Lets Make Origami

Wednesday, January 16, 6:30pm-8pm Sellwood-Moreland Library
Saturday, January 26, 3-4:30pm Albina Library
Tuesday, February 5, 4-5:30pm Hollywood Library
Wednesday, February 13, 4:30-6pm Troutdale Library
Tuesday, February, 19, 5:30-7pm Northwest Library

All classes are free.  First come first served, except for the Troutdale Library class, which requires registration  (from here).

Fairy model by Isamu Asahi from みんなたのしい折ってあそぶおりがみ
Folded, installed & photographed by Yuki

Every summer since 2006 at Willowbrook Arts Camp I teach the campers to fold 1,000 paper cranes as prayers for world peace.  Since we have hundreds of campers every day, it has never been that big of a challenge to finish folding 1,000 paper cranes, but it's a good opportunity for me to promote peace, which is one of our missions of Willowbrook.  In the past I have had some of the campers or staff members deliver the cranes to Hiroshima Peace Memorial, but this year I was able to travel to Hiroshima to do that myself for the first time.  

In case you are not familiar about the story of 1,000 paper cranes, I'll tell you now in short.  There was a Japanese girl called Sadako who got exposed to the Hiroshima atomic bomb at the age of two and developed leukemia ten years later.  After hearing of a Japanese legend that promises anyone who folds a thousand paper cranes will be granted a wish, Sadako started folding paper cranes at the hospital so she could have a wish to survive.  She eventually died, but her classmates built a monument for her and other Hiroshima children who died from the atomic bomb.  This story inspired people from all over the world, including us at Willowbrook, to contribute 1,000 in prayers for world peace.

There I was, at Children's Peace Monument in Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park.  There are glass stalls behind Sadako's monument where people hung paper cranes.

Our paper cranes are made of magazine paper. Not as bright as some others but recycled material.

Here are some of other paper cranes that I saw in the stalls at the park.

I am excited to announce two brand-new library programs that I am offering in May.  One is about Japanese Children's Day, offered at 5 branches.  The other one is spring themed origami program, offered at just one branch.

Mini carp streamer

Mini samurai helmet worn by my dog

"Japanese Children's Day"
May 5th is "Children's Day" in Japan, a special day that is all about celebrating children!  Find out how this Japanese national holiday is observed by making fun paper crafts.  Artist Yuki Martin will show you how to create all sorts of fun projects including a mini origami carp streamer and a wearable paper samurai helmet.

Wednesday, May 2, 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm Rockwood Library
Saturday, May 5, 10:30 am - 12:00 pm Sellwood-Moreland Library
Saturday, May 5, 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm Gresham Library
Saturday, May 12, 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm Holgate Library
Saturday, May 19, 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm Kenton Library

All of the above classes are first come, first served.  Appropriate for K-5 and Families.

This Youtube video clip tells the story of Paper Cranes for Japan project, which started just after the Great Disaster in Northern Japan, exactly one year ago.


The first anniversary of the disaster marks today, March 11.  I honor lives lost and the progress made to reconstruct in Tohoku area.  

I will be working at anther beautiful "Garden" later this month!  This time, at the Portland Japanese Garden, for Hina Matsuri, the Japanese Doll Festival.  I will be offering a simple origami Hina doll making workshop in a drop-in setting.  The photo below is a sample of what I will teach to make.  It's a greeting card which can be used for Hina Matsuri or a wedding.

I will also have a display of my own little origami Hina doll diorama, of which I won't include a photo because I want it to be a surprise!  All I can say is that it came out cute, and I'm proud of it.  After the workshop I will post a photo here.

The workshop will be offered for free with garden admission on Sunday, February 25th from noon to 3pm.  It will be offered inside of their pavilion, where they will also have display of their gorgeous seven-tiered Hina dolls.

Long time no blog...  I've been quite sluggish ever since the holiday season.  But I just had my monthly origami class at a senior residency, and I thought I would share the experience through my blog because it was a lot of fun!

The residency had a monthly theme of China for January so I decided that we make an origami pagoda.  Each participant made one tier in different size, and I stacked them together.  It came out to be an 11 tier pagoda!  This was a project that I had never offered before so I was not quite sure if a tall paper building like this could stand on its own, but it did!  Pretty cool!

Before the class I had made a sign that says Happy New Year in Chinese, using red and gold, which are auspicious colors for Chinese.  Everyone put her/his signature on it, and I displayed the pagoda and the sign together.

