The Origami Day

I was reading the nuclear chemistry chapter and taking notes. I got bored, so I decided to do some other activity, and I was about to close the book I noticed the atom bomb on one page; I read that page, which was about the atom bomb that exploded in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I closed the book.

A memory hit me. When I was in grade 6, I had prose in Tamil about a young girl named Sadako Sasaki. She was a Japanese girl who became a victim of the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki when she was two years old. Though severely irradiated, she survived for another ten years. She has remembered through the story of the one thousand origami cranes she tried to fold before her death, but she completed only 644. After her death, her friends completed the task and buried the cranes in her tomb.

That tragedy story gave me some inspiration about Origami. So I decided to do Origami. I have not done Origami before, so I searched on the internet and decided to do my first Origami Crane. I followed all the instructions and started doing it.

For this project, I would need 1 square piece of paper. The first step was to fold the square diagonally, corner to corner. The process has to repeat so that it looks like an x on the paper. The second step was to flip the paper over and fold the paper in half horizontally. I repeated the process.

I opened the square up, keeping the coloured side down. Then turned the square paper so that one of the corners was pointing in my direction. I brought the two side corners in to meet the corner on the table that pointed at me.

I took the top corner that was still sticking up and press it down to join the other corners, creating an accordion-folded square.

With the flap corners still facing me, I took the top right-hand corner of the square and folded it into the centre diagonal line of the square paper. The result of folds would look a bit like the Superman logo shape. I repeated that with the left top corner.

Once both parts folded in, I pulled the top part down and pressed the crease.

After I had both halves of the triangle pulled in, I pulled them back out and lifted the top piece of paper.

Next, I lifted the top front corner and held down the other three front corners. Then I pulled the top corner up. It looked like a frog's mouth. The next part was a bit tricky. I pulled the top corner all up and back then the top piece laid flat. Carefully I pressed all the folds down, so I ended up with a diamond shape on top of the bottom diagonal square.

I flipped the paper over and repeat Steps 5-7 to the other side. Next, I folded the right top corner of the diamond to meet the centerline. Then I pressed down that fold. I repeated this for the left top corner. Then flipped the paper over and repeated the steps for the other side. I ended up with something that looked a bit like a skinny kite shape.

I lifted the top right side and pressed it over to the other side, like turning a page in a book. Then I pressed down the middle fold. I flipped the paper over and repeated that in the same direction, right to left, on the other side. I ended up with a very elongated wolf head shape.

I laughed at wolf head. Then I lifted the wolf snout and folded, so it met with the tips of the ears. I pressed that new fold down. Then I flipped the paper over and repeated it on the other side. I folded the top layer of the paper in a book fold, from right to left. I flipped the paper over and repeated the other side.

Next, I pulled out the long pieces of paper (the head/neck & tail). I pulled them both out so that they line up with the angle of the body fold. I bent the top of one side down to make the head. I folded both wings down where two different angles meet on the wing flaps. Then I pressed the folds.

To finish off the crane and make it able to stand, I gently pulled the wings apart where they folded. Then turned the crane upside down and gently pulled the opposite corners apart to finish opening up the body.

Finally, I did my crane. It was more difficult than I thought. I wondered how Sadako did 644 cranes. Anyway, I learned Origami today.