Origami paper folding

The date for Tony and Leiya's wedding is less than two months away now...  The other day Leiya texted me asking if I thought I could get origami paper cheaper in Japan than she could in America.  Japan has so much origami paper, in any supermarket, in any drugstore, that I was surprised that she asked and I offered to buy her some and send it to her...  But why?

I guess she is thinking that origami peace cranes would be a nice decoration at the wedding reception.

"I really don't think you are going to have time to be making origami favors for all of your guests."  (her vague idea)  "Tetsu and I will make cranes for you and bring them when we come!"

 "Thanks!  That would help out a lot!"

Tetsu and I immediately went to a huge stationery store in the next town over and I took pictures of the shelves of origami paper to send to Leiya.  Did she want polka dot origami?  Double sided origami? Traditional flowered origami?  Gold or silver origami?  Plaids, Animals, Origami that folded into kimonos?  into flowers?  into dinosaurs

Tetsu and I found some pretty faux tie-dyed origami paper and on our way home we stopped at a coffee shop and started folding paper cranes.

Paper crane folding is probably the ONLY origami that both Tetsu and I can do from memory...

Tetsu made fun of my stubby squared off fingers.  They are also very bendable and when holding my hand he often comments that it is like my fingers aren't jointed at all.  Good for doing origami and quilting.  Not great for fashionable nails...

We were both happy that we were able to recall all the steps in folding a crane.

Just in case, there was an instruction sheet provided in one of the packages.  Thirty-two steps to make one origami peace crane!

Ta-da!

I also had found some interesting origami paper made especially for crane folding and when finished, the crane has a block print replica on its back of famous Japanese scenery.

 The paper...

The completed crane.

I thought this very Japanese and there was an English explanation on the wing underside to boot!

A bit on the dark side however and they don't really go with whatever Leiya is planning for the wedding reception...  I guess I will continue making the black ones just to give away and Tetsu will make the tie-dyed ones. 

We also found some pretty traditional patterned paper and those will be the main ones to be used at the wedding reception.

It was a lovely coffee shop hour and I hope we make this a regular practice until all the cranes get folded!