The arrival of 2012 means another year of birthday celebrations, holiday events, and other special occasions. Instead of buying a generic store-bought greeting card to give to your loved one, why not create a beautiful home-made origami card. The care and love you pour into making it can surely be felt and be better appreciated by the recipient. Not only that, it will have that touch of uniqueness and charm that are always present in origami cards.
This birthday pop-up card is sure to bring a smile to anyone’s face. A peace dove pops up when the finished card is opened. You can also use various paper designs, including left over wrapping paper.
Kirigami, a type of origami which involves cutting paper, can also be used to make many greeting card designs. This quick video shows how to create a greeting card with a pop-up flower. All you need are scissors, paper, and your basic origami folding skills:
The next time a birthday or anniversary comes up, show the celebrant your love and affection with an origami greeting card!
One of the traditional foods served during shōgatsu, or Japanese New Year, is mochi. This delectable rice cake is made of glutinous rice pounded into a paste and formed into shape. Mochi is so versatile that it can be added to soups, turned into mochi ice cream, or filled with ingredients like red bean paste or fruits.
Mochitsuki
The traditional ceremony of pounding mochi is called Mochitsuki, a significant part of the Japanese New Year celebration. The process is labor-intensive, needs several people to make it, and requires quick reflexes because one wrong move and a hand can be pounded instead of the mochi!
The pounding of mochi is truly an impressive sight, and the ceremony also gives people a chance to get together with family and friends.
Pounding mochi. Masa | wikipedia
For this New Year’s feast, you can buy mochi in the stores or even make some at home if you have the ingredients. Here’s a great how-to video on home-made mochi:
This soup is made of mochi along with vegetables and broth. The ingredients are somewhat specific to region, but mochi is essential in the soup. Most Japanese have this traditional dish for the first meal for the new year. It is believed to pave the way for a happy year ahead.
Ozoni. yasshi | wikimedia
The arrangement of the ingredients is so attractive that it is as much a visual treat as a treat for the palate. Here’s how you can make ozoni soup:
This August, KCP students had a blast at a seminar on how to draw a popular Gintama manga character. Manga (Japanese comics or printed cartoons) which is almost as widely popular in the United States as in Japan, incorporates drawing techniques that make the characters easily recognizable. They usually have overly big eyes, small mouths and chins, and messy hair.
Oni Lukos | wikimedia
You can teach yourself to draw manga with the use of tutorials and manga sketch books. Below are three fantastic video tutorials by Mark Crilley on how to draw those distinctive manga facial features, female eyes, and hair.
One of the most popular dishes in Japanese restaurants is the California roll. This sushi roll is usually served inside-out, which means the rice is the outer layer instead of the sheet of edible seaweed, called nori. This delectable sushi is generally composed of crab sticks (imitation crab), cucumber, and avocado, although some people exchange avocado for mango and others include both.
bluewaikiki | wikimedia
The California roll was popularized by Japanese sushi chefs in the U.S. in the 60s. One of the first sushi bars in Los Angeles was at Tokyo Kaikan restaurant where Ichiro Mashita, the sushi chef, invented the California roll.
Today, there are many variations of the basic California roll created by skilled and creative sushi chefs. You can make your very own with some simple ingredients such as and equipment such as a bamboo mat for rolling the sushi (you can find this at many Asian groceries), and a very sharp knife to cleanly cut the roll.
Check out this video on how to make California rolls. You can make your own variations such as substituting sesame seeds for orange fish roe.
Origami designs are in the thousands (probably even millions) and the level of difficulty varies from “piece of cake” to “this is making me go crazy!” The results, however, are always rewarding, especially after diligently folding a flat sheet of paper in different ways and turning it into beautiful artwork that catches everyone’s eye.
Last week, we talked about how to create Christmas origami decorations, which were fairly easy. If you are up to the challenge for more advanced techniques, take a look at these videos on how to make a Christmas tree fairy and two styles of snowflake origami.
