Ready, Set, Jump!

Origami Earrings by Rini

Do you like trying things that challenge you?  I do!  Well...sort of...kind of...sometimes?  I certainly love being a creative person and a big part of that involves diving into the unknown.  Creativity requires moving forward, exploring, and playing around with ideas & materials.  That by itself can be a challenge.  How do you move forward when you don't even know where to begin?

Sometimes you need a jumping off point!  The earrings that I made (pictured above) were inspired by a design pattern that I found in the book Origami by Gay Merrill Gross.  The shape is called a hexahedron and it looked simple enough (for an origami project!).

Since I wasn't sure how to even make the basic pattern, I started with pretty large size pieces of origami paper.  I figured that once I had practice with something larger that I could then move onto these much smaller earrings.  I made quite a few hexahedron "Christmas ornaments"  before I decided to jump into a much more daunting task--making earrings out of one-inch squares of origami paper.  It was slow, painstaking, and frustrating at times BUT an hour or so later...I had these gorgeous earrings that I'd made myself!  How absolutely thrilling--to find your way to something new and undiscovered!

Since then I've kept trying new things ranging from knitting to moving across country to mentoring, cardio-boxing, zip-lining, pedal boating, & more!  I keep a mental checklist of things I want to try and experience.  And guess what?  Even though I don't necessarily love everything I try, my list keeps growing! I've made a deliberate choice to live a life that is passionate, exciting, and transforming.  I hope you'll join me for this exhilarating journey!

When was the last time you tried something you've never done before?  What was it?