By Sara Anne Donnelly Photographed by Tara Rice From our May 2022 issue Fifteenth-century European nuns invented it, 18th-century British blue-bloods revived it, and these days, paper quilling is ...

Nigerian artist Ayobola Kekere-Ekun uses a technique known as paper quilling. She rolls and glues together colored paper, ribbons and strips of canvas to create her work. She and I, the Protectors.

Quilling — an ancient craft also known as paper filigree — doesn’t require any special tools to get started. It’s essentially the rolling of narrow strips of paper to make simple shapes ...