quilling skills in demonstrations to the public.

Along with apprenticing for The Artful Quiller, Claire enjoys experimenting with other art mediums such as acrylics and pencil sketching, as well as non-traditional painting techniques like encaustic art, which uses heat and pigmented wax.  She has been on the stage crew for her high school’s spring musicals, as well as appearing on-stage in a local production of “Disney’s High School Musical".