Origami: Making Paper Look Pretty.

From the heavy debate of politics to the subject of paper folding, it would seem the Dead Good Poets leave nothing untouched! Personally, it’s not something I’ve ever thought too much about. It is now considered a modern art form. I’m not an arty type. It also involves maths. I’m REALLY not a mathy type (mathy is now a word). So I enlisted Google for aid. I knew it was paper folding, but why and where did it come from? My extensive research tells me it originates in Japan around the 17^th century and the art is to create a form from a single sheet of paper merely by folding it in certain ways.
Then I asked my parents about the art of origami. My mother gave the view that it “represents the intricacies of life folded into beautiful shapes” A poetic way of seeing it. Indeed it seems that origami was used in wedding ceremonies in japan, where the groom and bride were represented by paper butterflies. My stepfather said “origami was invented for people who couldn’t write, so they could either fold it or wipe their arses on it” I don’t know how he’s come to the conclusion that the Japanese people would feel more content in wiping their arse with paper fashioned into a crane, or a flower. Maybe some people would.
I’ve never had the urge to turn a piece of A4 into a duck, but paper is still very important for my form of art. I always have a pad with me, half ripped and scrawled with spidery half written poems or particular words that have caught my interest. Maybe I’ll give origami a go.
Thanks for reading J