The Armchair Traveller

A few days before Christmas I got a phone call from my mum to inform me that her younger sister, my aunt and godmother, had been diagnosed with cancer. This was really upsetting news to hear especially because I am so far away from all my family. I am very close to my family and so in a situation like this I would go into support mode, but how do I support my aunt from the other side of the world?

I had some time to think about everything over the Christmas period while spending time with some close friends. One afternoon my friend and I sat down to make origami paper cranes from a kit she was sent by another friend of hers who was living in Japan and it was at this moment that I was hit by inspiration, I remembered the Japanese legend of making 1000 paper cranes and then making a wish so I did a little bit of internet research and this is what I found:

An ancient Japanese legend promises that anyone who folds a thousand origami cranes will be granted a wish by a crane, such as long life or recovery from illness or injury. The crane in Japan is one of the mystical or holy creatures (others include the dragon and the tortoise), and is said to live for a thousand years. In Asia, it is commonly said that folding 1000 paper origami cranes makes a person’s wish come true. This makes them popular gifts for special friends and family.

Hanging a Senbazuru in one’s home is thought to be a powerfully lucky and benevolent charm.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thousand_origami_cranes

So, I had decided, I was going to make my aunt 1000 origami paper cranes (commonly referred to as Senbazuru) and make a wish for her recovery from illness. It was a big challenge but one I was determined to carry out. My ultimate plan was that I would complete the set and then send them to my aunt for her to hang in her home and know that I was thinking of her.

The first challenge was where to get enough Origami paper to complete this project. I ended up going to a London store called Muji where a purchased two packets of origami paper to get me started.

Once I had removed all the black and white sheets of paper out of these packets I worked out how many more packets I would need to complete 1000 cranes and I went back to Muji to purchase a further 9 packets. The girl in the shop gave me very strange looks as I went to pay and as she counted how many packets I had she asked me if I was sure I wanted 9 packets and not 10 as she felt 9 was an unusual number. I didn’t explain my project to her I just let her continue to look confused as I paid and walked out with my paper.

1000 paper cranes is a huge undertaking and I tried to be systematic about it so that I could keep track of how many I had done as well as be as efficient as possible. I created the cranes in batches of 10 and would record each completed crane on a sheet of paper counting down to 1000. On average I could complete about 50 cranes in an evening in front of the television, any more and I started to get concerned about repetitive strain injury on my hands from all the folding!

I was beginning to get concerned about whether I would be able to create 1000 cranes in a reasonable amount of time but once the first 500 were complete and I could see the riot of carefully folded colour sitting in the paper bag in front of me I was more determined than ever to complete the other 500!

Each evening when I came home from work I would sit down in the lounge after I finished dinner and start folding. I found it quite a relaxing experience, there is something very calming about the process of folding a piece of paper repeatedly to create something simple and beautiful like a crane. I very quickly got lost in the task each day and would marvel later at what I had done as I was in some other zone as I made them. In the back of my mind the whole time was my aunt and what she was going through and what I wanted these cranes to mean. Then all too soon (about 1 month later) I was finished, yes I had actually produced 1000 origami paper cranes!!

Now that I had made them I had to work out how to gather and hang them. Thanks to the internet I discovered that they are most commonly hung in vertical strings in groups of around 40 or 50 per string. the string goes through the centre of the body of the crane as they slot in one on top of the other. Once I had found a string I was happy with I began the task of threading each crane onto each string. I put 50 cranes per string so there were 20 strands all together.

Once they were all together and hanging in my lounge I fell in love with the vibrancy of these cranes and was really sad when I finally took them down to post to NZ. With 200 per parcel I sent my aunt 5 parcels over the course of 1 week with other little pick-me-up gifts to let her know I was thinking of her and sending my love and positive thoughts her way.

Whether you believe in the Japanese legend or not, this senbazuru which I created is guaranteed to make you smile at all those amazing colours and the peaceful repeated shape of the crane, and that can’t be a bad thing.

I had so much fun working on this project that now I feel a bit lost without it! Does anyone else want 1000 origami cranes? Let me know

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