Dude, You got papers?
Boy's Obsession du jour (tm): Origami
Mom: paperless. We've used up what there was left over from when the now-17 year old went through this phase. You'll be happy to know that papers hold up well when left in proper storage.
Action: magazine paper!
Cut: 8 inches square. It helps to have vintage Department of Treasury shears used by banks in the old days to cut new sheets of bills apart, but regular safety scissors also work.
Pretty, eh?
Fold. Make 12, one for each year of the Chinese Zodiac (another one of his interests, because of the animals, see?) 6 out of coloured, 6 out of editorial.
Stick them together.
Mystery Stole: row 279. I am considering knitting the longer length.
Origami was the bane of my second-grade existence--couldn't make a swan to save my life. But the zodiac wreath looks great.
Posted by: colleen | July 30, 2007 at 09:47 PM
I'm considering scrapping my stole, and starting with new yarn. It's only knitting, right?
Love the origami -- have you seen the felted cranes at http://knitnotwar.com/ ?
Very cool.
Posted by: Heather | July 30, 2007 at 09:56 PM
I so love origami to this day. It still amazes me what a little piece of paper can turn into. Love the use of magazine papers. I actually made wreathes similar to that for christmas ornaments. I used scrap book papers.
Where is that stole pictures? ;)
Posted by: Tonia | July 30, 2007 at 09:56 PM
I used to do a lot of origami. It was very relaxing.
You might enjoy these sites:
http://www.langorigami.com/index.php4
http://chosetec.darkclan.net/origami/
Posted by: June | July 30, 2007 at 10:48 PM
Have you seen the recent article on Origami in the June edition of Smithsonian magazine? Wild stuff.
http://www.smithsonianmagazine.com/issues/2007/june/origami.php
Posted by: Kat | July 30, 2007 at 10:49 PM
That's a much more productive use of editorials than I thought it would be, given the post title...
Snork...man, I'm old. Either that or I've been married to French guy for too long already...he claims it's tradition to smoke your citizenship card, for pete's sake. Also, you must say "I am French, I do not care" while you do it. ;-)
Posted by: Lee Ann | July 30, 2007 at 10:52 PM
Wow! Super cool. I've often wished I could do Origami. But alas - never learned. :(
Posted by: stephanie | July 31, 2007 at 12:07 AM
Just finished chart E on my stole, it is going to be quite long enough I think so I will just do chart F and leave it at that :-) Should be done by Friday :-)
Posted by: Janine | July 31, 2007 at 02:45 AM
It's a great way to recycle magazines and your origami then holds up very well. I've used it myself for origami bookmarks.
Posted by: Julie | July 31, 2007 at 04:50 AM
Cool wreath. Never did master folds and critters.
Posted by: Laurie | July 31, 2007 at 06:18 AM
What a great idea for those moms who are caught paperless! Plus it looks fabulous. I love origami (love japanese papers, fabrics, etc.) and the preciseness of the folding process. And at the end of the process, funky objects d'art (sort of!).
Posted by: Grace | July 31, 2007 at 07:31 AM
Fun. I have a whole unopened pack of origami paper, I can bring it Wed. if you want it. Though I think I like your homemade a little better!
Posted by: PumpkinMama | July 31, 2007 at 08:35 AM
Cracking up at Lee Ann's comment- the same thing crossed my mind initially. Love the zodiac wreath! Mind sharing the folds for this one? It would be a great fine motor exercise for my youngest.
Posted by: Manise | July 31, 2007 at 09:06 AM
I know all about the obsessions. The walls in my kitchen are covered with various games such as pin-the-tail on the donkey - all made by Bean and therefore varying in levels of accuracy. One wall is covered by pictures of alligators all drawn on sheets of large post-its.
I don't know how much you are into board games, but I introduced Bean to the game "Sorry" over the weekend. True to her genes, she loves it, thus delighting my mother and me who have been waiting until she was old enough to become as obsessed as we used to be!
Posted by: liz | July 31, 2007 at 09:17 AM
Maybe he can work his way up to the origami Cthulu? (http://spinflipper.com/blog/?p=38 originally found on BoingBoing.)
Posted by: Melanie | July 31, 2007 at 09:48 AM
oh that's beautiful!
david has a pair of those shears and i've often wondered about their origins . . .
Posted by: anne | July 31, 2007 at 10:46 AM
Neat wreath. My son is also interest in oragami -- also a crafty little dude.
Posted by: Kathy | July 31, 2007 at 11:54 AM
That boy of yours is wicked smaht. I can't believe he's doing unit origami.
All I can fold is a crane. I make them out of Post-Its at work, when I'm bored and caught up on my Bloglines. ;-)
Posted by: Beth S. | July 31, 2007 at 11:59 AM
I used to make origami lilies and stick them to the ends of pens to they wouldn't get stolen. I wish I could remember how to make a crane...
Posted by: Christie | July 31, 2007 at 12:55 PM
I remember reading a story about a girl who was in the hospital and she folded a thousand cranes to make a wish. She used all manner of paper, newspaper, paper wrappers from jars and pill bottles, left over wrapping paper. My bestfriend and I tried doing something like that in highschool but the farthest we got was to 500. We strung them with thread and hung them on a wire hanger and gave them to a lady from her church who was in the hospital. She really loved it.
Posted by: Nicole | July 31, 2007 at 03:46 PM
When I was in fourth grade, I did a group book report on "James and the Giant Peach." For part of our report, we were going to have a 3D model of the peach being carried by all those birds. I was given the lucky job of folding all those paper cranes. Almost ten years later, I can still fold paper cranes.
Posted by: Lisa | July 31, 2007 at 08:01 PM
Excellent origami! What a creative kid you have there!
Posted by: Kim | August 01, 2007 at 01:12 PM