Folding a Paper Crane

After reading about Origami and the fascinating story about Senbazuru the thousand paper cranes its obivious to try folding a paper crane.So I started my mission of folding a paper crane.

I started with searching folding patterns on google and found a lot of sites.The following are a few which were useful in understanding the folding pattern.



Monkey.org
Wikibooks.org
origami-club



I started with a fairly square piece of paper but ended with something which was no where near to a paper crane.But that was the first attempt ,I kept trying and after the third attempt I was able to fold a paper crane.

Well I was trying this the night before my major job interview and to my surprise I cleared the interview.At present I am working in the company for which that interview was held.Seems the lucky charm helped me.

I would like to suggest to start with a perfect square paper if you really want to fold a beautiful crane.

If you could not follow the folding pattern's then see these videos.


video 1
video 2
video 3


I hope these videos helped you.

To send a thousand cranes to the Children's Monument in Hiroshima's Peace Park, string them on garlands of 100 cranes each, and mail them to:

 
     Office of the Mayor
     City of Hiroshima
     6-34 Kokutaiji-Machi
     1 Chome Naka-ku
     Hiroshima 730 
     Japan.

Paper cranes "Orizuru"

When you speak about Origami the first structure which comes to mind is the paper crane .Crane is a sacred bird in Japan.The cranes in Japanese are called (ツル) tsuru.The word Tsuru becomes -zuru when combined with other words.Thus the paper crane is called Orizuru. It is a Japanese custom that if one folds thousand cranes then they would be granted a wish.Senbazuru in japanese means thousand paper cranes.

There is a famous story of a little girl of Hiroshima. The Japanese girl named Sadako Sasaki born in 1943. Sadako was two years old when the atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945. As she grew up, Sadako was a strong, courageous and athletic girl. In 1955, at age 11, while practicing for a big race, she became dizzy and fell to the ground. Sadako was diagnosed with Leukemia, "the atom bomb" disease. Sadako's best friend told her of an old Japanese legend which said that anyone who folds a thousand paper cranes would be granted a wish. Sadako hoped that the gods would grant her a wish to get well so that she could run again. She started to work on the paper cranes and completed over 1000 before dying on October 25, 1955 at the age of twelve.

She never gave up. She continued to make paper cranes until she died. Inspired by her courage and strength, Sadako's friends and classmates put together a book of her letters and published it. In 1958, a statue of Sadako holding a golden crane was unveiled in Hiroshima Peace Park. Today, people all over the world fold paper cranes and send them to Sadako's monument in Hiroshima.

The Children's Monument is topped by a statue of a girl holding a folded crane.

Around the base of the Children's Mounument
lie many thousands of folded paper cranes and
peace messages from all over the world.


At the bottom of the monument the following words are inscribed

               "This is our cry. 
                This is our prayer. 
                Peace in the world."

The Seattle Peace Park was built by Dr. Floyd Schmoe when he won the Hiroshima Peace Prize of $5000 in 1988 and used the money to clear a small lot near the University of Washington. The park was dedicated on August 6, 1990, the 45th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. The Statue is a life size bronze of Sadako Sasaki.



This Statue of Sadako Sasaki stands in the Seattle Peace Park.


Sadako wrote of her cranes:

 
       ' I will write Peace on your wings  
        and you will fly all over the world.'

Origami

Origami is a Japanese art. It literally means art of Paper Folding. The word "Oru" stands for folding and "kami" for paper .Previously, the art was called orikata ("folded shapes").

Originally people used to fold paper into shapes only for fun .Then people started this as an art. In earlier days paper was a rare stuff and costly so this art remained confined to the higher class of the society.

In Japan and China Origami is very famous and the skill with which they fold the paper quickly into various structures is fascinating.Some believe that Origami is restricted to paper folding only, cutting or gluing the paper is not Origami but origami has no such stringent rules.

There are many forms of origami and have different names for example Kirigami(cutting paper during creation) etc. Origami used to have one or two papers now modular Origami has evolved which uses many papers to give rise to a structure.

To know more about Origami and it's history you can visit the following links:
origami.ousaan.com
www.origami.as

Folding papers into structures is so interesting. You can find a lot of sites on internet where you get the folding diagrams.Few are listed below.
Origami.com
foldnet
paperfolding

Origami is useful in many aspects of daily living such as interior decorations and as fashion accessories. In the field of packaging design, Origami has been applied to the development of practical and attractive paper boxes, cartons and wrappings