Origami Christmas Tree Decorations

I remember that the Christian high school that I attended in Japan had a Christmas tree with apples as ornaments.  I don't know whose idea it was to decorate that way, but I thought it was strange not only to see apples hanging from an evergreen tree, but also to use the "forbidden fruit" as ornaments.

In our household we don't have a Christmas tree, but if we had one, I would of course love to decorate it in origami!  Since I never get to do that, I was really excited when my school asked me to decorate a Christmas tree with the kids for our neighborhood business, especially since the "neighborhood business" was Cavalia!  They have been performing in Portland, and their tents are set near our school.  They offered to do a special performance for some school children in the area including ours.  Cavalia also asked our school to decorate a Christmas tree for them.  The school put me in charge of this project.

For the past week I had been teaching the kids how to make origami ornaments.  We made 4 different kinds, about 50 ornaments in total.

3D snowflake design found at Papar Zone

Six pointed star found here

Step 8 of this frog model assembled together to make these ornaments.

My own design by simple accordion folds and gluing ends together

I also made an origami horse as a tree topper.  This origami horse model is from a little book I picked up at a 100 yen shop and by Makoto Yamaguchi (it is called 親子で折るおけいこ折り紙上級).  I used wet-folding method for the first time for this model.  Wet-folding is a technique developed by origami artist Akira Yoshizawa, and many origami artists who like more realistic looks on their models use this method.  Wet-folding creates more curves instead of geometric sharp edges that comes from normal origami folding.  Since it was my very first wet-folding model, it didn't look perfect but I think it came out pretty cool!  Thank you RC from POPS for giving me tips on wet-folding.

Here are some photos of the Christmas tree taken at Cavalia.  I got to go to the show as one of the chaperons for our school children.

The entire Cavalia performance was breathtakingly amazing and beautiful.  I enjoyed every second of it.  Since photographing was not permitted during the show, unfortunately I don't have any photos to share.  But we were allowed to photograph during Q&A after the show.  It was such a holiday treat to get to watch this special Cavalia performance!

My fall-themed work station

"Before"

"After"

I just decorated my work station to be seasonally appropriate.   As you can see in the first photo, I used to have a goldfish print cotton cloth ("tenugui"), which I bought back from Japan and stitched to a piece of bamboo as a wall hanging.  My sister recently gave me this beautiful Japanese maple print one for fall, so I switched.  Another addition to the work station is a jack-o-lantern box to hold Halloween candies.  This funny, topless pyramid-shaped box was a diagram by Chizu Akagi, included in a Daiyo origami package.

Fall Decorations in Origami

After some rain, temperature drops, and color changes of foliage, it really feels like we have entered into the fall season here in Portland.  I personally prefer summer over fall, but with Halloween being my favorite holiday of all, I am excited to be in October.  I love Halloween not because I am big on dressing up in costumes or trick-or-treating (too old for that, of course).  I love Halloween because I love doing Halloween themed crafting projects with kids, giving away candies to trick-or-treaters at my door, and all the spookiness that come with the holiday.

A few years ago just before the Halloween season, I received a donation of a big orange butcher paper roll from a parent at my school.  I decided to cut the paper into a square and make an origami jack-o-lantern out of it.  It turned out to be about actual size of a pumpkin, PERFECT.  Pretty soon, I started making a bunch with the kids at school.  A year after, I proposed a new library program about it, which turned out to be a huge hit.  I never would have come up with this idea if I didn't receive the donation of the orange butcher paper, so I am very grateful for it.

So here they are... the life-size jack-o-lanterns in origami!  ...And the little ones to go on the Christmas lights too.

I am offering the Fall Decorations in Origami program at just one Multnomah County Library location this fall.  The program includes how to make a 3-D, life-size pumpkin in origami, using orange butcher paper. You will also learn to make bats, ghosts, and other fall-themed characters in origami as well as kirigami (folding and cutting paper art).

Saturday, October 22  2-4pm at Gresham Library.  It's a drop-in class, this program has always been very popular and often full.  Arrive early to reserve yourself a spot!

Happy Spring

It has been such a wet spring here in Portland.  It rained almost every day in March and just about the same way in April so far.  Cherry blossoms which are my favorite flowers in spring only lasted a few days in downtown because of all the rain.  We had a nice sunny day last Saturday, but it didn't last long.  Sorry for complaining, but I'm sooooo ready for more nicer weather!

Today I went to teach my monthly class at the senior assisted residency, and the theme was the spring celebration.  We made tulips and butterflies and pasted them on a sky blue background.  Some of the people wrote "Happy Spring" and "Spring Has Sprung" on the cards.  Those are our wishes right now, for sure.

Valentine's Day Origami

I just went to teach a class at an assisted living facility for seniors.  I've enjoyed the privilege of doing this almost every month for the last two years.  It's a very rewarding and invigorating job for me especially since I believe in life-long learning.

I also believe that seniors can benefit so much from folding paper.  Many seniors suffer from arthritis so folding paper is a good rehabilitation for their hands.  It helps them to stay sharp as well, because origami is an excise that stimulates both right and left sides of the brains.  One of the residents who always come to my class is Japanese, and I suppose that doing origami helps her feel rooted to her heritage so that is another benefit for someone like her.

I love celebrating seasons and holidays, so this time I taught it in the theme of Valentine's Day.  There are so many different origami hearts, like you can see.  All of these models are from Origami Club.

But there wasn't enough time to make them all, so I showed them just two things: the heart with wings, and the heart charm.

I always try to select models that the residents can give out as gifts or use in their rooms as decorations.

Here is my dog wearing the heart as a dog tag.