Half a Mile...and Counting!

I have recently counted 500 cranes! To mark the completion of the first half of my journey to folding 1000 paper cranes, I thought another crane post was in order.

Over time, I have folded some very strange cranes. I folded them out of everything and anything I could get my hands on, even chocolate wrappers. There have been some strange mutations indeed on Paper Moon in the past. Let us revisit some favorite crane posts: "Mutant Cranes" and "Cranes Again".

I made them in just about every size that would fit in the box under my bed.

Cranes have been my favorite things to fold since I started doing origami, and I've tried my hand at some variations before (see "Box O' Cranes").

In honor of the occasion, I made a few (many -- I actually spent way too much time on this) neat crane variations.

Let us start with some traditional variations.

Wavy-Winged Crane

Congratulations Crane

Crane Box

And then some not-so-traditional ones...

Imoseyama, or as I like to call them, Siamese Cranes.
I wonder if they count as one crane or two... 

The freaky Four-Legged Crane.
I don't know why anyone would do this, but oh well.

The Standing Crane

And the dreaded Three-Headed Crane

I am obsessed with bookmarks and have been making my own since I was very young. I recently discovered Tadashi Mori's lovely origami crane bookmarks. Here are his tsuru bookmarker tutorials for the square-based one and the triangle-based one.

Tadashi Mori's tsuru bookmark in my
Collector's Edition of the Dragon Age 2 Official Guide

This beautiful crane variation by Eric Joisel has to be one of my favorites. Watch the master himself at work in this video. Mine certainly doesn't do it justice.

These last two are very different and in no way resemble a traditional crane. They will probably not be included in my crane count. I did not even make clean versions of them, just kept the rough kraft paper drafts. I thought they were interesting models though, despite how messy they look.

Flying crane

Crane in Flight

For some great resources and diagrams, visit the Origami Resource Center.

Onward to the 1000!

Lots of Paper Love to Moms

Lebanon celebrates Mother's Day today. So if you are a mom, wherever you are, you are a remarkable being.

I was one of those kids who were fortunate to have had a supermom growing up. If you're like me, and if your mom was your comfort and solace, your teacher and friend, then don't forget to tell her so today. Remember that during those long hours in the delivery room, she was busy pushing your ungrateful fat head out of herself so that for many years to come she could cook for you, clean you, drive you around and spend every waking moment making you happy. So when she hugs you, don't pull away too soon.


If you're thinking of giving your mom a home-made card this year, why not go the extra mile! I've been into pop-up art lately (see this previous post), and I have received requests for more pop-up (actually, it was like, one request...recommendation...suggestion? ok, it was a comment made in passing.)

These are not exactly Mother's Day themed, but really, why wouldn't your mom want aliens and butterflies?

So it came out better than I expected, although the nice engineering is somewhat overshadowed by my childish artwork.

It takes a lot of patience to align everything perfectly so that it will
overlap where it should and... not where it shouldn't.

I used watercolors because I wanted it to have a kind of dreamy and serene quality.

 

 For the alien, I used the rotator technique. For more on pop-up techniques, visit the wonderful and ever helpful Howcast channel on YouTube.

Finally, I made a little collapsible base for the moon to make it stand a little higher than the card, creating a kind of relief effect.

This one is much simpler. It also gave me a chance to dabble some more with paints. I like working with messy materials. It makes it all the more tantalizing.

And this was going to be part of a card, but it remained unfinished. Ironically, it would have been the most appropriate for the occasion.

Happy St. Paddy's Day!

I read somewhere that the color blue was initially associated with St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. However, green somehow came to replace it. I'm not complaining; green is a great color, and what better color for this Feast celebrated in the Emerald Isle? Plus, it gave me an excuse to make all this green origami.

First some clovers for good luck. For tutorials, check out happypuppytruffles' YouTube channel.

The one on the right was made with three units instead of four.
I then folded the flaps sideways to create a kind of stem.

 And of course, a top hat complete with Shamrock. Here are some helpful guidelines: page 1 - 2, but I pretty much improvised it.

 

And finally, here are some rosettes I thought could serve as nice decorations or traditional St. Patrick's Day badges. This is really more kirigami than origami, but fun nevertheless.

Well, the day is almost over and I have not seen a leprechaun yet. There are also rarely any rainbows in the city what with pollution and all. I gotta say though, I'm running out of origami paper, and that pot of gold would have come in handy.

But anyway, Happy Saint Paddy's Day everyone!

Paper Moon Logo

While I am working on my next project, which keeps growing the longer I spend in front of my computer screen researching models to fold, I thought I would post this neat little logo I made for Paper Moon. 

I'm really happy with how it came out. 

The letters are a mix of techniques I sort of improvised which I might turn into tutorials sometime. I'm not a big fan of the traditional two-dimensional letters; I much prefer these three-dimensional ones.

And of course, I couldn't help sprucing it up a bit with photo editor. It appears more professional and makes it look like I spent more time on it than I actually did.

Happy Teacher's/ Women's Day!

Well, I have not posted in ages. It only seems fit that I should post about two events at once today!

First, Happy Teacher's Day to all the wonderful teachers I know. 



I think Teacher's Day is celebrated on the 9th in Lebanon, but today was an official day off to celebrate our wonderful teachers, so this is appropriate. Today I'm not just thinking of my school and university teachers, but anyone who may have taught me something or helped me become a better person, whether they meant to or not. I know I would not be who I am today if it wasn't for all the people I've met, good and bad.

This thing I made is not strictly origami. I've recently become fascinated by pop-up art after getting my hands on this beautiful book by Benjamin Lacombe called Il était une fois. It has made me want to dabble in pop-up. Hence, this card I made for my wonderful supervisor.

It's part origami, part glue and inky fingers. It's a little bit messy, but it was only my second try, so I'm not too upset.

Second, a very Happy Women's Day to all the lovely ladies out there! 

(And a very average day to all the not-so-lovely ladies.)


Unfortunately, I know a truck-full of disappointing ladies I try to keep out of my life, but I'm infinitely grateful for the handful of beautiful women I know who I can look up to and trust. You know who you are.

 I hope you remembered to celebrate the women in your life today. And I hope all you ladies had a beautiful day. 

And, okay, gentlemen teachers, you're great too...