Making Paper: Kids Set Up Stand For Custom Origami

Temperatures may have been too chilly Saturday morning to justify selling lemonade, but that did little to inhibit one young Sackett Street resident's entrepreneurial spirit. Sorah Guthrie decided to set up an origami stand instead.

"The stars are 25 cents and the flowers are one dollar," the 7-year-old said, adding that items would be folded to order.

Origami craft began in Japan in the 17th Century and first became popular outside of the country in the mid-1900s. When asked where she learned the traditional Japanese art of paper folding, Guthrie told Patch that she has had various teachers.

"I first learned how to do it at school," she said. "Then I took a class at an origami place in Park Slope called Taro's Origami Studio. I also read books. The flower comes from a book."

Bundled up in their winter coats, Guthrie and a friend set up shop on the stoop of her family's home on Sackett Street between Clinton and Henry Streets around 10:00 a.m., armed with an arsenal of colored paper, origami books, a sign and the moral support of Guthrie's younger sister. They said they planned to be there all afternoon.

Why origami? "It's cool," Guthrie said. "I like it."