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Cape Fear Botanical Garden: Origami In The Garden Is Folding Amazing

This Cape Fear Botanical Garden: Origami In The Garden post is sponsored.

If you get the chance, check out the Origami In The Garden exhibit at Cape Fear Botanical Garden in Fayetteville, NC. Learn all about it on www.drugstoredivas.net. #origamiinthegarden

When I was in Kindergarten, my mom sat me down to teach me a little origami. She showed me how to make a cup, and I followed her fold by fold. She then showed me how to make a samurai hat, and I followed her again.

I remember being in an after school program not too long after that, making the cup and samurai hat with a bunch of other students. Maybe my mom was testing the program out on me to see if it would be too hard. I honestly can’t remember.

I do, however, remember taking a public speaking class in college and one of the assignments was teaching the class something. Some people taught baking, some taught CPR. I brought in origami paper and taught my class how to make an origami cup.

I’m Japanese. It’s in my blood.

So of course, when I heard that the Cape Fear Botanical Garden (536 N Eastern Blvd) In Fayetteville, NC was hosting Origami In The Garden 2, I was thrilled and added it right to the top of my Fayetteville Summer Bucket List (which is a thing). The exhibit runs now through September 8, so definitely add it to your bucket list.

Cape Fear Botanical Garden: Origami In The Garden Is Folding Amazing

For most people, I think the crane is the most popular origami. It’s eye catching, simple(-ish) to make, and is famously a focal point of the book Sadako and The 1,000 Paper Cranes.

If you get the chance, check out the Origami In The Garden exhibit at Cape Fear Botanical Garden in Fayetteville, NC. Learn all about it on www.drugstoredivas.net. #origamiinthegarden

There’s actually the Crane Unfolding piece before you enter the Garden. It shows the crane in four stages of being folded, so you can sort of visualize how it goes from a piece of paper to a crane.

The familiarity and popularity hooks visitors in before they even get inside.

But to the Cape Fear Botanical Garden, that’s not the most popular. Instead, that’s the Painted Ponies. That’s because it was the first collaboration between exhibition creator Kevin Box and Te Judi Fu. The piece consists of the larger Pony and the smaller Dancing Pony. They come in a variety of colors, but the Cape Fear Botanical Garden has a red, white, and blue on display as an homage to America (since Fayetteville is America’s Hometown after all).

You can see the Painted Ponies on the majority of the images advertising the exhibit. But there’s so much more inside.

There are a total of 18 of the origami statues within the Cape Fear Botanical Garden. Yes, statues. Although origami is the art of paper folding, the installations are not made of paper. They wouldn’t be able to withstand the elements that way.

If you get the chance, check out the Origami In The Garden exhibit at Cape Fear Botanical Garden in Fayetteville, NC. Learn all about it on www.drugstoredivas.net. #origamiinthegarden

Inside the Garden’s main building, near the bathrooms, are a few displays from the Inside Out installation. That shows completed pieces in display boxes, then a sculpture mimicking paper — complete with all the fold lines — behind it. That gives non-origami makers a glimpse into just how much work goes into making the paper projects.

Speaking of origami, it specifically means the art of paper folding. Just paper. Just folding. There’s also kirigami. The difference between origami and kirigami is that kirigami is the art of paper folding and cutting. So to create kirigami, you can use scissors to manipulate the paper. With origami, you can only use folds.

Origami In The Garden 2 honors both.

If you get the chance, check out the Origami In The Garden exhibit at Cape Fear Botanical Garden in Fayetteville, NC. Learn all about it on www.drugstoredivas.net. #origamiinthegarden

There are gorgeous huge cranes greeting you as you enter and sending you off as you leave the paid portion of the Gardens (admission is $10 for adults; $9 for military members and seniors 65 and over; $5 for kids ages 6 to 12; and free with your Cape Fear Botanical Garden membership).

