Folding Origami

For the past few years, I have received the Origami fold-a-day calendar. Sadly, I have yet to complete any of them. In fact, I didn't even open the one for 2008. One reason is that for most of 2008 I did not have a desk job, which translates to not having a place to put a daily calendar. Another reason is, until recently, the 2008 calendar was "stored" in the cluttered mess of my home office. Anyway, while trying to un-clutter my office, I found the 2008 calendar! Yeah!

I love origami for several reasons: there is a simple beauty in each piece; it has always been amazing to me the multitude of things that can be created from a simple square piece of paper; there is a meditative effect, a centering, that occurs when I fold paper; and it gets my creative juices flowing. So, now that I have found the calendar, I am going to fold each piece. I started the other night, I am already gotten through April.

Most of the pieces are cute, some of them really make me wonder about the person who created the piece, but overall it is a fabulous process. I find myself thinking about how to incorporate some of them into my other art work, which is really the reason I decided to fold the entire calendar, to kick my creative butt into action. While I am unemployed (I return to work in April), I have an opportunity to work on several projects that have fallen to the wayside because I was too busy working. I have not taken advantage of the time off. So, instead of beating myself up for not getting anything done, I am choosing to look and move forward.

Here is a link to directions for folding a paper crane. An ancient Japanese legend promises that anyone who folds a thousand origami cranes will be granted a wish by a crane, such as long life or recovery from illness or injury. The crane in Japan is one of the mystical or holy beasts (others include the dragon and tortoise), and is said to live for a thousand years.