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By Laura Drinan
Hometown Weekly Reporter
Origami is an amazing art. It takes patience, abstract thinking, and steady hands to fold a single piece of paper in all sorts of ways. It’s crazy to think that from a flat piece of paper, origami masters can create hundreds of different animals and objects.
Medfield Public Library’s adult services and technology librarian assistant, Bri Ozanne, challenged the community to a morning of origami making on April 19 in the library’s Makerspace.
She laid out a selection of origami books available for library patrons to check out, an assortment of multicolored square paper, and provided participants with instructions for folding various animals and objects. The instructions ranged in difficulty to accommodate any first time folders or the most experienced origami makers, as well as everyone in between.
“Usually I’m actively teaching, but for this one, people are able to just come in and do whatever they like,” Bri said. “I’ll help if I can, but I’m certainly no origami expert.”
She had certainly mastered the art of folding a frog, though, and assisted one participant in creating a paper amphibian. After they had both made a couple, Bri and one of the patrons began an origami frog-racing contest to see which frog could jump the farthest.
Participants also created a sailboat, which sported a royal blue stern; a dolphin that exhibited some of the more complicated folds in origami; a cootie-catcher, whose fortune-telling abilities showered library director Meena Jain with compliments; and a panda made from bright pink and white paper.
Because it was school vacation week for Medfield Public Schools’ students, Bri chose to host an origami session so that children could participate, too. In the past, though, Bri has hosted trivet and coaster-making classes, taught library patrons how to make felted flowers, and has lead the community in making polymer clay jewelry. Origami is just one of her many crafty talents.
With a great spread of materials, relaxing music, and enjoyable company, the origami participants folded the morning away, and left with a collection of paper goods and with smiles on their faces.
