The other day I was inspired with a friend to make origami cranes because I think they make really nice hanging from a string on a mobile. Little did I know a few days later I would find an almost larger than life project made with origami cranes!


What's even more spectacular than the pretty colored paper and tiny delicate folds is the power of community art projects like these. Look what happens when people collaborate for a common good...





Who and what brought all these cranes together you might ask? The artist behind this is a man named Vik Muniz, a Brazilian-born artist known for building images from unconventional materials like diamonds, spaghetti and dust. When a truck full of paper cranes arrived at his Brooklyn studio he said, ‘Where are you going to put all these?’”. The birds had traveled a long way. After the Japanese earthquake in March, the nonprofit Bezos Family Foundation invited children to mail origami cranes to the Seattle headquarters of its Students Rebuild program (Students Rebuild is a collaborative initiative that mobilizes young people worldwide to connect, learn and take action on critical global issues). Each would trigger a $2 donation, up to $200,000. The group received more than 2 million and doubled the donation. Last week, Muniz made a mosaic of a giant crane from smaller ones, for a fund-raising poster. “It’s alchemic,” he said. “The idea worked because everyone wanted to help.”


Here are some facts about the Cranes:

NATIONS OF ORIGIN: 38, including Turkey, Iran, South Korea, Romania and Haiti, and all 50 U.S. states
SMALLEST / LARGEST CRANES: Size of a thumbnail / Size of a pterodactyl
UNEXPECTED MEDIA THAT CHILDREN FOLDED INTO CRANES: Math homework, hall passes, vocabulary lessons, love letters, Saran wrap, Kleenex, candy wrappers, aluminum foil, restaurant menus
SIZE OF VIK MUNIZ’S CRANE MOSAIC: 36 by 40 feet

Make your own Origami Crane:






link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpwnHpXUuow




Hope you enjoyed the post and hope you will try out these cranes!