I made my origami butterfly curtain almost two years ago now! As a first attempt, it was quite easy to make and assemble, so there are many ways I could potentially improve on it. Better quality paper and beads for adorning were my initial ideas, so it is a good thing that I keep trays of assorted beads lying around! I also had some leftover sparkly gold thread to add to the sparkle.

I showed off the goodies I brought back from Japan last month including this 20-piece pack of ornate-looking washi. The patterns are incredible and the gold lining shimmers in the light.

In one day I folded all the cranes and gathered them up in a basket. (I would sit in front of the TV and continue my folding so I needed a mobile carrier!) When I took them back up to my craft room, I grouped the cranes in general colours – black, pink, red, and everything else. Since I have four groups of five cranes, I decided to mix up the colours in each string of four cranes.

I took each group of cranes and matched them to the faceted glass beads. I also threw in some assorted glass beads – this came from a pack of assorted lampwork beads with various patterns in them. Since the washi patterns were so ornate, I figured this would be a nice match,

I threaded the smallest appropriate needle and added beads and cranes. The gold thread that I used was very thin, very delicate and prone to snapping. Rather than tying knots under each bead, it was much easier to loop around the bead to hold the cranes in place.

For each crane, I would put a non-matching colour glass bead above the crane and a matching colour below. I tried to keep about 5cm between each bead but I measured it by eye.

When I reached the end of the string, I added three assorted glass beads and tied a few knots to hold it in place.

With the dowel, I attached a double thread and tied knots to the ends, and hung it up so that I could begin adding the cranes.

I thread the crane strings by tying a double knot at the top. With this thread, it’s very hard to see the knots so it doesn’t look as weird when you inevitably don’t line up all the strings like I did!

I completed the five strings and attached them to the dowel. I had to redo the strings a few times if they did not line up well, so I got through that spool of gold thread very quickly!

When I built the other strings, I did not have to keep attaching it to the dowel to know what length I needed, since I did not measure out the initial length. I mostly eyeballed the spacing. Somehow it mostly lined up! But rather than symmetrical, it ended up being diagonal.

I’m glad the colorful glass beads at the end match quite well, they just been sat in my drawer for such a long time.

Since I only have 45cm dowels, I think small curtains suit them best. I will look into getting larger dowels and try something on a bigger scale next time.

Materials used:
– 20 15cm patterned washi
– 40 4mm faceted glass beads
– 15 assorted colourful glass beads
– one 45cm wooden dowel, width 6mm
– gold thread

Tools used:
– scissors
– sewing needle