Some of the crafts this summer have overlapped, like origami and building a dollhouse out of tiny bricks and mortar. I’ll write of the particular joys of the latter experience at another time. Now for my latest obsession: Origami.

I have a few childhood origami memories. I think we did a unit on Japan in first or second grade, and we learned to write a character or two, and we learned to make a simple origami shape–a dog, or something. Then, as a teenager, I spent the night at our (unitarian) church folding paper cranes for our sister church in Japan. Why they’d want butchered terrible cranes done by American first-timers, I don’t know, but our goal was to make 100 or so cranes to send.

Joy, my crafty kid, was obsessed with creating the perfect paper airplane, so I thought she might like origami. I got a book, Super Simple Origami at Hobby Lobby, along with a 100 sheets of origami paper.

Intimidated by the pretty paper, I was paralyzed. I left it to Yanni to see what she could do with it. She was able to figure out how to make a balloon from the paper package instructions, but got stuck trying to use the book. I carefully tucked away the paper and book for a later day. That was at least a year ago.

When Yanni’s friend Jasmine came over one day, she asked for the origami paper. (How did she know we had any? Is that a usual provision in one’s house?). Jasmine has spent the summer working at the art institute, and she learned a thing or two about origami. She made various boxes and cooty catchers, and used up enough paper to pique the little girls’ interest.

I pulled out the book again, and discovered that, while the directions were in English, they still needed decoding. Not that I made this discovery from a rational mind. I was flipping out, throwing book and paper across the table in frustration, wondering what in the world a valley fold and a mountain fold was. I turned the book back to the introduction and found an explanation for the different types of folds, and even how they look in directions. I muddled through some of the birds at the front of the book, but really parked myself at the flower. This was what Yanni had been trying to make from the beginning.

The directions actually looked like you were to pull the pedals in a rounded direction, over the back of the tiny folded square you’d just made. I pulled it carefully, rip! There was much discussion as to what the flowers really looked like. Imani had her own version, that was very pretty. Joy and I mudded through to the penguin before I put the book and the (now basically ugly) colored squares away.

I talked to friends about how hard origami was, and they wondered why I’d even attempt such lunacy. I decided to google origami, and I found this site. The site further broke down the reading origami patterns code, and reacquainted me with my old friend, the crane. I made some rather shaky and inaccurate cranes before making a box. I really liked making the box, and I made a few. Then I wandered away from the traditional designs and tried to make the site’s author’s original designs. Doomed, I tell you! Doomed!

I went back to google. I found this site. The title, Origami That’s Fun and Easy caught my attention. This site even had designs for kids. I made a ladybug right away. Then I followed their directions for a crane, and it was nice and neat. (this has nothing to do with all my folding practice, right?)

Joy and I watched a video for making a rose. Talk about intimidating! The video had no words at all, just a pair of hands creasing, and re-creasing, and then gently coaxing the paper to form the proper shape. When she was done, she indeed had a beautiful paper rose. I decided to go back to the children’s designs. I made a cup. Then all the kids made cups. We poured actual water in them. They were thrilled.

But the real strength of this site is what happened today. The little girls asked if they could go to the Origami That’s fun and Easy site by themselves, and they started making things! They started out with the ladybug, and then the dog face. A little later, they made more cups, and by the time Joy was finished, she’d made a horse that flipped when you pulled its tail. She’d even returned to the book and made a cat face. Esteban proudly showed me his creations, and he even had origami on the brain at bathtime, folding up every towel he could get his hands on into some sort of shape.

Although I felt like a raving lunatic at some point this weekend, this is one craft I’m glad I stuck with. The patience, persistence, ability to read a diagram, follow directions that origami breeds is worth the time and frustration of starting. I see beautiful greeting cards on the horizon.