Minimalist Origami Art

Embellishing the Stick

Use metallic Permapaque® markers to add colorful, shimmery stripes to a weathered stick. (I prefer to use these pens over paint because it’s easy to create both thick and thin lines, using the dual point nibs. Plus, there’s almost no dry time required, and it’s less messy than paint.)

Add texture by wrapping yarn around the stick, and securing with hot glue. If you don’t want to buy a lot of yarn in different colors, tint a white cotton yarn using watercolors. (Note that this technique won’t work as well with polyester yarn.)

Origami Cranes

I want to hang strings of origami cranes from the stick. I used a total of 13 cranes for this project. Here’s how to fold an origami crane. 

Start with a square piece of paper. (I’m using regular copy paper.) Fold the paper in half diagonally. Open, then fold in half diagonally the other direction. Open the paper and there should be an X fold on the paper.

Turn the paper over. Fold the bottom edge up to the top. Open, turn 90 degrees, then fold the bottom to the top again. Now when you unfold the paper, you should have folds that look like an asterisk.

Close the paper again so it’s a long rectangle with the opening at bottom.  Pinch both upper corners with your fingers, and gently push together to meet in the center. Fold down the flaps in the front and back to create a diamond shape.

Now we’ll make a kite shape by folding in the left and right corners to the center fold line. Do this on both the front and back, for a total of 4 folds.

Crease the triangle segment at top downward, then flip over and crease downward on the other side as well. 

Open the two kite flaps. Slide your hand between the layers at bottom to lift only the first layer upward. Crease at the fold line you made by the top triangle. Fold the sides inward along the previous crease marks so your paper looks like a canoe. Flip over and repeat on the opposite side.

Now the paper should have two legs at the bottom. Fold the first layer inward to the center line, and repeat on the other side. Flip over and repeat for the back.

Next we’re going to kind of invert this shape, by sliding our fingers into each side. Fold the top and bottom layers inward on themselves. Now the paper looks like an antelope skull, with the center forming a pentagon shape.

Fold the bottom triangle upward to the crease at the bottom of the pentagon. Repeat on the back side. 

We’re going to do the inverting trick once more, sliding our fingers into the left and right sides, and pushing the front and back inward on themselves, folding them in half.

Gently pull out each center spike, which will become the head and tail. Fold down the large center triangles to make wings. Flatten the end of one spike and fold downward, pinching a bit to make the head. Carefully tug the wings outward to create a fuller body. 

Painting

I wanted a tiny bit of color on these cranes to match the rest of my decor, so I decided to use a marbling technique with watercolor paint.

You’ll need a surface that’s resistant to water, such as a piece of plastic, a foam plate, or a paper plate that has a coating on it.  Add splotches of watercolor in a couple different shades. I really like the Koi® creative art colors palette because it has pearlescent and metallic hues that shimmer, just like the stripes I made with the Permapaque® markers.

Press the paper crane onto the surface and lift straight up to transfer the color. You can achieve different effects based on the amount of paint and water you use, so have fun playing around with it!

Attaching the Cranes

Now we can attach the cranes. I’m using clear thread so they appear to be floating. Add a tiny dab of hot glue at the bottom of a crane, in between the folds. Stick one end of the clear thread in it.

Use a needle to thread the other end through the center hole at the bottom of the crane, and up through the middle of the back.

Grab the next crane, and poke up through the center hole and back. Adjust along the thread so it’s the distance you’d like to to be from the first one, then add a dot of hot glue in a crease and press the thread into it to keep the crane from sliding.

Tie the strand of cranes to the stick, or use a dab of hot glue on the back of the stick to secure it. I found it’s easiest to attach these strands when the stick is already hanging in place.

I used two ceiling hooks and some yarn to hang the stick over my fireplace. I added 5 strands of cranes, with the longest one being in the center.

I love the way these cranes seem to float in mid-air!