Miniatures and the 1000 crane project

I stopped into a miniatures gallery the other day. I've passed by it many times before, but never had the time to check it out. I went inside and immediately saw some circus themed fimo clay animals for $750 a piece!!! I couldn't believe it! I mentioned in passing to the owner how I needed to get back into fimo and make some of these to sell, and then we got into a conversation about my origami. I happened to be carrying around some 1.5 inch paper that I'm using for my 1000 crane project, which I will talk about in a minute. I showed her a crane, and made her a butterfly. She loved it! I told her about how I'd only gone down to an inch paper at that time, and she explained how people generally do miniatures, about inch, half inch, and quarter inch scale. She invited me to look around and get a feel for what people might be looking for. As soon as I got home I cut out an inch, 3/4 inch, and 1/2 inch piece of origami paper.

I'd done an inch before. It requires a bit more concentration but is not all that difficult. The 3/4 inch paper was very difficult, but I managed to do it with just my hands. Then I got to the 1/2 inch paper. This would make a genuine inch scale model, or as if it had been folded with a normal 6 inch piece of origami paper. It required tweezers and a great deal of concentration. But I did it.


I plan on buying some toothpicks and making some tiny origami crane mobiles, I think they would work well in a nursery themed room. I hope I don't have too much trouble getting them to balance, or I might give up this idea. I'm just excited to have another place to get my stuff out there besides Etsy.

The other project I'm working on is a major art instillation/mobile/sculpture that will have 1000 cranes in rainbow colors. I'm only about 125-150 cranes in, so I'm still deciding on the specifics. At the rate I've been going, I estimate I will have all of them folded in about a month.