Erin Newman sorts through a pile of paper strips in search of the right color needed to add to the piece she’s shaping in her home studio, Tucson, Ariz., August 14, 2026.
Most days, Tucson artist, Erin Newman can be found in her home studio, listening to an audiobook as she painstakingly transforms spirals of colorful paper into intricate abstract designs and 3D works.
It’s called paper quilling. By wrapping, and meticulously arranging strips of paper, Newman creates works of art that — from a distance — look like they could be painted on canvas, or sculpted out of clay. The illusion is nothing short of incredible, with each fold of the paper visible up close.
Even a tiny two inch-by- two inch quilled piece can utilize more than 30 strips of paper, according to Newman, and her pieces often take weeks or months to complete. Her largest pieces can take up to a year.
Erin Newman nudges the pieces she’s built into the place, working to build her vision into a piece in her home, Tucson, Ariz., August 14, 2026.
“It is very meditative for me,” Newman said. “My fingers can still stay busy, and my brain does not need to be completely engaged in it. I can listen to audiobooks or I can have a conversation with somebody.”
Many of her pieces, she said, are inspired by florals, or patterns she finds interesting. Despite the detailed nature of her art though, she said she almost never sketches out a new work before she begins quilling, preferring instead to let the art bloom as she creates.
Her tidy studio workspace is decorated with several of her favorite pieces — a scene of hummingbirds drinking from a flower that seems to be growing out from the wall, framed spiral bowls, and a teal and green design that resembles a peacock feather.
Erin Newman’s piece “Waiting” hangs her home, Tucson, Ariz., August 14, 2026.
“I get an idea, and I just start something, and if I were to write down what the original idea was, it never ends up to be that,” Newman said. “Which is sometimes better than what you envision.”
Newman’s journey into paper quilling began nearly 10 years ago, as an experimental hobby to occupy her time after her and her husband retired.
“The day we retired, we were really excited about it, and then I kind of felt this ‘now what?’” Newman said. “We'd always talked about having an RV and going out across the country. And I'm of that personality where I've got to multitask. It's like ‘what am I going to do besides sitting in the right-hand seat?’”
She picked paper quilling because it made minimal mess, and was easy to take with her on her adventures.
“I just need three things. I need my paper strips, my little tool, and my glue, and that's it, and I can take it wherever I want,” Newman said.
What she loves most about quilling, Newman said, is not only the act of creating her pieces, but the community around the art form.
“I found this community of quillers across the country,” she Newman said. “Now it’s just grown into these 10 and 12 year relationship people. I've got this great friend in Charlottesville, Virginia, and I just absolutely adore her.”
Connecting with friends in the quilling community helped Newman grow her skills as an artist, and she said she is often inspired by the work of other quillers, and seeing what they have made possible.
Erin Newman puzzles with formed pieces looking for the right way to build piece, working in her home, Tucson, Ariz., August 14, 2026.
“As you start learning more, you sort of pick out people that you know have the same vision as you did. So those are the ones that I would lean on,” Newman said. “I started thinking, ‘I don't want it to be just a paper craft.’ I wanted it to be art. I wanted people to look at it as an art piece.”
Before quilling, Newman said she had never considered herself an artist, and she was surprised by the positive reactions to her work.
“I was not trained as an artist. I never took any art classes in school at all. I was not interested in them,” she said. “I started going around to art fairs and realized that people liked my work, and it's unique. It's not painting. It's not drawing. It's not the fine arts. It's more modern art, and it kind of surprised me.”
“It's exciting to me when somebody gets excited about the work,” Newman said.
Erin Newman mulls over her next step while working on a piece in her home, Tucson, Ariz., August 14, 2026. Newman works in paper quilling, rolling and molding thin strips of paper, making individual fragments to eventually build patterns.
Her work is currently exhibited in two Tucson galleries, the Southern Arizona Arts Guild Gallery, and more recently, the Peddler's Passage.
When she is not creating her own art though, she often teaches quilling workshops for beginners interested in the craft.
“I really enjoy teaching, and the students that keep coming back to learning more more and more,” Newman said. “I've got a little community of quillers here in the Tucson area that know me and follow me around.”
Her class offerings range from beginner quilling to making cards with iris paper folding.
“I'm also a bookbinder and make art journals, so I teach a lot of classes,” she said. “I like to do a lot of holiday quilling, like snowflakes and angels. I teach an intermediate class as well, and they're very popular.”
While there is plenty of interest in quilling, and demand for her work, for Newman, it’s only ever been about the love of quilling. She said that for the moment, she is content to keep doing her art when she wants to, on her own terms.
“I like the two galleries I'm in, I like the following that I have from the students at the workshops, and I'm just happy creating what I want to create,” Newman said.
Though she said one day she might like to have a gallery show dedicated solely to her work.
“I have had this vision of sometime doing a one person show, but it's just kind of at the back of my head,” she said. “I still consider this just fun for me.”
