I Folded And Decorated An Origami Crane Every Day, For 1000 Days

My name is Cristian Marianciuc, and I love paper art.

I started an ambitious 100-day challenge back in 2015: I was hoping to be able to fold and decorate 1 origami crane every single day as part of a visual diary of sorts.

After the initial 100 days went by, I made another ambitious decision, and that was to continue my project until I would reach 365 origami birds in 365 days.

Once I reached that goal, I went ahead and challenged myself even further. I was going to attempt to fold and decorate one origami crane, every single day until I would reach 1000 cranes in 1000 days. It was meant to be a nod to the Japanese tradition of ‘senbazuru,’ according to which, the folding of 1000 origami paper cranes will grant the folder a wish.

The motivation behind Icarus.mid.air was to give a physical shape to my days; to mark the passing of time in a creative and meaningful way. I took inspiration from Japanese culture, from the story of Sadako Sasaki, from my family history and from every little and big thing that I could find around me.

On the 27th of September of 2017, I successfully reached my rather unbelievable goal. I had folded and decorated over 1000 cranes in 1000 days, without missing even one day!

It took lots of courage, determination, and discipline but also patience and an open mind.

I learned to pay attention to things I would have otherwise overlooked, I learned new paper folding skills, I made many amazing new friends online and in real life, and I became part of an incredible community of paper lovers from all over the world.

Despite reaching my goal, I have not stopped folding and decorating origami cranes. I don’t do it on a daily basis nowadays, but it has become such a vital part of who I am, that I cannot imagine stopping altogether.

I have heard from people who found joy and serenity in my work, people who took refuge in what I do, and I could not have asked for more!

I have kept all of my cranes so far and hope to get the chance to travel with them and exhibit them. But I decided to also create pieces that I could send to new homes. So I opened an Etsy shop where I add new cranes regularly and take commissions for personalized paper birds.

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