Make: Thousand Origami Paper Cranes artwork

First stop on our North American tour was Vancouver to visit my sister and her husband in the super-cute Kitsilano area. Their garden was full of vegetables and their deck covered in pots of flowers and herbs - heaven for the local hummingbirds.

Apart from having a green thumb, my sister is also a crafty DIY gal and a whiz with origami. I adore this amazing artwork that she created for her husband as a wedding gift, featuring a thousand Japanese paper cranes that she folded herself leading up to their big day. According to Japanese folklore, the person who folds a thousand paper cranes is granted a wish by a crane. Origami cranes given as gifts are said to be powerfully lucky; what an amazing wedding gift!

You can make this artwork with your favourite paper (origami or not) and a serious amount of patience. There are a huge number of paper crane tutorials online. My sister recommends bundling the finished cranes in groups of 10 to keep track. Once you have folded one thousands cranes, use your imagination to display them in a frame. You can spray a little adhesive onto the frame backing to ensure that the cranes do not move once they are hung. Place the cranes randomly in the frame, or create a pattern. My sister used solid origami paper, a black backing sheet and a square black frame to showcase her work.

This is also a great project to try with older kids, and a great school holiday project. It's perfect for a rainy day but this craft is portable, so you can also take your papers with you to the park.

Have you tried making paper cranes? How long did it take you?

Images: (c) Steph Bond-Hutkin