In the Japanese American culture, it is tradition to fold 1,001 origami cranes for the wedding as a wish for luck and longevity. At most weddings, I've seen the cranes placed in a frame, forming a picture or a Japanese kanji symbol. I wanted to do something a little different! - Make a three-dimensional bonsai tree.
I was first inspired by a picture from a wedding my mom attended. The couple had folded the cranes and sent them to someone to place upon a bonsai tree. I decided to try and make the bonsai tree myself. I used the bonsai trees on my porch as my guide in making the wire/paper mache sculpture. These bonsai trees hold a special place in my heart, as they were raised by my grandpa who had passed away before the wedding.
The 1,001 origami crane bonsai tree was made as a wish for luck and longevity for the marriage of my husband and I, but also as a tribute to my grandpa.
I began with a blue bonsai tree pot that I purchased from a local Japanese goods store. I used wires leftover from my mother-in-law's gardening and a few pieces from Michael's craft store. It is important to use semi-strong wire, because it will need to hold the weight of 1,001 cranes and glue - but make sure you can still shape and cut it with pliers. Painters tape was also used to help keep the wires together. I thought I should use painters tape or masking tape, so that the paper mache would stick to it - sometimes paper mache slides off regular or packaging tape. I put more wires at the base of the tree, and had them branch out, like roots of a tree (under the newspaper in the picture below). The roots were held down by more tape at first - then paper mached to the bonsai pot later.
Here is a picture - please excuse the lighting (I was still learning how to use the camera).
Next, I tore up a bunch of newspaper - bigger pieces for the trunk and the base/roots of the tree, and smaller pieces for each of the branches. I created a paper mache mixture by taking some flour, then adding water and mixing until it got goopy, but slightly watery (so it would not dry bumpy). I believe the thicker the mixture, the stronger the hold. I paper mache'd the entire bonsai tree, branches, and I paper mached the roots to the base. Between each layer of paper mache, I let it fully dry. This is important! - if you don't let each layer fully dry, mold will form! I did about 3-5 layers for the trunk and the roots, and 2 layers for the little branches (the branches took a lot of time!) Here are a few pictures of the sculpture as I was painting it. Sorry, I forgot to take pictures of it without the paint.
(In this picture, you can see my inspiration in the background - one of my grandpa's bonsai trees)
Next was the painting. I used acrylic paints from Michael's craft store. I mixed some brown and gray until it matched the color of my grandpa's bonsai trees. Then, I painted the whole tree a couple layers, so the newspaper print would not show through.
After the paint dried, I took a dry paintbrush and lightly coated it in paint. This time I used gray with a little bit of brown mixed in - light enough to show up, but not too dark to stand out. I dabbed off the extra paint on a piece of paper, then made light dabbing motions along the trunk and branches - to give the tree bark more 'texture.' Here are some pictures of the painted bonsai tree (again, please excuse the lighting throughout this post).
The next task was to finish folding the 1,001 paper cranes! I used about 1 and 1/2" squares to make each crane. I wanted to try and fold the cranes on my own, as I had read that it was tradition for the bride to do so - in preparation for married life (patience!) It took months and months! But, it was nice to be able to take them on road trips. I eventually got to the point where I could fold most of the cranes without looking.
(Doesn't look like much, but there are 1,000 cranes there!)
Gluing the cranes onto the branches, I started out with non-dripping super glue - which I do NOT recommend. I had originally chosen it because I wanted something that dried fast. Also, I was afraid a hot glue gun would leave strings of glue everywhere and I was nervous the dried hot glue globs would be distracting. The super glue was a bit messy, some of the cranes kept falling off, and I ran out of it fast. So, I resorted to using the hot glue gun. I originally glued the cranes onto the branches with their wings closed - this was to help ensure that I could fit all 1,001 on the tree. I glued the bottom of the closed crane, making little circles with the glue gun as I took it away from the crane - to get rid of the glue gun strings. Then I held the crane on the branch until the hot glue dried. The hot glue worked much better than the super glue. Midway through, I broke my wrist in a fluke accident snowboarding (2 months before our wedding!) so I had to finish gluing with a cast on my writing hand/wrist). It was difficult to fit my cast between the branches to glue . . . but do-able! After all the cranes were glued on, I opened some of their wings.
For the 1,001st crane, I used a piece of the washi paper (from when we made our wedding invitations).
Next, my mother-in-law let me take some stones from her garden, to help fill the bonsai tree pot. I also bought some smaller stones from Michael's craft store. The bonsai tree pot was filled to the top. In addition to the paper mache, the stones would help hold the tree roots down, as the cranes added weight to the branches.
And . . here is the finished 1,001 origami crane bonsai tree!
Photographed by Quinn Photography