Turnin Japanese...

Well Andre started a fire , and now I'm going origami mad here!
For the record, No I'm not Asian (just aspireing to be.. lol) So yes, I know it sounds silly that me, an ordinary howlee (white) girl would be devoteing an entire blog devoted to my new lil' Asian addiction (and no I'm not talking about Anj.. tho thats another one its true its true.. lol)
To start off here, we were looking at his friend's website from Hawaii, and there was a picture of a bento (a little Japanese lunch) with a paper crane.
I didn't exactly know what it was at first, but then Anj told me the story about sadako and the thousand paper cranes
http://www.sadako.org/sadakostory.htm

He showed me pictures of what people do with these paper cranes...

you can make 1000 paper cranes and send them as a sign of peace to Hiroshima, Japan... (I'm thinking about doing it and sending them back with a friend I met here who is here temporarily from Osaka, Japan... I have until December)
here is a link with some instructions on how you can go about doing it:
http://www.sadako.com/howtofold.html

in this link you can see pictures made of Tons of paper cranes... they make them with gold foil origami paper and then make designs with them. When you look at the pictures, keep in mind that they were designed with a thousand paper cranes arranged just so they look like the bigger picture you see. Andre said that it is a tradtional gift given to Asian families for a wedding present. They also make money leis and give them to married couples. Some pretty interesting stuff on there from those "island folks" back out in the Pacific. I swear I learn something more everyday from Anj....
http://www.origami-tsuru.com/crane6.htm

There was an origami exhibit (it says it was the world's first major origami exhibit) at the Mingei International Museum in San Diego... and I saw some awe inspireing pieces there... everything from cranes, to abstract designs to modular (more math based) designs, to dragons... yes friggin dragons made out of origami. It was my first time in that museum, but it was really neat; they have some asian pieces there as well... furniture and utensils and little neat things like that.. but it was really neat..I was really inspired by seeing all of this, and so I've decided to do some Origami in my artistic endevours...

I'm finding that Origami does Wonders for stress too!

Anj says he doesn't understand how it is that I can do
it and keep my cool, since my tolerance for patience is almost
non-existant;)

It's relaxing and challengeing to me though; thats why I like it.
Origami is also supposed to help you with math as well, since thats actually what it's based on. Some of the more complicated models use specific angles, etc, as directions in their pieces... making it a very precice science almost. Me? I could definately use the math boost; especially if Im not going to bore myself to death with it.

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So folks, I've said I was going to do it (and some of you have teased and mocked me because of it) But..

To HeLL With All You People! So there! HA!

Here's where I'm going to show all the neat lil' things that I've made with my hands... And who knows? Maybe you'll look at this and call me a loser... or maybe.. just maybe... you'll jump on the train too. But I have a feeling that your curiousity will get the best of you... or maybe one of those other voices up there will (we all know there's a dork inside us all that wants to peek out every once in awhile;) ... and you'll be back for more. Until then, happy foldin:0)