CraneStorm

I attended the November meeting of Origami Minnesota recently, and we talked about a new project called Cranestorm! 

The Brain Injury Association of Minnesota had a meeting a while back where they decided that they wanted people to "see" how many people were affected by brain injuries in Minnesota. Their estimates are that roughly 100,000 (yes, that's one-hundred-thousand) people in Minnesota (which has a population of 5,266,214) are suffering from a brain injury. 

The problem is that people cannot really understand such a large number as 100,000 unless they see 100,000 things all in a collection. To facilitate this, the BIAM is building an instillation piece in their headquarters. It will be 100,000 paper cranes hanging about the lobby. 

Now, I don't know how many of you have folded a thousand cranes (personally, I am at 0256/1000) but it is a lot of work to repeat the same model over and over. Even if you are comfortable with the process, it still takes a lot of time to fold all 1000. Now imagine doing that 99 more times!

Luckily, no single individual is going to fold all of them. They are soliciting donations of cranes from groups all over the world and have collected over 28,000 at the last count.

So, if you want to help out, go to the BIAM website and check it out!

Real Life Paper Boat!

I just wanted to share this awesome event with you.

A man made an origami boat large enough to sail in!

Check it out here.

Found Foldings

I work in a school at the moment and happen across lots of paper. Most of it is likely assignments that were never turned in (or competed). They could be random notes passed in class or whatever. 

But, some of it is genuine origami!

I will share with you some pictures:

"Crab Man The Bug"

This was not actually found, but folded by a student. They learned it from a friend back when they were going to a different school.

This is a classic from when I was in school. It is modular, taking eight sheets. This is doughnut mode.

And this is shuriken mode! Betcha didn't know doughnuts were so dangerous.

This was found on a locker along with several notes. Often when it is a student's birthday, their friends will cover their locker with various things.

Okay, so this is not, strictly speaking, origami. It is instead kirigami. And it is not spontaneous, but was an assignment for art class. Whatever, I still want to give praise for paper arts in the school.

[All photos taken by me of miscellaneous sightings folded by anonymous students.]