How to Make a Simple Origami Crane Mobile

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DIY projects, How to Make an Origami Crane Mobile, Origami crane, San Francisco City Hall wedding

A thousand paper cranes are traditionally given in Japan as a wedding gift by the folder, who is wishing a thousand years of happiness and prosperity upon the couple.  … [I]t is commonly said that folding 1000 paper origami cranes makes a person’s wish come true. This makes them popular gifts for special friends and family.

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We started folding cranes in June.  We would fold a few here and there.  Sometimes it was me and Tony on the sofa; sometimes Bean helped, too.  Eventually, we were about half-way there.  Then, after six months of dilly-dallying, a couple of weeks ago, I had a quick trip.  I packed origami paper and a reusable grocery back in my carry-on luggage, skipped the reading material and spent two plane trips folding cranes.  I cranked out 200 in two days.  I decided we could finish folding the cranes in short order.  I set a challenge to fold 500 in one week.  In reality, it took us two weeks, and my arm and back hurt from the repetitive motion.  But we did it.  We folded more than 1,000 cranes (having been cajoled into folding some scraps of paper that were not part of the traditional origami papers I purchased for this project).

Because we had so many cranes to string, we decided to keep the mobile simple in construction.  There are a lot of tutorials out on the internet for more complicated, but really pretty, mobiles.  My favorites are the ones that used cut up wire hangars so that the birds fly at different heights and swing around.  I also liked the circular mobiles with the cranes hung at graduated lengths around the circle.  I also found several tutorials for stringing cranes that required stringing beads underneath and above each crane in order to ensure correct spacing.  While beautiful, these methods seemed more time consuming and to require a little too much engineering for our desires.  We had more than 1000 cranes to hang and were looking for a structure that would feel like an airy mobile while at the same time holding a lot of birds without requiring extra steps or costs (like stringing a ton of beads in addition to the cranes) so that we could finish this project quickly, beautifully, and economically.

After conferring with Emily, who blogs over at Pantelones Del Fuego (and gets extra credit for not only being really cool and helpful but also for having one of my favorite blog names), I decided that the best (read:  simplest) way for us to go would be to find pre-formed shapes that we could use to attach the strands of cranes rather than trying to engineer a structure ourselves.  There are, of course, many cheaper (read:  free) options for creating mobiles.  We could have taken several walks around our neighborhood and parks to collect sticks, cut off the poky parts, and sawed them to lengths we liked (or left them pokey and rambling), but keep in mind that we need to: (1) finish them quickly because I need to be done with this project like nobody’s business; (2) store them for several months where they won’t get crushed or dirty; and (3) transport them 7 hours from our house and back again.

Emily gave me this sage advice based on her experience handling cranes for her wedding:

If I were to do it over again, what I’d probably do is buy some sort of already formed shapes (circles, squares, triangles) so as not to have to deal with the gluing and cutting) and just tie strings of cranes to the various sides of said shape. Those type were the easiest to transport, used the most cranes, and were the least fussy in terms of balancing.

So, I made the executive decision to throw a little money at our problem, printed out a Michaels coupon and headed over to the craft store during lunch one day.  I came home with the following supplies (except the glue gun, hot glue sticks and fishing line; I already had those on hand):

To complete the mobile, you will need:

• A craft ring.  I chose a 12-inch pressed board craft ring with 8 holes pre-drilled because it allowed for easy math and assembly.
• Clear fishing line.  You can also use embroidery thread, but I wanted the clear fishing line because it’s practically invisible and it’s sturdier, which means that the different paper-weights of our cranes would not cause the fishing line to stretch or tear.  I chose a fishing line that was weighted to withstand 30 lbs of pressure. There are thinner fishing lines, but I want these mobiles to last.
• A boatload of cranes.  You can use as many or as few as you would like.  In fact, you could use the rings to make a delicate graduated-length mobile with 8-9 cranes if you wanted.  But if you, like me, have 1,000+ cranes to deal with, the more you use, the faster you’ll get it done.  If you don’t already know how to fold cranes, there are a ton of tutorials on the internet.  I found a video tutorial was a little easier for me to follow than the standard illustrated graphic.  I can’t find the one I used now, but it started from the very beginning, which I found helpful, as I had never done any paper-folding crafts before and don’t even know how to make a decent paper airplane (although, I suppose I should learn).
• Glue gun
• Glue sticks
• Pony beads larger than the holes in the craft ring
• Large-eyed darning needle with an eye large enough to thread the fishing line

