Origami

I was trying this morning to do some paper folding. I am not great at the skill of Japanese origami. I remember Judy several years ago producing a play at Gilmer County High School entitled 1000 Cranes.

The Thousand Origami Cranes has become a symbol of world peace through the story of Sadako Sasaki, a Japanese girl who contracted leukemia as a result of radiation from the atomic bombing of Hiroshima during World War II. Her story is told in the the book Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes.

Judy and her students made 1000 origami cranes for the play. We had a Japanese exchange student at Glenville State College who came to the high school and taught the students how to fold the paper into cranes.

After the play, Judy shipped the 1000 cranes to Japan to be used as part of the annual peace ceremony.

My Dad loved to fold dollar bills. When he left a tip, he would folk the dollars and, I am certain, made the waitress go crazy trying to unfold her dollars. Now Dad was not skilled at origami. He made a tight double knot in the middle of the bill and then spread the ends out to make a bowtie. If Dad really wanted to impress the waitress then he should have learned to fold dollars into impressive sculptures as shown below.

If you would like to try your hand at dollar bill folding, click below and make this shirt!