Tonight's bird was one of the most challenging to date: it is an origami crane made from a square of rayon mesh. Who knew that such a thing was even possible? I saw this package of origami paper down at McGuckin's today, and I just had to get it. It's really not paper at all, but a very loosely woven netting material, that feels like fine window screening. When I sat down to make the bird, it was like working blind. Though I was familiar enough with the sequence of folds, my creases wouldn't hold. Moreover, I was looking through every single layer of the folded piece, seeing all the layers at once: a truly surreal experience for anyone who is familiar with the process of making origami. It was as if I were looking inside and through the structure, as I was creating it! It's hard to describe how odd this felt.
Aside from the technical difficulty of folding and creasing a material that felt more like wire than paper, it was impossible to see what I was doing. I might have been better off if I had closed my eyes, and just made the folds from memory.
As you can see from my final result, I failed miserably with the points of the beak and the tail; the material was stretching and shredding as I worked. But still, it is an amazing little bird. I'll definitely have to practice this many times to improve my technique with this strange material.
Origami is an awe-inspiring art: to take a piece of flat paper and make a three dimensional form with just folding--no cutting, no gluing, no clipping--is magical. Now, with this transparent material, it's inner secrets are fully revealed!
Peggy
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