Sunday, August 8, 2010, is our next PAPER meeting in Bellevue. We will meet from 1-4 pm at the Bellevue public library. John and others will be our instructors this month. One of the models John is going to teach will be a dollar bill fold, so bring a couple of crisp dollar bills with you to the meeting. I want to remind everyone that the only thing they need to bring with them on Sunday, besides their enthusiasm for origami, is their own paper to fold.

Another reminder for people coming from Seattle over to Bellevue: this weekend are the hydroplane races and air show at Lake Washington. The I-90 bridge will be closed from 12:45 to 2:30 pm while the air show is being performed. Either head for Bellevue a little early to make sure you get across in time or head through Renton around the south end of the lake. I think they let the 520 bridge remain open also.

As stated last week, due to scheduling conflicts at our usual meeting locations, we have to shift our meeting day again this month to the third Sunday.

Our next PAPER meeting will be on Sunday, July 18, at the Redmond Public Library. Our meeting time will be from 1-4 PM. I have two models to teach. The first is a “Crane Envelope.” The second is the “Spides” kusudama by Lukasheva Ekaterina. The photo shows 12 modules formed into an octahedron. The module can be formed into an icosahedron or a dodecahedron. I added an extra fold that locks the modules together (more) securely.

Spides octahedron. (Sorry for the random color scheme. This is the trial version.)

See you on Sunday.

Our next PAPER meeting will be on Sunday, July 18, at the Redmond Public Library. Our meeting time will be from 1-4 PM. I haven’t decided what to teach yet. Please check back here next week, and I will have more information and photos of our “agenda.”

See you next Sunday.

That's not really me....

Man, what a two months it’s been. In May, our little site here was hacked and shut down. Our service provider WebzPro was very good recovering the site and getting it back on-line. However, it took me until tonight to finally figure out the correct combination of user name and password for both WordPress and WebzPro to regain access to the site.

But we are back, so check back for new content including an announcement about PCOC 2011….

Ray and John and others will take over the teaching duties this month. I don’t know what they have in mind, but they always come up with good selections. Have fun.

Seattle’s Peace Park is a “vest pocket” park near the University of Washington. The centerpiece of the space is a bronze statue of Sadako Sasaki holding an origami crane aloft.

The story of Sadako is that she became ill with leukemia at the age of 12, having survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945. While in the hospital, she began folding paper cranes. The Japanese legend is that if you fold a 1000 cranes, you will be granted a wish, such as a long life or the recovery from illness. Unfortunately, Sadako was unable to complete her cranes before passing away in October 1955. The story is that her friends completed the remaining cranes and all 1000 were buried with Sadoko.

The Children’s Peace Monument in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park is a statue of Sadako holding a large crane over her head. The Peace Memorial Park is a part of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum.

The Seattle statue of Sadoko was completed in 1990 by sculptor Daryl Smith. The inscription on the dedication plaque reads:

Sadako Sasaki

Peace Child

She gave us this paper crane

to symbolize our yearning for

peace in the world

A gift to the people of Seattle

From Fratelli’s Ice Cream.

Here is a pseudo-3D view of Sadako’s statue. Click in the white boxes or click or drag the arrows to move around the statue.

This is a panorama view of the Peace Park.

If you would like to visit the Peace Park, on each of these views, click the green leaf spiral in the upper corner and select “more about this synth. On the new page that opens, scroll down to the lower left corner of the page.  There is a geotag that shows you the location of the park on an aerial view map.

If you do make the trip, don’t forget to fold a crane and leave it with Sadako. Click the video below to learn how.