Origami

Although it is always associated with Japan, origami, the art of folding paper squares, began in China after the invention of paper in the 2nd century. The paper was folded, not cut, so no piece of the paper was wasted.

Buddhist monks brought paper folding from China to Japan in the 6th century. At that time, paper was rare and expensive. Origami creations were used to decorate shrines. When more paper was produced in the 17th century, common people were able to enjoy practicing the art. By the mid-20th century, Akira Yoshizawa created a step by step system to diagram the folds. His work led to origami being practiced worldwide.

I must admit that origami is not my forte. I usually get puzzled around the fourth step in any of the diagrams. Nevertheless, I chose to spend many days this summer doing origami with groups of children. I needed an art project as a finale to “Purrs and Roars”, my library summer reading program, and found an origami cat on the kindergarten level, exactly my competency zone.

The cat had four folds for the head and one fold for the body. The pattern for the cat had no tail, and I did not want all the felines to be Manx cats. I fortuitously had long rectangles of paper left over from cutting out the squares and, with two folds, these became tails.

I happily can report that all the cats the children and I made turned out. And no one, including me, cried any tears of frustration. We took the steps very s l o w l y, and I asked the big kids to make sure the little kids did each step correctly.

After everyone had a cat, it was time to get creative. “Decorate your cats any way and any colors you want,” were my instructions. The finished cats were all delightful and unique. One group of siblings had five cats at home and carefully reproduced all the colors and markings of their own kitties. Another young child made a lovely purple cat. And one young lady finished her cat and asked me if she could make a kitten. I quickly cut a small square and a kitten was born.

The morning after, I received an email from the girl’s mother. Her daughter had come home from the library and spent all afternoon making kittens…and naming each one.

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