This blog is dedicated to my grandmother, and to all those who have been touched in some way by the art of my origami cranes. I am paying it forward, one small piece of paper at a time.



Senbazuru is the Japanese art of folding one thousand origami cranes. There is a legend stating that whoever folds 1,000 paper cranes will be granted a wish by the ancient bird spirit, but traditionally the feat is performed to wish eternal good luck, benevolence, and one thousand years of prosperity. For these reasons, I felt in my heart that it would be the perfect expression of appreciation, gratitude and ultimately, respectful farewell.


From the moment the idea came to me, I knew I could mould and shape this project into my own expression of something we could share together - a labor of love that she would appreciate, even if no one else in my family could fully understand what it all meant.


Each set of one hundred cranes featured here represents a moment, a memory, a spark in my life that we shared together that helped influence the person who I have become today. I hope you enjoy reading my personal reflections, so that you may fully understand the empowerment this project has had on me, and the inspiring statement of sharing beauty and joy that I learned as a result of folding my 1,000th crane.

Thursday, October 24, 2013

500/1000

  It's the halfway mark now. Five-hundred origami cranes. Depending on the paper and how quickly I fold them, each crane takes me about 4-5 minutes. Factoring in the time I spend selecting and cutting paper, I have spent around 40 hours on this project so far, give or take a few. This is certainly a dedicated task, and will be rivaling some of my most time consuming artwork to date upon its completion.

  Crane series 500 is dedicated to all the times we spent looking out your window into the backyard where your feeders and bird bath were. While we ate a meal at the table, played a game together, or just sat and talked, we always gazed out the windows at the wildlife. Past the curtains and stained glass decor, we saw cardinals, blue jays, crows, juncos, chickadees, sparrows, finches, mourning doves, grackles, starlings, downy woodpeckers, nuthatches, robins, goldfinches and orioles. There was also the occasional acrobatic squirrel raiding the feeder, and sometimes the chipmunks would pop their heads out of the ivy and marigolds.

  Part of the reason why I love birds and animals so much is because of the physical closeness that you were able to expose me to as a child, and appreciation for nature has been strong with me ever since. I hope you'll enjoy picking out my drawings of the species detailed on select cranes from this flock.



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