Step 1

Fold all your cranes.  I chose to use traditional origami papers in a variety of colors and patterns.  At one point, I tried some solid colored papers, but I didn’t care for the feel or density of the papers.  You can use any paper, really, as long as it is square (or you cut it square).  I thought folding so many cranes was trouble enough and so decided to go with the pre-cut origami papers.  We also used only the 6X6 size.  I found the larger size a little easier to work with than the smaller ones, but smaller squares would yield cranes that would take up a lot less room.

Step 2

Once I had the supplies ready, I cut 17 equal lengths of fishing line to string the cranes and 4 shorter lengths, for a total of 21.  I used lengths from the tip of my nose to the tip of my outstretched middle finger, which is approximately 3 feet (or 1 yard; don’t ask me for mm, I’m a sadly public-educated American girl who can’t convert to metric).

Why 21 lengths, you ask?  I strung 8 strands of cranes through the pre-drilled holes, I then tied 8 more strands in between the pre-drilled holes.  I strung one more strand to hang from the center of the circle, and I used four more strands to form the hanging mechanism.

Step 3:

Double knot a pony bead to the bottom of the first strand of fishing line.

Step 4

Thread the other end of your fishing line through the needle, and thread the fishing line through the bead twice for extra stability.

Step 5

After you have folded your crane, a hole naturally occurs in the bottom center of the crane.  Thread the needle through this hole and then poke through the center of the top of the crane.  When you fold the crane, a center X fold will occur at the top of the crane body.  Use this as the guide for poking through the top of the crane.

Repeat until you have the desired number of cranes on your fishing line/thread.  For our mobiles, I used 6 cranes per strand for the outer strands.

Step 6

Spread the cranes out along the thread until you are happy with the spacing.  Be sure to leave enough thread at the top to tie the strand to the craft ring.

Step 7

Place a dab of hot glue at the top of each crane, around the fishing line.  If the hole at the bottom of your bottom crane is a little bit large, you may also want to place a dab of hot glue there to glue the bead into place.  Let the glue cool and dry before moving the strand; this only takes a minute or two, but if you move them too quickly, the cranes will slide out of place.

Repeat until you have all of the strands you want for your mobile glued.

Step 8

Thread the strand through the pre-drilled hole in the craft ring and double knot a bead at the top.  Repeat for all 8 pre-drilled holes (or how many ever you have).

If you want, you could drill additional holes and string the remainder of the strands with beads.  For me, this sounded like an extra step, so I just tied a strand around the ring in between each set of two pre-drilled holes.

This had the added benefit of making every other strand a different length.

Step 9

Use the four remaining pre-cut pieces of fishing line to create the hanging mechanism.  Start by tying one end of one piece of thread around the ring.  I double-knotted and will go back and put a dab of hot glue on the knot for added security.  Tie the other end of the string directly across the ring.  Repeat for all four pieces.  You should end up with a knot tied around the ring in between each of the 8 pre-drilled holes (in addition to the extra strand of cranes you already tied between the pre-drilled holes).  Gather the four strings in the center so that they are pulled tight enough to thread through one of the beads.  Add the last remaining strand of cranes to this bunch and thread all of these (four loops, plus the one strand) through a bead.

I wanted the center cranes to fly above the ring, so I pulled the thread through higher.

Once you have the bead placed so that the cranes are balanced, tie the four loops and one strand together in a big knot.  This will create the loops that you will use to hang the mobile.

Step 10

Trim the excess pieces of thread/string/fishing line and dab hot glue on all of the knots.  Let the hot glue dry and your mobile is ready to hang.

This mobile took me about 2 1/2 hours to make, but now that I’ve got the mechanics figured out, they seem to be going faster.  We’ll end up with 10 mobiles total; we’re planning to give away 7 of them — kids get first choice, then adults can take one if they want it.