Origin of Paper Flowers - Guest Post

Paper flowers can be anything from a beautiful hobby to a way of active meditation depending on how you want to see them. Traditionally believed to be either of Egyptian or Chinese origin they have been around ever since different types of paper existed. For the most part they say paper flowers were invented as an art two-thousand years ago! As a part of a religious offering tradition where they were placed in water. In time however the focus shifted from tradition and more toward a way of active meditation. They were eventually recognized as one of the four arts a true Highborn Chinese man must master. The way the classic Chinese paper flowers were made was to emphasize the victory of order, light and good over the forces of chaos, darkness and evil. With the Emperor literally believed to be the representation of heavenly authority on Earth this was understandably the focus of their flower art. The colors involved and the positions of the composition conveyed a specific message. The Chinese created a number of other incredible paper crafts such as lanterns which are incredibly complex and difficult. Later on in Victorian times European women began making flowers out of paper when the regular flowers were out of season. But what we'll cover here is the more popular Japanese paper crafts making of origami and kirigami. Kirigami is commonly mistaken for origami by those who are unfamiliar with the entirety of the concept, however the difference lies mostly in a single fact – cutting.

Kirigami comes from (kiri) which means “cut” and (gami) which means paper as the word is written in hiragana. Sometimes the Japanese even use the term kirie instead to signify the cutting involved in the process.

As an art form origami originate in 17th century Japan and its origins are somewhat shrouded in mystery since there have been many forms of paper craft around the world. It would be logical to assume that the roots of the art come from China because of the long tradition of paper flower folding there, however there is very little evidence to prove that the roots of origami lie in China because of the fact that very few of the ancient origami have been preserved. The very nature of origami is one of fragility and beauty that hardly lasts centuries.

One of the most beautiful moments about making origami is the fact that despite having a few basic folds when combined they can become so much more. There are a number of relatively simple ways of making origami or kirigami varieties of flowers without too much effort either by regular folding or cutting or through wet folding techniques. Some true masters of the art live in Japan and other countries with people like Akira Yoshisawa, Makoto Yamaguchi, and Toshikazu Kawasaki who was famous for his Kawasaki rose. There are many westerners whose work also helped popularize the art such as the late Robert Harbin and Eric Joisel in the UK and France and thanks to these pioneers and the masters in Japan today origami flowers are something even you can make with ease as there are many tutorials and videos around the web explaining everything in detail.

The article has been submitted by: http://www.flowersbypost.org.uk/