As for the origami pagoda model I used, I'm not sure where I got it originally, but I've seen it all over origami books so perhaps it is densho.  It might even be Chinese densho.  Here is one instruction I found online.

I remember that the Christian high school that I attended in Japan had a Christmas tree with apples as ornaments.  I don't know whose idea it was to decorate that way, but I thought it was strange not only to see apples hanging from an evergreen tree, but also to use the "forbidden fruit" as ornaments.

In our household we don't have a Christmas tree, but if we had one, I would of course love to decorate it in origami!  Since I never get to do that, I was really excited when my school asked me to decorate a Christmas tree with the kids for our neighbor, especially since the "neighbor" was Cavalia!  They have been performing in Portland, and their tents are set near our school.  They offered to do a special performance for some school children in the area including ours.  Cavalia also asked our school to decorate a Christmas tree for them.  The school put me in charge of this project.

For the past week I had been teaching the kids how to make origami ornaments.  We made 4 different kinds, about 50 ornaments in total.

3D snowflake design found at Papar Zone

Six pointed star found here

Step 8 of this frog model assembled together to make these ornaments.

My simple design of accordion folds and gluing ends together

I also folded an origami horse as a tree topper.  This origami horse model is from a little book I picked up at a 100 yen shop and by Makoto Yamaguchi (it is called 親子で折るおけいこ折り紙上級).  I used wet-folding method for the first time for this model.  Wet-folding is a technique developed by origami artist Akira Yoshizawa, and many origami artists who like more realistic looks on their models use this method.  Wet-folding creates more curves instead of geometric sharp edges that comes from normal origami folding.  Since it was my very first wet-folding model, it didn't look perfect but I think it came out pretty cool!  Thank you RC from POPS for giving me tips on wet-folding.


Here are some photos of the Christmas tree taken at Cavalia.  I got to go to the show as one of the chaperons for our school children.




The entire Cavalia performance was breathtakingly amazing and beautiful.  I enjoyed every second of it.  Since photographing was not permitted during the show, unfortunately I don't have any photos to share.  But we were allowed to photograph during Q&A after the show.  It was such a holiday treat to get to watch this special Cavalia performance!

I recently read an article on the rebuilding updates in the northern part of Japan after the March 11 disaster.  The article shows a few sets of photos, and each set includes a shot of right after the disaster, another shot at the same location after 3 months, and finally the 3rd shot being 6 months after.  It's this article.  You can see how much progress people have made recovering each area over time.  There surely is a lot of progress.  But the photos prove that it takes time to come back from something of this magnitude.

If you are wondering how you could help, here is an exciting opportunity to help some orphans from the disaster, especially if you are an origami enthusiast like me.

Mr. Makoto Yamaguchi, one of the foremost origami creators, has a volunteer project called Origami Caravan, which started as several visits to evacuation centers with origami paper and books, in order to lift the spirits of the survivors.  Now the project has progressed to collecting donations for the orphanage in the affected area.  Origami Caravan came up with this idea of asking some renown origami artists to donate their original artworks, and auctioning off those items online so they can donate the profits from the auctions to the orphanage.  What a great idea!

You can read more about this project and bid on the items from the official site of Origami Caravan.  The auctions are happening on eBay as of right now (Nov. 5, 2011) and will go on at least for a few more days.  A new item comes on every day.  Participating artists include Makoto Yamaguchi, Tomoko Fuse, Michael LaFosse, Satoshi Kamiya, and many more.  This is a rare opportunity to bid on an original artwork of an origami artist that you always admired, for a very good cause!

A couple of my co-workers at school are currently expecting baby girls.  Since their due dates are coming close almost at the same time, we are having a baby shower for both of them.  In addition to pitching in money to buy them gifts, I volunteered to make cards for them.

Here is another version of an origami baby card.  This hatching egg model is from Origami Jewelry book.

"Before"

"After"

I just decorated my work station to be seasonally appropriate.   As you can see in the first photo, I used to have a goldfish print cotton cloth ("tenugui"), which I bought back from Japan and stitched to a piece of bamboo as a wall hanging.  My sister recently gave me this beautiful Japanese maple print one for fall, so I switched.  Another addition to the work station is a jack-o-lantern box to hold Halloween candies.  This funny, topless pyramid-shaped box was a diagram by Chizu Akagi, included in a Daiyo origami package.

