Welcome to TanBryn Creations!

This is the home of Susan Bernard and her dragon, Effie, and the things they create.

“Your stuff is so colorful!” is one of the things I hear from folks coming into my booth at the Foothills Craft Guild show. What a compliment! I really like playing with color and paper is a great way to express color.

I started using paper to make colorful baskets with paper I had painted then cut into strips with a pasta machine (really!) after a class at JC Campbell Folk School in NC. Years later when I found I could use the ‘linguiniʼ width of my paper strips to make quilled jewelry, I had to learn more. I have been making jewelry with beads and metalsmithing for over 30 years. Using little strips of paper to fabricate jewelry components opened a whole new world.

I got a couple books and then I sat around rolling up little pieces of paper and making them into shapes. Lots of little shaped rolls of paper! Then the fun began, and continues. Paper earrings, light and bright with color and sparkle; paper pendants and other jewelry pieces came together. I started ordering papers from JJQuilling.com in England for their metallic edged papers and tools and other papers from QuilledCreations.com. I continue to cut my own strips with the pasta machine. Making pictures and scenes, framed or on cards was next. This is a very traditional use of quilling. Right now I am enjoying making pet portraits since they have so many elements and challenges to make the picture really reflect the subject being quilled.

I still make and sell my baskets mainly at the Foothills Craft Guild Show each fall. I added quilled jewelry last year and quilled pictures for the upcoming show this November.

My passion for quilling has led me to making this website and to teach quilling locally as I continue to experiment and hone my skills. Pet portraits, quilled mandalas and other colorful pictures I create are available by contacting me or visiting Davis Studio in Knoxville as Shannon has some of my work in her gallery.