Unicorn
Gunship is one of my all-time favorite bands. They’re basically the kings of synthwave, and their music is both amazing and rife with cultural and media references that really strike a chord for many of us who grew up in the `80s and early `90s. In celebration of their new album, “Unicorn”, they’re currently holding a contest where they’ve invited their fans to duplicate the origami unicorn from Blade Runner and submit pics.
This hits me very, very hard, because that origami unicorn is symbolic of the darkest, most painful chapter of my life. I cannot bring myself to ever make an origami unicorn again, but this contest does give me an opportunity to share some details about that time that I’ve never really talked about before, as well as the end result. So let this serve as my entry.
One of the things that Shelly and I shared was a love of Blade Runner. In fact, it was something we talked about during the last breakfast we ever shared together. That was about a week before she left me, and I won’t rehash all of the details except as prologue to this story, but in the blurry, desperate months that followed, the focus of my life became reconciliation. I’d taken up origami as a therapeutic distraction, and the Blade Runner unicorn struck me as a perfect symbol.
For around two months, I went all out for this. After much research, I found instructions on how it was made (this was in 2013, and they were not easy to find then!). After still more research, I was able to track down the exact brand and variety of the paper/foil that was used in the movie. The manufacturer is still in business and still offers it, so I ordered a pack from overseas.
Then I taught myself how to make it. It’s a seriously challenging thing, and I made it again and again and again using practice origami paper. My desk at work was covered with malformed and partially made unicorns (it’s actually 3 pieces if you count the horn), since I spent as much time on that as I did actually working. No, I was not in a place of stable mental health, but I poured my heart and mind into what I hoped would be a perfect offering.
Finally I got to where I could (usually) make it right, with the various bits having the correct relative sizes, the folds crisp, etc., comparing it with screen caps from the movie and the plastic model that came with the special edition DVD box set. Then it was time to make it using the real paper. It needed to be perfect, and that took a few tries, but I finally got it! By then it had long become clear that Shelly and I weren’t ever going to get back together, but that didn’t diminish my love for her or my desire to give her this final gift.
She had a storage unit that we were using as a drop off spot for things of hers that she’d left behind. So on the day when I put the last of her things in the unit, I included a few other items (like an origami giraffe I’d made along the way for fun), with the unicorn front and center.
Unfortunately, these are the only photos I have of it, in the storage unit on a cardboard box. But I’m still damn proud of it, and it’s probably the most meaningful thing I’ve ever crafted by hand.
