Design This - Crane Origami Earrings

Last fall I met with another local artist, Amy Schultz, to discuss her participation in the 817 Arts Alliance hut at the Texas Christkindl Market. I happened to be wearing my origami crane earrings that day. Amy expressed an interest in them and I explained where they had come from and that I had additional pairs of folded critters in various stages of earring completion, made by the same amazing origamist that had folded my cranes. She suggested that I bring them to the hut for her to look at during Christkindl. That had been the plan, however it was not until she stopped by to pick up her unsold inventory that I remembered to have them with me.

Amy asked if I thought the origami would hold up for a necklace. I hesitated because even though it is coated so that the paper is hardened, they still seem rather delicate to me. She decided to stick with earrings and picked out two pair of cranes, one for her and one to give as a gift. One pair already had its finish on it and I just needed to add ear wires and a dangle from the loop under the crane. The other pair was still only uncoated paper. I added eye pins to suspend the cranes from, painted them with hardener and added complementarily colored beads and gold plated ear wires.

While we were looking over the origami critters, an onlooker appeared fascinated and I invited her to look too. She thought the pair of flying pigs would be perfect for a family member. They were also only uncoated folded paper so I treated them the same as the second pair of cranes that Amy had picked out. Because it had been some time since I had stiffened a pair of the origami critters, I made sure I was up to speed before coating any of my custom requests. Both tests turned out and I now have two more pair of ready to ship origami earrings. The folded flying pigs were my only ones and unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of them before they flew to their new home, unlike the cranes, which I have shared pictures of in this post.