If you get the chance, check out the Origami In The Garden exhibit at Cape Fear Botanical Garden in Fayetteville, NC. Learn all about it on www.drugstoredivas.net. #origamiinthegarden

You’ll get a map that helps you navigate through the gardens and each origami statue’s location is noted on the map. It was like a treasure hunt when my mom and I walked around the gardens. We followed the map to the designated location and sometimes had to look around to find the statues.

Like the piece called Who Saw Who, which combined two statues. There’s Raptor, perched on high, looking down at Armijo’s Mouse, sitting on a rock looking at the bird. But, what’s funny is we approached this section of the Gardens from behind where the sculptures were situated. So yes, the name is a play on if the bird saw the mouse first or vice versa, but it felt more like did the origami see us first or did we see it.

If you get the chance, check out the Origami In The Garden exhibit at Cape Fear Botanical Garden in Fayetteville, NC. Learn all about it on www.drugstoredivas.net. #origamiinthegarden

Follow the path and you’ll see Emerging Peace (which is a butterfly growing from a caterpillar), Paper Nativator (a boat, which is appropriately placed in water), and Nesting Pair (two birds, sitting together on branches).

And then there are pieces like the Conversation Piece, which is the exhibits take on rock paper scissors. There’s a rock at the bottom, a paper crane up top, and a pair of scissors between. Sure, you don’t need scissors to make the crane, but it s a nod to it.

If you’re not able to make it to the Garden before the exhibit closes, be sure follow the hashtag #origamiinthegarden on social media. You will see more than just the pieces set in the Cape Fear Botanical Garden, though.

If you get the chance, check out the Origami In The Garden exhibit at Cape Fear Botanical Garden in Fayetteville, NC. Learn all about it on www.drugstoredivas.net. #origamiinthegarden

Origami in the Garden is actually a national show that gardens can lease for three to six month periods. So the hashtag will show identical sculptures from various gardens throughout the country. If you search #origamicfbg, you’ll see sculptures from the Cape Fear Botanical Garden only.

And, if you do make it there, and you take a photo that you love and you think others will love you can enter it in the Cape Fear Botanical Garden’s photo contest. You can submit up to high-res 10 images to [email protected] with the subject line CFBG Photo Contest. Be sure to include your full name, email, and phone number.

Winners will be announced the week of September 9, 2019. The grand prize winner will receive the aforementioned Armijo’s Mouse sculpture. Second place wins an OiG gift bag filled with a t-shirt, coffee mug, $50, and more. Third place wins an OiG gift bag with a t-shirt, origami paper, an origami book, and more OiG merch.

If you get the chance, check out the Origami In The Garden exhibit at Cape Fear Botanical Garden in Fayetteville, NC. Learn all about it on www.drugstoredivas.net. #origamiinthegarden

Have you been to see the Origami In The Garden exhibit? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Want to check out other botanical gardens in the Southeast?

The Cape Fear Botanical Garden is about 60 miles south of Raleigh, NC and 90 miles northwest of Wilmington, NC.

Other botanical gardens worth checking out that are within driving distance of the Cape Fear Botanical Gardens:

– Airlie Gardens, Wilmington, NC
– Brookgreen Gardens, Murrells Inlet, SC
Brunswick County Botanical Garden, Bolivia, NC
Juniper Level Botanic Garden, Raleigh, NC
– Magnolia Plantation & Gardens, Charleston, SC
New Hanover County Arboretum, Wilmington, NC
Wilson Botanical Gardens, Wilson, NC

Kiwi

Tuesday 13th of August 2019

This looks so enchanting! I would love to visit here soon!

Hannah Marie

Monday 12th of August 2019

I bet it was fun! It's just amazing how creative people are. I would love to visit!

Echo

Friday 9th of August 2019

This is so beautiful. I love gardens and origami! We have an arboretum that does installations like this.

Steph Social

Friday 9th of August 2019

I love origami! I used to do it a lot actually:) I would to see these large origami creations!

Tisha

Friday 9th of August 2019

Wow these are beautiful! I got into origami once in middle school. It can be rewarding to get the end result you were going for.