Proposed Next Project - things for Mothers Day!

Mother's day is around the corner and as a student on a tight budget - the pressure is on to find something meaningful and beautiful as mum that is within our economic grasp.  For our next project I thought that we could make a little gift pack series using the ancient craft of origami.

Origami is a traditional art form that originally began in China but was adopted and subsequently gained popularity and master craftsmanship by the Japanese. This form of art became part of the cultural heritage of the Japanese people. Today the word and artform Origami is synonymous with the Japanese.  The word Origami derives from two Japanese words - "orimasu" to fold and "kami" paper. 

Thus Origami is the art of folding paper into delicate shapes and patterns.  One of the first known (if not the first) books on Origami was published in Japan in 1797 and it was called "How to fold 1000 paper cranes".  The Crane is regarded as a sacred bird in Japan, and it became popular myth that if you folded 1000 paper cranes you would be granted 1 wish.  The 1000 paper cranes also  became the subject of a very famous woodblock print (ukiyo-e), another artfrom that the Japanese are famous for, in 1819.  It was called "A magician turns sheets of birds" 

The variety of Origami shapes in the modern world have progressed from the original sacred traditional shapes. Today there are many different fun and modern origami patterns that we can fold.  Since it is Mother's Day - I thought we might learn to fold an Origami Dress and use that as the theme for lovely Mothers Day Card, a birthday and Anniversary Calendar and a little fridge magnet. 

 You will need:   

1. some scissors. 
2. some patterned paper - you can draw your own designs on a piece of paper - or you can use some ironed out giftwarp, a colourful magazine page or anything that has a nice pattern or colour..  Cut out some of the paper so that so that you have three squares that must measure 10cm by 10cm, 8cm by 8cm, and 5cm by 5cm.  You will also need some paper to cover the front of your Birthday and Anniversary Calendar - this would look nice if the paper for this contrasts with the patterned paper.  For example a very trendy look right now is to use old book pages as a background - so if you have an old book somewhere that is out of date and no longer relevant that you were going to throw away - save it and use the pages for your art projects.
3.  a wooden clothes peg as well.
4. Very strong glue - I always keep loads of White PVA or craft glue on hand - it is a super strong and versatile glue
5. Sticky tape or cellophane tape to make tabs for the calendar

Here are some lovely examples of the origami dress that we will be making:

We will attach that onto a card front, onto the cover of the Birthday and Anniversary Calendar and onto the front of a clothes peg.  We will attach a magnet to the back of the clothes peg and our gift will be ready to go....