14 cranes

Videos make me nervous (I feel like I have to keep up), so after we had dinner last night, I pulled up text directions for making a crane and gave it a shot. I will say right now that some directions are better than others! The first set of instructions I tried were different from the ones I linked to on the blog, and definitely a lot more confusing. Then I decided to try the ones I'd initially found, and it was SO much easier to follow what was going on.

I did it a few times and tried to use the directions less each time I made one, and finally I got to where I wasn't using them at all and could teach Patrick. So I have acquired a new skill! Together we created 12 of them, and then it was pretty late, so we called it a night. I have the sinking feeling that there's something on the order of 600 cranes on that mobile, and it will just take time. Good use of lazy summer evenings. I think I'll keep track of the crane count here so that y'all know where we're at.

I tried counting the number of cranes on those strings in that VERY hazy photograph, and it looks like 20 per strand. I estimate at least 20 strands around the outside, and then there's the inner ring as well, which probably has at least 10 strands of 20. Patrick and I will probably pay another visit to that shop fairly soon in order to count them and get an accurate number, but basically we're going to need a huge pile of these things. I'm going to stockpile them in a tub upstairs until we're ready to string at least some of them. We'll have to hang this pretty high up, so it won't be in the cards to keep taking it down to add more, and we'll have to just hang them all at once.

I'm going to need more origami paper...

P.S. (I just changed the title to 13 because I made another one. They're kind of like crack, actually, once you figure them out.)

P.P.S. 14