Canton Woman Finds Success With Origami

By SUSAN MENDE

CANTON - Krista A. Briggs never considered herself a patient person.

Until she discovered her knack for shaping thin sheets of paper into colorful birds, flowers, butterflies, dragonflies, seahorses and other creatures.

Besides patience, it took plenty of practice for Miss Briggs to teach herself how to create origami, the traditional Japanese art of paper folding.

Over the past four years she has spent hours learning new patterns found on the Internet and transforming paper squares into jewelry, holiday ornaments, flower bouquets, wreaths and other decorative items, including a green frog that hops.

Her tiniest origami projects, such as miniature flowers and butterflies, are affixed to earrings, necklaces and bracelets. She's learned how to make small jewelry beads by rolling paper.

"The more you understand how the folds work, the easier it becomes," Miss Briggs said. "Memorizing patterns and learning new ones becomes easier."

After giving many of her creations to friends as gifts, she's now selling them on Etsy.com, an Internet site for people interested in buying and purchasing handmade items.

Some of her jewelry and other ornaments are also for sale at Movies & More Superstore, 65 Miner St. and at the Canton Farmer's Market during the summer months. She applies a lacquer on jewelry pieces to make them more durable.

Miss Briggs has also taught workshops for children, teenagers and senior citizens interested in learning origami, a Japanese word from "oru," meaning folding and "kami," meaning paper.

"It's kind of amazing the way the folds come together to make shapes," Miss Briggs said. "It's like the paper evolves."

Miss Briggs resides in Canton and works full-time as a young adult specialist at the Canton Free Library. She became interested in origami a few years ago after telling a coworker she could make a paper crane without using scissors, a skill she learned during a high school art class at Gouverneur Central School.

In Japan, a crane is considered a mystical or holy creature. An ancient legend there promises that anyone who folds a thousand origami cranes will be granted a wish by a crane, such as a long life or recovery from illness or injury.

When her co-worker asked Miss Briggs to make a flamingo, she accepted the challenge and learned how. One fold led to another and she started whipping up dozens of paper creatures, realizing she had a talent for the Asian craft.

"It was kind of frustrating at the beginning, but I stuck with it. I kept making more and different things," she said. "Once I had a lot of origami lying around my house I decided I should try to sell some."

She purchases her origami paper on the Internet and at Purple Rice, an Asian grocery store at 20 Elm St., Potsdam.

Miss Briggs said many young people she works with at the library are interested in Japanese culture. She holds after-school sessions where teens watch animated moves called animee and read manga, which are Japanese graphic novels.

"There's a big interest in Japanese culture among teens. It's become more westernized. Their culture is familiar in some ways, but still different," Miss Briggs said.