Origami cranes are easy, right?

Photo by Shereen M

Mention origami and I bet you have trouble not thinking about paper cranes, right?  They are synonymous with the craft - something that almost every kid learns to fold at some point.  It's been years and years since I did any paper folding but seeing as it's origami week on my blog I figured I should actually have a go...

So I grabbed my vintage origami book of birds (more about that tomorrow) and sure enough the crane was the first pattern in the book.

I have to be honest here and confess that following patterns is not my thing.  Aside from an extraordinary skill for putting IKEA furniture together, I am not very good at interpreting or sticking to diagrammatic instructions (which probably explains why I can rarely sew the same thing twice and why trying to teach myself crochet has reduced me to tears on more than one occasion).

Hmmmm, now that doesn't look right...


So, I could lie to you and tell you I persevered but why do that when there is a budding origami maestro in the house?  Yep, the 9 year old taught me how to make a paper crane. A few minutes and a few folds later and ta-da! (mine is the slightly rough looking jumbo-crane).