285 of 1,000 Cranes

I am officially 28.5% of the way done with my goal of making 1,000 cranes for our baby.

In the week and half since I started this project I've managed to fold 285 tiny paper cranes. 

285 tiny paper cranes

5 colors down and I'm still not sure how many to go. 8 or 10 colors left by my count, but it's really hard to tell what all I'm dealing with as the paper in this tiny little box and you can't see the what's in the bottom. I guess it will be a surprise! 

I've had different #'s for each color so far ranging from at little as 33 all the way to 62. I'm interested to find out how many large cranes I'll have to make once the box is all done.

I finally figured out on the third color that if I don't pull the wings/puff the body out I can get more cranes 'nested' in a bag. I'm trying to protect them until I'm ready and ziplock bags seemed like the safest way to go.

I'm happy to be getting done with the lighter colors and making progress. I feel confident I should be able to get this done by June at the latest. Collin and I already have a plan to hang them as a 3-tiered chandelier/mobile. I think it's going to look amazing. I'm already proud. :-D

1,000 Origami Cranes

There's an ancient Japanese legend that someone who folds 1,000 paper cranes will have one wish granted by a crane. The act of folding 1,000 cranes is called Senbazuru. I've always loved origami and have always wanted to do this. I have decided to make 1,000 paper cranes for my little baby baking in my oven. I'm putting all my hopes and love into each one and will hang it in the baby's room. I hope it's something they'll think is cool and hold on to.

When I was in high-school I just happened to buy a box of tiny origami paper. It was multicolored and seemed like a great deal. Later on I found a crane pattern on the bottom of the box. Now over a decade later I was able to put two and two together and realized that all those years ago I had purchased my own Senbazuru set of 1005 sheets of tiny origami paper. In my defense all the writing on the box is in Japanese so I really had no idea what I was working with.

Sadly I used quite a bit of it before I realized what it was for so I'll have to supplement from my regular origami paper collection and make some full sized cranes.

So far I have 36 tiny cranes (35 in pale pink, 1 medium pink). Ever wondered what 35 paper cranes look like? Wonder no more:

35 pink paper cranes = 3.5% DONE!

If I keep up this pace I could be done in a month. That's my goal.