Folding Trees

1000 Paper Cranes

Photo by Kamoda.

The paper crane has become an international symbol of peace in recent years as a result of it’s connection to the story of a young Japanese girl named Sadako Sasaki born in 1943.

Sadako was two years old when the atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945. As she grew up, Sadako was a strong, courageous and athletic girl. In 1955, at age 11, while practicing for a big race, she became dizzy and fell to the ground. Sadako was diagnosed with Leukemia, “the atom bomb” disease.
Sadako’s best friend told her of an old Japanese legend which said that anyone who folds a thousand paper cranes would be granted a wish. Sadako hoped that the gods would grant her a wish to get well so that she could run again. She started to work on the paper cranes and completed over 1000 before dying on October 25, 1955 at the age of twelve.

The above story inspired me to start folding my own 1000 paper cranes, only mine will be folded from recycled paper since we need to be careful with our resources.

Do you feel inspired to help me? That would be fantastic!!

Send me eve@foldingtrees.com a high res pic (800 x 600) of your recycled paper crane in a peaceful place or on a peace monument and I will post it here on the site (with a link to your blog if you like or anonymous) and to the Flickr set you can find here. Every crane will get a number and will be part of the total of 1000.

Here is number 0001:

www.origami.org.uk has great 3D animated instructions on how to make an origami peace crane to get you started.

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Posted: June 15th, 2008 under 1000 Paper Cranes.
Comments: 6

Comments

Comment from Sooz wilson
Time: June 17, 2008, 12:55 pm

My husband and I did 1000 cranes for our wedding, actually it ended up being 1021 because of the ones we needed for decorations on the cupcakes. it only took us 3 months. I found that if everytime i started folding I had to fold 10 it woudl go buy much quicker.. Good luck finishing them! I’ll stay tuned to see the progress, you can see the cranes on my blog, there are a few shots of us with all of them and the wedding pics to show how we used them.

Comment from Em Stronach
Time: June 20, 2008, 2:13 am

I recently folded cranes out of recycled paper for an art exhibition we have in Newcastle called “Waste as Art”, I used to use proper origami paper for my creations, but then I decided that there is so much paper in my house anyway (magazines, postcards, letters etc etc) that I might as well just fold that. They look far more interesting too.

http://emeraldarts.blogspot.com/2008/06/waste-opening.html

I like your project, let me know if need any hints on stringing them up or turning them into bonsai

Pingback from Folding Trees » 1000 Paper Cranes
Time: June 24, 2008, 6:31 am

[...] more information on the 1000 Paper Cranes project have a look here. Or if you would like to see the cranes that have been folded so far go and have a look at the [...]

Pingback from Sugarlemon » Walking in the Woods
Time: June 26, 2008, 9:43 am

[...] folded from recycled paper and photographed in peaceful places or on peace monuments. (Read more here). Mine is folded from a 10cm square of paper cut from a security envelope - the patterns inside [...]

Pingback from SparklieSunShine » Sometimes There Are Things That You Just Know You Have To Do.
Time: July 31, 2008, 4:53 pm

[...] somehow I got to reading some of the history behind making 1,000 paper cranes and now I have it in my head that this is something that I need to do. Great. I don’t even [...]

Comment from kem
Time: August 15, 2008, 10:27 pm

i am folding a set of 1000 as well. i am looking for something more while i am folding my cranes, and i am hoping that i will complete them and hope that they will have a meaning to them once done. feel free to PM me ^_^

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