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| Sunday, 7 December 2003 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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The many uses of fabric origami While most of us are familiar with the term 'paper origami', few know that the same principle could be used on fabrics with a more lasting and unique effect.
Ori means "to fold" and kami which becomes gami when combined with ori means "paper" and also "god", says Chandrika Perera who having specialised in the art for several years, ventured into the relatively little known field of fabric origami which is based on the paper origami method, because she wanted to do something "different". An adventurous woman with a flair for unusual creative hobbies, this housewife cum mother started her working career as an instructress and manageress at the SriLankan Airlines. Having worked there for 22 years she decided to opt for the voluntary retirement package in 2001 and stay at home looking after her two growing daughters aged 15 and 10 years. I soon became tired of staying at home and decided to learn some new hobbies. Daisy Vittachchi introduced me to ribbon embroidery craft and I excelled in the field winning the first prize for ribbon embroidery in an all island contest. From ribbon embroidery I switched to patchwork where I too won the fifth place at a similar contest organised by Mrs. Vittachchi. Following this success I then turned my hand to fabric origami which is my latest hobby", she told the Sunday Observer recently. For most of her designs she uses the hexagon, pentagon and triangular shapes she explained making an Iris flower, then a lotus flower and a shoe flower.' "Always use a dark fabric contrasted with a light fabric to make the flower stand out", she says. using the same origami principle used for paper origami, she showed us how she had designed an exquisite wall hanging with the stained glass window effect, and created an entire bedroom suite down to the decoration of the table lamp with her favourite flowers. A wall hanging with bright red anthurium peeping out of the light background is an ideal gift for the Christmas season, she says. "Once you learn this hobby , you can literally do anything you want from just scraps of fabrics left over from your needlework. Any housewife with time on her hands and lots of patience and of course blessed with imagination can turn this pleasant hobby into a money spinner if she wants", says this housewife. Chandrika plans to hold her maiden exhibition on Fabric Origami at the Vijaya Colombo Plaza on December 13 and 14 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on both days. She says she has asked Otara Chandiram as her chief guest and hopes to present the latter with a life-sized dendrobeum orchid which was recently named after Otara. Along with the wide range of items that will be on display, there will be plenty of Christmas items such as T shirts with origami flowers and ribbon flowers, cushion covers, wall hangings and ribbon embroidery pictures for sale. "My next plan is to get into the readymade garment industry where I plan to introduce fabric origami into already made clothes, later making my own clothes ", says this enterprising woman. - C.A. |
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Origami by the way, is a craft of folding paper without cutting, gluing
or decorating. This particular craft which originated in Japan is today an
integral part of the cultural life of the Japanese people.
