PRINCEVILLE — The origami exhibit of a 9-year-old Kilauea boy was extended at Princeville Public Library. Elijah Seed-Arita of Kilauea says he has been practicing origami since he was 3-years-old. His mother, Lisa, knew how to make an origami crane
PRINCEVILLE — The origami exhibit of a 9-year-old Kilauea boy was extended at Princeville Public Library.
Elijah Seed-Arita of Kilauea says he has been practicing origami since he was 3-years-old. His mother, Lisa, knew how to make an origami crane and he made one, then two, and pretty soon had all kinds of cranes in various sizes.
“It was the first fun project that I did a lot,” Elijah said.
By the time he was in preschool and kindergarten, Elijah said he was teaching his classmates to make them. As his interest grew, he was challenging himself to make different designs.
Thanks to the support of the Friends of the Northshore Library, Elijah is the youngest and one of the most popular exhibitors of the library display case, according to Michelle Young, Princeville Library branch manager.
The exhibit is coordinated to tie in with the monthly adult speaker program.
“It’s been good,” Young said. “It has the most comments, more than any other display since I have been here.”
“The kids are attracted to it,” she added. “They are extra impressed that it was done by somebody who is so young.”
The exhibit was supposed to end last week but was extended indefinitely. It will lead up to Elijah’s demonstration event as part of an Oct. 6 Star Wars Reads Day national event by DeCay Publishing, said Young. There will be several activities and prizes all day, including a “Star Wars” origami session with Elijah.
“We ordered materials and extra books,” Young said. “There will be demonstrations and craft activities around the Star Wars theme.”
Setting up for the exhibit, Elijah said he was inspired to make some humming bird origami.
He learned to make them from origami books and from watching lessons on YouTube.
The more difficult the design, the more he enjoys them, he said.
His mother said that some of the intricate works are Elijah’s own design. He maps them out with geometry, she said.
Even trial and error led to pleasant surprises. Elijah recalls trying to invent a mouse design and wound up making what he saw as an ostrich.
“I used two papers to try and make the ostrich,” he said. “I messed one up trying to make a mouse, and so decided on the ostrich.”
Origami requires very thin paper, he said. The art requires many folds.
“Regular paper gets super fat and is not going to look good,” he said. “It will be hard to fold.”
His favorite origami master is Michael G. LaFosse. His books and ideas have inspired Elijah into advanced origami.
“He also tells me how to make my own origami paper,” Elijah said. “I make it into a powder and then use water, a square strainer and then take out to let it dry.”
The LaFosse books show how to use torn orange, white and black paper for koi fish designs. “It is the same process but just bigger pieces,” Elijah said.
The documentary film “Between The Folds” also taught him to make the amazing moving origami. “They are awesome designs,” he said.
Elijah said his father’s favorite is a “squishy blob” that looks flat like a table, but it has a square in the middle that can “squish down.”
His six-year-old sister Koko is also trying origami.
Support for his art comes all the way from New York, where his Japanese American grandmother sends him origami books, paper and instructions.
“She likes origami so I send her stuff,” Elijah said. “Once I sent her a box that had to be unfolded when she opened it.
The Princeville Library is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
