Getting to know you

The folding is ticking along (remember, I update the totalizer as I go along, so you can always check up on me!), but repeating the same folds over and over doesn't really make for interesting blog posts. I am looking into doing a video tutorial of folding a crane, and also a tutorial on folding a sailboat, so look out for those. In the meantime I thought you might like to know a bit more about me.


Yup, that is me. I was dressed as Oscar the Grouch for Halloween. It was a toss up for the picture between that and when I was dressed up as Brian Blessed. Well, my name is Kirsty, and I'm 26. I'm originally from Chorley in Lancashire, but now live in Leeds, Yorkshire (via Luton and the midlands) with my husband Rob and our two dogs Josh and Sugar.

I work full time for the council, and I'm also training to be a counsellor. In my spare time (when I'm not folding cranes or studying) you'll usually find me down the pub or on the internet reading blogs or Dr Who spoilers. Yep, I am that much of a geek.

I read a lot of arts and craft blogs, even though I'm not really all that good with my hands, and get very jealous of people who are super-talented. Often they show their always individual and creative craft spaces, and I get jealous of that too, because my craft space is a bag hung on the curtain pole and a box file for keeping my cranes in. I tend to fold sat on the sofa, and since we moved to Leeds, I haven't had my own space (I used to have a little desk in the corner of Rob's study, but there isn't room for it now). I try to make my desk at work quite quirky though, as a lot of it is stuff Rob's outlawed at home (he likes minimalist, I like...well, just look at my desk)


You can see my Dr Who stuff, my abundance of hello kitty crap, Camp Rock memorabilia and a few origami bits and bobs. In all fairness, a lot of stuff was given to me as gifts (like the fluffy flamingo and the Weeble Walrus). You can also see how my wall is plastered with newspaper clippings I like, cartoons and drawings I've done. The more eagle eyed of you will have spotted the John Barrowman figurine and the Cliff Richard photo (yup, I'm a little bit naff too). There's more on the other side of my desk, but I won't inflict that on you. You're missing out on a stuffed platypus, a momiji doll and more dr who/hello kitty stuff. oh, and a toy of the meerkat-like thing from ice age (sid? is he called sid? my dad would know, he LOVES that film).

All of this adds up to me, and it's my love of artistic stuff (even though I'm not an artist), an inherent need to surround myself with fun things(hence my desk) and my willingness to "give it a go" that makes me feel I can label myself as creative...and more about that later.

I'd love to know more about my readers, so please leave a comment or send me an email telling me at least one interesting fact about you!

It's a giant kick ass crane!

I get emails/tweets from people who spot interesting origami stuff, but nobody mentioned this. I found it by accident when I was doing my usual click-through from links on twitter, which usually throws up interesting blogs or news stories that I'd never normally and it stopped me in my tracks. It was this:


This amazing light up crane was the centrepiece of the Coachella Festival in California. I'd read about the festival (mainly because Matt Smith, the new Doctor in Dr Who was there holding hands with someone, and I'm a geek and read news stories like that), but nowhere had I seen this:


Or anything like this. Ever. It's outstanding. It's made by Crimson Collective, a group of artists from LA, and it's well worth checking out their website for photos of the process of making such a mammoth of a crane. They're also super nice as I emailed them to ask for photos to put on here and they sent a lovely email back with their press pack and an offer to bring the crane over to the UK!

Here are some more fab pics:




It's powered by solar panels, with what looks like a spectrum of different lights. Plus, it's modular, so they can take it down and reuse it (hence being able to bring it over). I wish we had something like this planned for Light Night. Oh, wait, we do! My cranes!

How do you solve a problem like...

It's April! That means bunnies, april showers and...the Light Night submission deadline.

My submission has been in for a while, so I don't need to worry about that, but it's getting close to the deadline, which obviously then means close to them making a decision about it. As they can't comment until after the deadline, I've no idea what the outcome might be, so at the moment, it's quite nervewracking.

The other thing is that if my submission is successful (fingers crossed please!), I'll be invited to present my idea; and that's nervewracking too. In fact, trying to figure out how to encapsulate the idea easily is becoming a real problem.

I'm worried about standing up in front of artists - proper, doing-it-for-real, wasn't-kicked-out-of-art-class-like-I-was artists - and trying to explain how the whole thing will look and what it's all about; and because i can't draw I can't really make mockups, so all I can really do is take Blue Canary 2 (it's original Blue Canary, but he has a new battery) and say, imagine it's dark, and there's 1000 of these, woo won't it look great?" and hope they get it. If they don't, I could be in trouble. Everyone I've explained it to, really explained it to, has got it, and loved it, but it sometimes takes a while to explain, with people asking questions and such, so how do i condense that into a short one-sided presentation?

So how do you solve a problem like this? Any ideas?

Running total

I haven't done much folding yet, as I've been busy with other stuff (did I mention that as well as doing this, I work full time and am also studying for TWO diplomas?)

I have made ten cranes though, which is 1%. it's enough to actually register as a percentage!

A few people have asked about me starting to fold before I've definitely had the go-ahead. I had planned on waiting, but it's a lot of work in addition to everything else I have going on. Not only is there the folding of the cranes, but getting the paper sorted takes ages, plus putting the LEDs in, then connecting the batteries. It will all take time, and I'd rather err on the side of caution.

Plus if I don't get in, I can always have a giveaway of the cranes I've folded so far!

Totalizer!

Thank you to Rachel, who gave me the html for a totalizer, which my lovely husband has basically badgered around with it until it was the colour I wanted. Now you can follow my progress as to folding the cranes!

How to fold an origami crane

If you want to join in with folding 1000 cranes, here's how you do it (apologies for the somewhat blurry photos):


1. starting with a square piece of paper, fold in half diagonally


2. fold in half diagonally again, so it's in quarters


3. lifting the triangular flap you just made, open it out and press it down


4. it should look like this


5. turn over and repeat on the other side


6. fold the edges into the middle. turn over and repeat


7. you should have a kite shape


8. fold the top triangle down along the top of the previous folds (so it makes an inverted triangle)


9. unfold the folds from steps 7 and 8. lift the front flap along the fold from step 8 (it looks like a bird's beak)


10. flatten out. turn over and repeat. (incidentally, this is the bird base)


11. fold the lower outside edges into the middle. turn over and repeat


12. it should look like this


13. turn the right hand flap over as if turning the page of a book (i know that sound rubbish, but it's hard to describe! you should see what i mean)


14. it will look like this


15. fold the bottom point up to meet the top point


16. turn over and repeat steps 13 to 15. it will end up looking like this


17. turn the sides over, again like turning the pages of a book. it will look like this


18. gently pull the inside points out from the centre. you just kind of squash the bottom bits down to keep them in place


19. it will look like this


20. fold the front flaps down - you'll see a natural place to fold them along the middle bit. turn over and repeat


21. take the top of one of the points and gently fold it down. as you fold it down, you'll see a crease in the middle - if you press on that, it will sort of collapse in on itself and create the crane's head


22. it will look like this - you can see how it looks like a crane now!


23. take the wings and gently pull them apart. you'll see a square bit forming in the middle


24. press the square bit down gently and it will pop into place. this is the body of the crane


25. ta da! crane is done!

It's just a fold to the left...

As it is pretty much a waiting game now until the deadline, it feels a bit odd. the prototype is done, and until I'm making masses of them, I can't foresee the problems that are going to come up. I don't want to buy all the expensive electronic bits until I know I'm definitely going ahead, so I felt at a bit of a loss.

So I did what I always do when I'm at a loose end. I started folding.

I bought a ream of paper, and started making the cranes.

Getting the paper "ready" is a three part process: first I have to fold it to make a square, then cut the excess (which will be what I make the sailboats from), then stick a bit of sellotape into the centre to reinforce where the LED is going to stick through. Only then is the paper ready to fold into the crane. That's the bit that's a pain, rather than the actual origami stuff.

I'm trying to find a sort of totalizer for the blog, so that you can see how I'm getting on, but at the moment, I've folded two cranes. Okay, not so many, but I've made paper for loads more.

I'm also working on making a "how to" post, so if you want to join in, you can learn how to fold your own crane!