Mullion community arts project fills village with origami cranes

Silvia Causo-Garbutt, who works at Wendron School, decided that she wanted to get people thinking positively after the events of the previous year and so decided to start her first Cornish community arts project.

The project was also helped and supported by Feast Cornwall, and organisation that invests in community and artist led projects, and the Cornwall Community Foundation, who give grants to those struggling in the community as well as to establish a source of funding for community self-help within Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.

The project was inspired by a Japanese tradition that states folding 1000 cranes can bring happiness, eternal luck, swift recovery from illness and, in some versions, even a wish.

The project was inspired by a Japanese tradition that states folding 1000 cranes can bring happiness, eternal luck and swift recovery from illness. Picture:Facebook/ArtSpeaks

Silvia said: "My idea was that people going out for shopping or their essentials would go out and see something that uplifts them and makes them feel positive about the future.

"I picked up on the idea of the 1000 cranes in Japanese culture as being a symbol of health and good luck and wealth.

"So I thought it would be nice to get the community involved in making 1000 cranes to bring luck and hope for the future in Mullion.

"I did get a small grant to fund the project and the response from the village has been fantastic really."

Shops and residents around Mullion are displaying the cranes in their windows. Picture:Facebook/ArtSpeaks

Read Next:

• New indoor market in Porthleven open to traders and artists

According to Silvia, the project has currently made around 1,150 cranes and the origami birds are decorating shop windows in and around the village.

"People have slowed down and are not making as many because we're running out of places to put them in Mullion.

"I would say 70% of the shops in Mullion are displaying cranes in some way, and that's brilliant!

Residents have enjoyed taking part and will be displaying the cranes until May. Picture:Facebook/ArtSpeaks

"If you drive through the village, you'll see cranes in lots of windows and then further down we've got some in the chocolate factory as well as in one of the shops down on the cove."

The community has got right behind Silvia's art project, with one resident who took part telling her how nice it's been to make them and then walking around the village and deciding which of the cranes was their favourite.

"Now what we're doing is thinking about what's going to happen to them in the future.

The community has got right behind Silvia's art project, with one resident who took part telling her how nice it's been to make them. Picture:Facebook/ArtSpeaks

"We want to do something with them rather than recycle them, so I've got a few ideas going on.

"One would be to twin with a hospital or charity or nursing home, somewhere where people might need some moral or emotional support and to send the cranes to 1000 people with a message or positive quote on the them.

"Another was to create a time capsule and bury it in the ground somewhere in the village, and another we had was to create a mural or some artwork in the village, so I'm asking the community what they'd like to do with it."

Currently, the people taking part and hosting the cranes in their windows will be keeping them up until May so that tourists could get a chance to seem them once restrictions allow.