After some rain, temperature drops, and color changes of foliage, it really feels like we have entered into the fall season here in Portland.  I personally prefer summer over fall, but with Halloween being my favorite holiday of all, I am excited to be in October.  I love Halloween not because I am big on dressing up in costumes or trick-or-treating (too old for that, of course).  I love Halloween because I love doing Halloween themed crafting projects with kids, giving away candies to trick-or-treaters at my door, and all the spookiness that come with the holiday.

A few years ago just before the Halloween season, I received a donation of a big orange butcher paper roll from a parent at my school.  I decided to cut the paper into a square and make an origami jack-o-lantern out of it.  It turned out to be about actual size of a pumpkin, PERFECT.  Pretty soon, I started making a bunch with the kids at school.  A year after, I proposed a new library program about it, which turned out to be a huge hit.  I never would have come up with this idea if I didn't receive the donation of the orange butcher paper, so I am very grateful for it.

So here they are... the life-size jack-o-lanterns in origami!  ...And the little ones to go on the Christmas lights too.


I am offering the Fall Decorations in Origami program at just one Multnomah County Library location this fall.  The program includes how to make a 3-D, life-size pumpkin in origami, using orange butcher paper. You will also learn to make bats, ghosts, and other fall-themed characters in origami as well as kirigami (folding and cutting paper art).

Saturday, October 22  2-4pm at Gresham Library.  It's a drop-in class, this program has always been very popular and often full.  Arrive early to reserve yourself a spot!

I have a new program coming up at Multnomah County Library locations!  It is called Create Your Own Toys in Origami.  In this program I will introduce models of origami toys that are not only fun to make but also fun to play with!  Featured models include jumping frogs, finger puppets, ninja stars, spin tops and more.  The photo below shows the spin top model, which is the highlight of the program.  They are not only fun to spin, but also pretty to look at!

I recently received an e-mail announcement from Students Rebuild, a non-profit organization that was collecting paper cranes for rebuilding efforts in the tsunami-affected part of Japan back in March.  I had sent them over 1,400 cranes made by people at the camp, the school and the senior residency, all of where I teach (read this post for more details).

Back when they were asking people to donate cranes to match their money donation from Bezos Family Foundation, they said that their intention was to make the paper cranes into an art installation.  Now with a help from an artist named Vik Muniz along with some volunteers, they have turned the cranes into a beautiful photographed piece.  It's exciting to know that those cranes made by us are included in this big piece of art.  They made the photograph into posters, and they are now for sale on Students' Rebuild website.  The proceed will go to aid long term recovery and reconstruction.  For more details about this project, read this article on the New York Times.

Photograph by Andrew Moore for The New York Times

Not to be confused with origami.  Origami means folding paper in Japanese.  Orizomegami means folding and dyeing paper. It is a paper dyeing method that is used to create patterns on liquid absorbent paper.  This art form is relatively inexpensive and also easy to learn and to achieve beautiful result.  The finished product can be used as gift wrap, book cover, collage material, or anything else imaginable.

Recently, I went to teach an orizomegami workshop for teens at a library just outside of Portland.  They experimented with different folding patterns, papers and colors.  Of course, it came out different every time, like an kaleidoscope.  The moment of unfolding paper to see the result is an exciting, kind of like opening a present!

After papers were dried, we made greeting cards out of the dyed papers.  Here is a card that one of the teens created for her mom's birthday.  She said the dyed paper (coffee filter) is an umbrella.  It really does look like an Asian umbrella!  Beautiful!

I've made greeting cards with orizomegami before, but I had never thought of using the round ones like this.  I got so inspired that I made a greeting card using a dyed coffee filter as a sunburst, with a gold origami crane flying into the sun.  I should've had the photo of it, but I just realized that I already sold it at my camp auction.  I gotta have to make another one to post it here...

I've been so busy that I had forgotten to post about another new program I am offering at the libraries this summer!  The program is called Wearable Origami, and it's about making jewelry and accessories out of paper.  I will show how to make origami rings, bracelets and other accesories that people can actually wear.  It's a teen program, but it's not too difficult even for grade school age children so younger ones are welcome as well.

I taught how to make the origami rings to my nieces during my visit back home.  They got so excited that they each decided to make a few.

Note: the funny face on their table is of Anpanman, a Japanese cartoon character.  He is a superhero with a face of a red bean paste bun and very popular among Japanese kids.

