DAILY DOSE OF ART

As prescribed by Paulina Constancia

Earth Day Series (2) – Cranes & Wetlands

April 22nd is Earth Day.This week April 16-22, I will be sharing with you ideas and projects to help create better awareness of environmental issues and develop a much deeper empathy for other earthlings be they winged, finned or legged. Hopefully, there will be more interest to commit to help care for the home we share- planet Earth.

Today’s Topic: Cranes & Wetlands
Today’s Project: Making An Origami Paper Crane(reusing magazines)

Today’s Project:
Making Origami Paper Cranes
Using Old Magazines
A Little About Wetlands 
Source:wetlandsdotorg

Wetlands are highly variable and dynamic: they are water bodies but also include land. They are freshwater, brackish or saline, inland or coastal, seasonal or permanent, natural or man-made. Wetlands include mangroves, (peat) swamps and marshes, rivers, lakes, floodplains and flooded forests, rice-fields, and even coral reefs.
Wetlands are one of the world’s most important environmental assets, containing a disproportionately high number of plant and animal species compared to other areas of the world. Throughout history they have been integral to human survival and development.
Where can wetlands be found?
Wetlands exist in every country and in every climatic zone, from the polar regions to the tropics. They are distributed around the world and cover an area that is 33% larger than the USA.
Click here to view a slideshow of the different types of wetlands around the world on www.wetlands.org

Wetlands on the “front-line”
Wetlands are vulnerable to over-exploitation due to their abundance of fish, fuel and water. When they are viewed as unproductive or marginal lands, wetlands are targeted for drainage and conversion. In many different ways, wetlands are on the “front-line” as development pressures increase.
The rate of loss and deterioration of wetlands is accelerating in all regions of the world. The pressure on wetlands is likely to intensify in the coming decades due to increased global demand for land and water, as well as climate change. 


*Learn more about wetland conservation efforts around the world on wetlandsdotorg
*Learn more about WARPT:Wetalnds-at-Risk protection tool on wetland protection.org
*Learn about the 500 Important Wetlands in Japan
*Read about Olango Island and Conservation of Philippine Wetlands
*Learn more about Mangrove conservation/restoration efforts and how you can help on the Mangrove Action Project
*Little Efforts go a long way- check out Katunggan Permaculture Adventure Farm (mangrove conservation, permaculture education, eco-adventures, etc)


A Little About Cranes

Source: Wikipedia

Whooping Crane/USA
Image Source

Most species of crane are dependent on wetlands and require large areas of open space. Most species of crane nest in shallow wetlands. Some species nest in wetlands but move their chicks up onto grasslands to feed (while returning to wetlands at night), whereas others remain in wetlands for the entirety of the breeding season. Even the two species of Anthropoides crane, which may nest and feed in grasslands (or even arid grasslands or deserts) require wetlands for roosting in during the night. The only two species that do not always roost in wetlands are the two African crowned-cranes (Balearica), which are the only cranes to roost in trees.

*Learn more about Cranes on Wikipedia and Conservation efforts on International Crane Foundation
*View photos of 10 Important Wetlands in the world on TOUROPIA
*Check out the Wetland Birds of New Zealand
“Which crane belongs in the wetlands?”
a digital collage by Paulina Constancia

Origami 

Origami (pronounced or-i-GA-me) is the Japanese art of paperfolding. “Ori” is the Japanese word for folding and “kami” is the Japanese word for paper. 

*There’s a lot more I want to share with you about origami and the special significance of the Paper Crane – perhaps in another post. Meantime, learn more about the history of ORIGAMI on Library Think Quest and Wikipedia

Today’s Project: 
Making a Paper Crane 
Using Colorful Old Magazine Pages

You’ll Need:
old magazines
lots of time
patience
persistence
Making Paper Cranes
with reused magazines
concept by Paulina Constancia
folded by Misa Imai
Step 1 Take a nice coloured page
from an old magazine and cut it into a square
*actual size of our sample: 21 cm x 21 cm
Step 2 Follow the 15 steps to making a paper crane 
as provided below.
Step 3 Mount it somewhere in your home as a reminder 
to care for the earth and all creatures.


Here are the 15 steps
to making a Paper Crane



Image Source
“Humankind has not woven the web of life.  
We are but one thread within it.  
Whatever we do to the web,we do to ourselves.  
All things are bound together. 
All things connect.”  
~Chief Seattle, 1855







Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

Information

This entry was posted on April 16, 2012 by in Uncategorized.

Shortlink

https://wp.me/p4Gxxr-O6

Navigation

Blog at WordPress.com.

%d bloggers like this: