The flower of my secret pastime

By popular demand, I present you with the initial offerings from the Raplicious Origami Collection.

Since December, I've made a few mentions of my burgeoning origami habit in the digital pages of Blogtucky. It may seem like a new phenomenon, but I've been thinking about picking up the pieces of the folding paper habit for years. In fact, my friend Fouchat gave me a beginner's origami kit for Christmas a few years back. And, finally, in the week leading up to this past Christmas, when I seemed for once in my holiday life to be totally on top of the season, for some strange reason, I decided to break open the kit and start folding my way through the basics.

I even took the paper and instruction booklet with me on my trip home for the holidays, and it came in very handy traveling on the plane and, naturally, while stuck at O'Hare (once again) waiting for the crew, the plane, the plane and the crew, the food, the fuel, the luggage, or whatever the hey-it's-not-our-fault reasoning for the delay the airline was spewing forth that day. Surprisingly, the origami kept me calm and kept me active. I even had some fun leaving little origami surprises around the terminal for my fellow travelers, none of which, thankfully, drew the untoward attention of the FAA or Homeland Security. "Code red! There's an origami box and drinking cup at Gate H-22!"

While in Kansas, though, I got the origami monkey on my back in a big way, and it has not yet let go. I went through all the designs in the beginner's booklet, including the tough lily and the surprisingly easy flower ball. Then I bought a book on Christmas origami and created a few more objects, although with uneven success.

One of the ideas proffered in the Christmas origami book is for the origamist to re-create the twelve days of Christmas through the art of folded paper, geese-a-laying, maids-a-milking, and lords-a-leaping ad infinitum. I briefly entertained the idea of making for every member of my family a full set of origami in homage to the twelve days, and who knows? that may yet happen. But after arriving at a decent swan-a-swimming, I struggled through the calling birds and the French hens and have pretty much decided to scale back the project. If I get one set of all twelve days completed in my lifetime, well, then, joy to the world.

I've had more luck--although not complete success--with origami flowers and have since purchased a book on paper flower designs. I've done well with the tulips and alright by the primroses, but my carnations are, shall we say, petal-fully lacking.

I've battled with the lilies, too, but I decided to create a bouquet of orange and yellow day lilies to go with a bare, cobalt blue vase my mother has in her dining room, and by focusing on a project, I've done so much better. I'm creating a vase of ten lilies, five yellow and five orange. So far, I've made nearly all the flowers (eight of ten, with one or two of the yellows, where I started, in need of a do-over), and now have begun folding leaves and creating stamens/carpels/pistils/whatever, for the internal parts of the flowers.

I've also become a regular at Michael's--perhaps the only man to ever make this claim--buying 18-gauge and 20-gauge flower wire to create stems, along with floral tape to attach the leaves and flowers to the stems. I feel like such a florist! But, minus a little glueing, I have finished at least three of the flowers and feel hopeful that I can complete almost all the others by the time I head back to Kansas in April.

Sadly, I don't think I'll be quitting my day job anytime soon to become a Master Origamist. Nonetheless, I'm enjoying this newfound, long-delayed hobby. It gets me away from the workaday world, relaxes my mind, and exercises my hands more than anything else of late, save gardening, the latter of which is a bit difficult to get excited over during a long, brusque Pennsylvania winter. (Waiting for tulip bulbs to rise from the deep freeze can only entertain one for so long.)

What's also fun for me is that I feel like I'm creating something. I've spent too many years admiring the abilities of others, focusing too much on work, on distractions, on the stuff that goes on inside my head, instead of taking the time to acquire skills and talents that I've longed to do for years (perfecting my Spanish, learning the rudiments of German and French, practicing calligraphy, cooking, and writing, to name but a few).

But with this origami jones, a cooking class or two, some half-begun short stories in the works, and the occasional German-by-radio lesson, maybe I'm on to something.

Honestly, I wasn't sure I had it in me, never having been too dexterous or patient and generally dissatisfied with my attempts at anything that I can't be "perfect" at. But this origami gig is working out, at least in the way I want it to, giving me a chance to do something enjoyable, make something with my hands for someone else, and, if done well, add a little delicate beauty to the world.

In the panoply of all art, my origami may be slight, it may be crudely executed, and it may be (I fully admit) completely dorky. But it is at least mine.