Origami
It is assumed that the art of paper folding came from Japan to China by way of Korea. The oldest known books with folding instructions are Japanese. One is from 1797 and the other one from 1845. In the shinto religion the pure white paper is held to be of great importance.
One of the oldest paper foldings, the crane, is still the most popular origami model in Japan. The elegance of the model captures the grace and the beauty of this bird, which is highly valued in Japanes culture. It is said that the crane lives for a thousand years and symbolizes long life, good health and luck. Nowadays it has also come to represent a wish for peace.
Gay Merrill Gross
I have been doing origami for over 40 years. If you want to take a look at some of my work, check out my gallery page. The reason I’m interested in Japanese Paper Folding is that I feel it’s important. Do you want to know why?
I would like to promote the art of origami and spread information to various groups, like pre-schools, elementary schools and to various groups of adults.
– the material is inexpensive
– it is easy to use origami figures to illustrate stories and fairy tales
– students who work with origami learn to be thorough and they will practise their motoric skills
– origami can be used as a means to exercise your suppleness, for example arthritic joints
Tangram
Tangram is an interesting puzzle for grownups.
Tangram is easy – it consists of seven pieces, of which five are triangles, one a square and the other a romboid – but it can also be incredibly difficult. The objective is to correctly duplicate a given image. The original doesn’t show the different pieces. The puzzler has to be able to tell where the various pieces go. This can be quite a complicated task. After a while, you learn to ‘see’ the outlines of the pieces.
Why tangram?
– small puzzle with many possibilities
– gives your mind a good workout
– fun to make up new patterns
At Amazon, you can find Tangram: 1600 Ancient Chinese Puzzles.
It’s a book containing 1 600 different patterna and also tangram pieces. I can really recommend this book.
Other arts:
Coming Soon!
This is very interesting. It definitely sounds like we should be doing more origami.
I hope you’ll enjoy it.