Here is my niece showing off her sparkly rings.  They are made of metallic origami papers but can be made of gum wrappers instead.  Fun!



I also made an origami fan with my niece.  After she was done folding it, I told her she could decorate it however she wanted.  Within the 10 minutes she had before school, she whipped up a collage cupcake (?) and a bow to go on top of the fan.  I am so proud of her creativity!


Both the ring and the fan, as well as more fun items will be introduced in Wearable Origami program.

Sunday, July 17   2:30-4pm at Holgate Library
Wednesday, July 20   4:30-5:30pm Midland Library
Sunday, July 24, 2011   2-3pm Hollywood Library
Wednesday, August 3   5:30-6:30pm Albina Library
Saturday, August 6   2-3pm at Gregory Heights Library

A few weeks ago, I had posted about a sign that I made with origami alphabet models.  Since then, we made another one.  This new sign was put on another side of the playground fence.

We changed the wording from the last one and also placed some geometric origami models that are two dimensional, just to make it a little more interesting.  We had a bit of trouble laminating so it came out quite wrinkly.  But other than that it came out well in the sense that it's hard not to notice a sign this big and readable.

Most of the geometric models on this sign are from Home Decorating With Origami by Tomoko Fuse.  I have the original Japanese version of this book.  Ms. Fuse is known for her modular origami models and boxes, and this book is filled with her specialty: pretty decorations and practical models that you can use or give as gifts.  It's most appropriate for intermediate to advance paper folders.

A couple of weeks ago I was asked to make a sign with the children at my school.  The sign was to urge car drivers around our playground to slow down.  Without a doubt, I decided to make the sign in origami.  I know the instructions for origami alphabet letters.  I taught each child to make one letter from one sheet of square.  We just finished making the sign, laminated it and hung it up on the fence with zip ties.  Here is what it looks like.

This sign stands out so well even from across the street!  For the origami alphabet letters, we used what's called The Greengrocer's Brownbag Paper, cut to 8.5x8.5 square from letter size.  100% recycled, this paper is grocery sack brown on one side and cranberry tint color on the other.  In order to be readable, each alphabet letter needs to be made by a squared paper that is different color on each side, and the back side color needs to be the same as the background color (make sense?).  So using the brown bag/cranberry tinted papers for letters and a piece of natural brown butcher paper for the background worked out very well.

Here is another origami alphabet letter sign that I made a while back, using regular origami papers for letters, glued on white background.  The stand is made by origami too.

Origami Club has the instructions for origami alphabet.  There are two sets of fonts!

I just read another update on the Students Rebuild's Paper Cranes for Japan project.  Last time when I checked, which was about a week ago, they had received over 610,000 cranes, well over their goal of 100,000.  This tireless effort from all over the world triggered Bezos Family Foundation to decide to double its initial donation to $400,000.  Since then, Students Rebuild continued receiving more and more cranes, reaching 1,000,000!  They had also just received anonymous donation of $100,000, raising $500,000 in total for Japan!

I just received a nice comment saying that my postings on ways to benefit Japan were helpful.  Even though I've been writing a lot about Japan lately, I am now inspired to write another one again.

Mercy Corps has a program called Comfort for Kids, which recovers the emotional traumas that the young survivors are experiencing from this disaster.  Ever since the initial earthquake and tsunami on March 11, there has been so many aftershocks.  The crisis with the nuclear reactors still remains serious.  There has also been a lot of rain in the northern Japan in the last couple of days, which could cause a landslide.  They must be so scared, beyond our imaginations.  I'm so grateful that Mercy Corps is responding to not only physical needs but also emotional needs of the children, who are probably most traumatized.

As a part of their Comfort for Kids program, Mercy Corps is asking people to leave messages of comfort and encouragement, which they will translate to Japanese and give to the little survivors.  You can leave your message here.

I haven't left my message there yet.  I find it hard to try to write a comforting note to someone who is experiencing possibly the worst thing anyone could go through in life.  But I have some ideas of what I'm going to write, and I will write one, eventually.  I'm sure that the children have heard so many "Hang in there," so rather than using those phrases, I want to tell them to take it easy on themselves.  Cry when they want to.  Rely on people who offer to help them.  Always look for enjoyable things in life.

But I think any kind words would be nice for them to receive.  The whole point of this project is to let them know that so many of us care about them.

What the people lost in this disaster are tremendous, but I hope that their emotional pains will eventually heal.