Goal: Create a joyful scene that would represent nature, peace in the world, and love of friends and family - using origami cranes made by people of all ages and skill levels.

Challenge: Use as many paper origami cranes as possible and incorporate into wall art scene suitable for an elementary school or children's museum. We received three boxes of  more than 1,200 cranes (and about 200 colors - including plain white office paper) made by elementary students, friends and family of a sick child. The paper crane folding was inspired by the book One Thousand Cranes: The Story of Sadako and the Children's Peace Statue.  

Result: This piece (32" X 40" unframed) uses more than 300 origami cranes - cranes as water/waves holding hands, cranes in the rainbow, cranes flying toward the river, and cranes (about 20) in the golden sun. 

The two dancing cranes in the middle of the scene are invented origami shapes that honor the Japanese crane, a crane about 5 feet tall that mates for life and lives more than 50 years. In Japan - and China, the crane is the symbol of long life. And it is said that if one folds 1,000  paper origami cranes, one's wish will come true.