What to do with these paper cranes?

March 11, 2009 7:10 PM

What to do with all these paper cranes?

For my wedding last July I made 1,000 origami paper cranes. A lot of them people took home with them, but a lot of them are sitting in a huge bag in my apartment.

I made some of them into Christmas ornaments, but that only took up like 15 of them.

I'd love to come up with a creative way to display them. Any cool ideas? Our wedding colors were red and light blue, but the cranes are all different patterns containing blues and reds. So there's a lot of variety to work from.

posted by Becko to grab bag (16 comments total)

The vast majority of the millions of paper cranes people make are sent to Hiroshima or other peace monuments. The thing at Hiroshima started with Sadako Sasaki, but I think they're still filling display cases with them. They also show up in abundance at memorials around the world, but why not send them to the starting point?
posted by Mngo at 7:16 PM on March 11 [1 favorite has favorites]

you could string them into a garland. or string them on clear fishing line and make paper crane door curtains.
posted by kerning at 7:19 PM on March 11 [2 favorites has favorites]

A friend of mine did cranes for her wedding. She then pressed them all flat, glued them to some backing, and overlayed them with a piece of matte that had a shape cut out in it, so the colored paper showed through the cutouts. (Is this making any sense?) On the matte she had her wedding date written in lovely script, and it hangs in her living room now. This way she got to keep the 1000 cranes for good luck, but also had a nice way to store them.

If it doesn't make sense, let me know and I'll try to figure out a better way to explain it.
posted by olinerd at 7:19 PM on March 11

My best friend used to have them hanging from her ceiling with fishing line, at different levels. It looked nice. Do you have a room that could use that kind of decor? I wouldn't suggest hanging up all 1,000, but maybe a few clustered in a corner would look neat, like a mobile.
posted by juliplease at 7:21 PM on March 11 [1 favorite has favorites]

i never did it, and then i moved and decided it was too much hassle to transport 1000 paper cranes, but i always thought that cranes + leds could make a great hanging lamp. take a wooden circle, screw plant hooks or some such in it, paint it, figure out how to affix it to the ceiling. in the center of the wooden circle, on the same side as the plant hooks, put a cluster of leds or a socket and low wattage bulb. from the hooks hang differing lengths of fishing line with the cranes on the bottom of the fishing line. i would think this would make kick ass shadows and be and interesting conversation piece - a way to display your wedding without having the bouquet in a shadow box.
posted by nadawi at 7:22 PM on March 11

Not a display, but have you considered donating them to a hospital? Because of the connection to Sadako Sasaki, I've heard that they're sometimes given to terminal cancer patients (e.g. crane project).
posted by Paragon at 7:22 PM on March 11

When it gets warmer drive to the local college campus at night. Put them about a foot apart leading in a long line like Hansel and Gretel's bread crumbs. Then go home know smug in the satisfaction you've created a mystery no one will understand. See if you make the news.
posted by cjorgensen at 7:25 PM on March 11 [11 favorites has favorites]

If you have a spare room, you could hang each crane from the ceiling with some string. If this room has a window, you can open it on a windy day and watch them wiggle. The room could be decorated with pictures from your wedding. It could be The Wedding Room.
posted by Houyhnhnm at 7:25 PM on March 11

Japanese schoolchildren mailed hundreds of origami cranes to the Childrens Hospital in Oklahoma City after the bombing. For the longest time they were displayed in mass as the leaves of a tree (just a big branch in a pretty urn). It was a beautiful and colorful decoration of the lobby.
posted by francesca too at 7:28 PM on March 11

In addition to just stringing the cranes across the ceiling, why not make mobiles? Find a few wire coat hangers (on the cheap side) and unbend them then make them dangle within one another. Make them just for fun or you could make nicer ones as gifts or to sell. Got any friends having kids soon?
posted by big open mouth at 7:46 PM on March 11

Some great origami mobiles on Flickr. Here's one and another, and here's a search. Make them for friends having babies! Use one as decoration on gifts. Set them out at a dinner party for a nametag. Give them to a children's hospital. Send them to me!
posted by barnone at 8:12 PM on March 11

I compulsively fold origami cranes (or used to, before I took up knitting...) and I sometimes string them on thread and hang them from trees in my neighborhood. They get thrown out or destroyed in the rain, but maybe make someone smile in the meantime.
posted by OLechat at 8:36 PM on March 11

Not to be Doctor Downer, but people all over the world send paper cranes to the Children's Peace Monument in Hiroshima. I've been to it and I imagine they'd want every crane you have to send.
posted by Doctor Suarez at 10:27 PM on March 11 [1 favorite has favorites]

I used to fold them all the time. My first thousand I think I just ended up tossing (since they were made from any piece of paper I could get my hands on, including wrapping paper, old homework and the occasional napkin). But before I tossed them, they were strung together on thread and draped across my bedroom.

I did another thousand, out of proper origami paper and stored them in an old fishbowl for awhile.

Right before I moved out of New Orleans, I took them down to the Mississippi River and scattered them on the water. I watched them float along for awhile, just looking at them, and it was like I was letting go of who I was then, and preparing for a new life elsewhere.
posted by Katemonkey at 5:31 AM on March 12

I like the idea of a hospital donation big time, but have you thought of just leaving them in random places for people as a fun surprise? Leave it on coffee tables, park benches, people's desks at work...
posted by jenfullmoon at 1:50 PM on March 12

Though I think I like the hospital idea best, you could dip the cranes in resin and then set them afloat. Or wait for a rainstorm and send them down the gutter. An origami event! The walk along the Hudson River in New York once had driftwood-and-tinfoil ornaments spaced regularly along it for miles.

What a charming question.
posted by Tufa at 3:33 PM on March 12