I am an experienced folder (been folding simple designs for almost 20 years now, but only recently in the last year got into more complex ones.
My younger brother asked me about a week and a half ago if I could fold him 1,000 paper cranes for him and his fiance for their wedding. I obliged but my supplies came in the mail 3 days ago and the wedding is in 22 days. I can average a crane roughly every 2-3 minutes, but even 50 cranes a day burnishes my fingertips smooth and leaves them sore, and at this rate it will only get me the cranes I need by the end of the month without counting stringing, arranging, or coloring.
I am also looking to dye half of the cranes dark green. I bought white paper because the only options for a lot of the paper I need in the right color is too expensive for me at this time and dark green rit dye for coloring.
I have already sped up crane production a little by doing my preliminary folds on 5 sheets of paper at a time (folding 5 sheets at once into square bases, then separating them to make cranes), cutting down on folding time by at least 30 seconds a crane.
I guess what I'm asking is if anyone has any tips to speed this up. As much as I want to fold cranes for 40 hours straight anything I can do to shorten that by even a little would be greatly appreciated.
I am also looking for guidance on coloring- has anyone used Rit dye to color origami models? Should I dip my cranes into the mixed dye and air dry them, color the paper before folding, or should I try putting the mixed dye into a spray bottle and spritzing them after stringing to reach my target color?? Maybe mottle on the mixed dye with a piece of sponge pre/post folding? What should I do about drying sheets so they dry flat and fast?? I have a lot of ideas for coloring the paper with this dye and I have extra paper for testing so any and all ideas are valued and will be tested if suggested. I also have markers and colored pencils but this method for coloring them is not preferred as I assume it will be quite time consuming.
Bonus! Does anyone know some good arrangements for 1,000 paper cranes or should I just string them to a few sticks in some kind of balanced geometry and leave it at that?