Tuesday 3 May 2011

Fold For Japan update

I'm so sorry, I've never updated on Fold For Japan! My internet is down at home so I've kind of disappeared from the blogosphere for a while. Photos and TV APPEARANCE to come soon when I'm back up and running, but in the meantime, we folded 283 cranes in an hour! We were featured on Calendar news, Radio Leeds and Radio Aire, and in the Yorkshire Evening Post.

Best news of all, so far we've raised over £500! yaaay for cranes!!

Thursday 17 March 2011

Folding for Japan


Fold for Japan!


So What Is It?

We're holding a timed origami challenge - one hour for as many volunteers as possible to fold as many cranes as possible. This is a test of skill and dexterity.


Who Is It?

The event itself is being organised by the Fold For Peace origami group, who makes origami cranes for the Hiroshima/Nagasaki memorial in Leeds, and hold origami workshops throughout the year.


Anyone can join in. We'll be holding a workshop beforehand to teach people how to make cranes, and there will be worksheets available. Anyone who wants to have a go and add to the total is welcome.

When Is It?

Fold For Japan will be held at the Corn Exchange in Leeds on Saturday 16th April, with the origami challenge hour starting at 2pm.


How Will It Raise Money?

We're raising money for the The Red Cross. We will be being sponsored for our timed origami challenge. If you'd like to sponsor us you can donate at our JustGiving page, or by contacting us direct. We'll also have donation buckets available on the day, and after the cranes have been counted up you can take one home for a donation.


How Can You Get Involved?

Want to learn how to make a crane? Want to test your origami limits? Have a yearning to shake a bucket of loose change? Get in touch - we'd love to have you involved.


If you'd like to display a poster, or can help promote the event, please contact us at foldageddon@gmail.com


If you want to cheer us on please tell everyone you know to come to the Corn Exchange between 2-3pm on 16th April.


Thanks for reading - together we can really make a difference. Let the fun (un)fold!

Friday 11 March 2011

How was it for you?

I know sometimes you see an event advertised and think "ooh that sounds good, but what if everyone knows each other or it's really cliquey and what do I wear?" etc. Because I feel like that all the time. One of the main aims of Foldageddon was to get people to come who didn't normally go to arts events, and to make it accessible and lovely.

Hopefully that is the atmosphere that you get at Foldageddon (and if not, tell me why!); but for those of you not quite convinced I asked Emily, a recent guest at Folding For Peace, to give you a quick recap of her experience:

Browsing Twitter one day, I noticed a re-tweet from one of the people I follow. It said the following:
"RT @gazpachodragon: who fancies folding for peace on 28th February? origami cranes over a pint or two."

Well, I thought it sounded fun - I used to love origami as a kid (but hadn't done any for years). I sent Kirsty (@gazpachodragon) a message and arranged to join them.

Heading there on my own I was nervous - how many people would be there? Would they be friendly? Or would I just end up sat there on my own outside a clique of people?

As it turns out, I needn't have worried. There were a small group of people there, approximately six. Everyone was really friendly and made me feel welcome. It was all very informal and great fun, folding cranes whilst chatting and drinking. Everyone is happy to help if you forget what you are doing (or to show you how if you don't know).

So, if you fancy learning something new and meeting some new people, would definitely recommend attending one of these events! I'm very much looking forward to the next one... hope to see you there!

Wednesday 23 February 2011

Folding for peace

We will be Folding For Peace on 28th February.

I've held Folding for Peace events before, but I'm going to try and make them more regular and a more informal way for people to try their hand at origami. If you've never heard me talking about them, here's a rough introduction that I gave to someone:

Folding for Peace is basically a bunch of lovely people sat around chatting and drinking and folding cranes.

It started as me folding cranes for the Hiroshima/Nagasaki memorial last year when I was (in between my crane folding for Light Night) trying to fold lots of cranes in around two weeks. In need of reinforcements, I decamped to the pub and asked people to turn up and join in. Lovely people came, we recruited some tourists who'd asked us what we were doing, and in one evening (and we didn't even stay that late) we folded over 100 cranes.

So it really is that informal. You don't even have to fold if you don't want - some people don't! If you don't know how to fold a crane, we'll show you, but it's much more of a "i'm stuck" "here let me help" kind of vibe. Everyone pitches in helping each other. We also tend to have a few pints and do lots of chatting whilst we're there.

Be aware that it's not like Foldageddon where i stand at the front of the room and teach - we'll show you how to fold a crane, but you won't get a wide range of models. The whole point is to make lots of cranes to box up ready for the Hiroshima/Nagasaki memorial in August (though we don't frown on you taking a couple home if you're proud of them!)

It's actually really lovely, i'm quite enamoured with my Folding for Peace events. So yes, come, you will enjoy it x

guess who's back...

Hello, it's been a while hasn't it? I've been poorly, then took some time out to recuperate and get back on top form. Which I now am.

Expect lots of exciting news in the next few weeks...

Thursday 13 January 2011

Foldageddon: I Heart Folding

Foldageddon is back!

The next meeting will be on 7th February at 6pm. Tickets are free, but limited, and are available here.

We’ll be folding Valentine’s specials, but don’t worry if you don’t have a sweetheart, there’ll also be a practical model and it will all be good folding fun!

We’ll also be folding cranes after the meeting for Folding For Peace; and there will be exciting news about future Foldageddons as well.

Hope to see you there!

Friday 7 January 2011

Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2011 everyone!

I'm planning on making this year even better and more foldy than 2010, so look out! There are going to be online tutorials, more Foldageddon workshops and we want to FLOOD Park Square with cranes in Folding For Peace. So get ready, and get folding!