Puddle Splashin': Origami

Have I mentioned that I love working with paper? I don't know what it is. I love the crisp feel of it in my hands. I love its versatility. I love how it's so common yet it can be transformed so many ways to create really interesting shapes. It is bold in shape yet so light when we hold it. I think what draws me to it the most is that it is strong and delicate at the same time.

Last week I decided to pull out an old origami book I had lying around the house. I flipped through the pages and decided I wanted to make the brontosaurus dinosaur at the very end of the book (the book calls it a diplodocus but back when I was in elementary school we called it brontosaurus). It was always one of my favorite dinos. They seemed so gentle and graceful with their long necks and smooth curves. Did you have a favorite dinosaur? Anyway I figured out pretty quickly that the book gets harder as it gets to the end. I had been a bit too ambitious...but I had started and I decided I wanted to finish. Folding the piece itself wasn't so hard. If any of you have tried to learn origami from a book, you know that the bigger part of the challenge is trying to decipher what the book is telling you to do. It's like cracking a code. It was definitely a test of patience and perseverance. The end product is my little green bronto...he is a medal of hard work and determination. Guess how long this little creature took to make? A good 4-5 solid hours. 62 steps. Yes, it doesn't look like much and he's not perfect but he's a trophy to me :)

There are some really amazing works of origami out there. Here are some photos you might enjoy. :) There are also Youtube videos under origami artist if you're interested.