PAPER MACHE, TRIRAMA AND ORIGAMI

Paper crafts are a fun way to entertain the mind for both the old and the young. One of the simplest paper crafts is the trirama. A trirama is a three-dimensional creation that takes mere minutes to manifest. Try this on your own, or make this a class project for young students. In this article we shall unfold the simple steps for making your own trirama and a few other ideas for your creation. This author stresses that this easy project can be enjoyed at any age.

The instructions are quite simple and are as follows:

1. Present a square piece of paper. Use plain paper, construction paper, cardboard paper or virtually any other kind of paper you wish to use. To more enable personalizing your trirama this author suggests using at least an 8.5” square. Cut, if needed, and display your paper in front of you.

2. Crease the paper. Fold over two opposing corners and crease it down. Open it up. You should now have a diagonal crease on your square paper.

3. Crease the paper again. Fold over the other two opposing corners and crease it down. Open it up. You should now have an “X” crease formation on your paper.

4. Cut half the length of a crease. It doesn't matter which corner to start at, but using scissors, cut along the crease from a corner to the crease intersection in the middle of the paper.

5. Manage the cut corner. The corner you cut has now two new corners. Grab those two new corners and cross them thus overlapping two triangular pieces of your paper.

6. Affix the overlap. Once in place and all angles are lined up you may now tape, glue or staple the overlap. This now serves as the floor or base of your trirama.

7. Decorate! Be creative as you now have a three-dimensional platform to express your imagination on.

This is a great activity for teachers and parents. However, what can be taught and learned from this activity that will help a growing child in everyday life. Look at your trirama and what do you see? Is it mere paper? Is it all the color and the creative scenery? Do you see the work put in to it and the attention to detail? To all these questions the resounding answer should be “YES!” - and more.

A trirama is the three-dimensional expression of a person's current thought and process of creativity. As you scope and inspect your trirama be conscious of the different decisions made to present what is now your final creation. Every creation is first born within the heart and mind. Call it inspiration or just an idea – it doesn't matter. What matters is the knowledge that what your hands and work has produced first was entertained within the mind and heart.

But not just that! Does your creation look exactly as you foresaw it? More than likely the answer is no. Why? Because of the little decisions you made along the way, your trirama became the product of the mind, heart and the metamorphoses if ideas channeling through the hands. It might look better and it might not, but undeniably your work became manifest because of those decisions.

For a parent or teacher instructing the young it might be a good activity to teach the reality that their dreams can come true through work, perseverance and all the little decisions along the way. Have your young create a trirama of what they'd like to be when they grow up. When finished offer them praise for their work. Afterward though and more importantly, impress upon them the many little choices they made along the way to accomplish such great work. This will help get them thinking in greater terms of relationships with others and the paths they need to take to accomplish their self images.

Oftentimes, we make bad and incorrect choices to satisfy the moment, but at the expense of the long-term goal we fail to see their damage. A happy and productive life must be encouraged by focus and the long-term efforts which reality is determined by all the little choices along the way. Teach the children to master the self and to obtain control over anger, depression, pride and peer pressure. Through this discipline of choices they will retain a clearer view of their life and the fog obscuring their path will lift while allowing the sun to light their way toward a happy and prosperous life.

It was the hope and intention of this author to present a simple paper craft project and to accompany it with an applicable principle which we can all learn from as we continue on our each respective journeys. Every project should have a precept or principle as an appendage to it, that it and the project can be carried with the student wherever they go.