h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

At the weekend I was demonstrating origami to more children than I have done before. It was a very well-organised charity fund-raising craft activity afternoon.
The children spent half hours trying different activities making things for which their parents donated £3 per half hour to the charity.
All the children had chosen the activities they wanted to do beforehand and been allocated slots so that they were never more than 8 at a time at any table. Each child wore a sticker with their name on and the times of the activities they were going to do, and each craft organiser had lists of who to expect when.

So it all went like clockwork with children gradually filling their named paper sacks with their creations, from a bit of peg loam weaving (you won't find any reference to this craft on the internet - I looked. It involves winding wool in and out of a row of wooden pegs) or silk batik to a handmade glass bead ( this looked like fun with rods of coloured glass, safety goggles and an outsize Bunsen burner needed) or baked clay model.

On my table I gave each group the choice of making flapping birds or frogs. Nerarly all went for the birds, which were constructed from a square of rainbow paper (changing from red at one corner to blue at the diagonal opposite corner). It worked surprisingly well, with a half hour allowing me to make and assist all the children to create their own birds and make them flap. I also realised, and passed on, some tricks I usually do unconsciously to accurately create folds. The coloured paper was useful as I could easily see if the children had followed my demonstration at each stage, and were holding their model in the same way as mine. All the birds ended up with red heads and blue tails.

Perhaps if you searched for "peg loom" rather than "peg loam" you might have better luck.

If it is the frog that I know how to make, it is very fiddly. The birds are much easier.

It was the familiar (to me anyway ) four-legged frog which until inflated has a pointy head. It certainly reinforces the necessity of accurate folding when thinning the legs. There is a *bit* more leeway with the flapping bird, though I found that it isn't very forgiving of how much to fold out the tail if you want it to flap.

Sounds like the same frog. I can only remember how to do about ten origami models, but the frog is one of them.

My favourite is a fish which has to be inflated by blowing into its mouth. It has big lips, and when you press down on its back, it opens and shuts its mouth. I think it is one of Robert Harbin's. I was at a presentation by Robert Harbin once - he demonstrated how to make a hat out of a glossy brochure. I remember him coming down to give my father a hand - he couldn't manage one of the folds.

I believe it is what one might call a 'traditional' model. No-one knows who first created it. Interesting fact: "In Japanese the word for "frog" and the verb for "to return" are pronounced the same way, and it became customary for a geisha to pin a paper frog to a pillar after entertaining a favorite patron, in the hope that he would return."
(http://www.origami-tsuru.com/crane7.htm)

My own repetoire from memory is probably less than a couple of dozen, with an equal number I'd definitely need to refer to instructions for.

You met Robert Harbin
His basic book was my first, and for a very long time my only, book on origami (Teach Yourself Origami - still in print). The fish is in that book (Frenchbean has a small one on her mobile ) - Harbin also gave adaptations of the fish base: the Japanese Gentleman and Lady.

The hat I make the most is the Samurai Warrior hat (it is peaked with two horns on the front). The most practical though is the printer's hat (in Harbin's book) as worn by the Carpenter in Tenniel's illustrations in Alice through the Looking Glass.

I think it was the Carpenter's hat that he showed us how to make. I was only 12 at the time, I think, so I don't remember it very well.

The kids who come to the library love origami. We let them make birds every winter to hang on the Christmas tree.

Great fish, Pimms

And the kangaroo... tell them about the kangaroo with a joey in its pocket. It's amazing and has been particularly admired by all my visitors.

I'm not surprised the children went for birds rather than frogs. They are much more popular animals.

You going to write a Guide Entry Pimms?

Fb

What kind of entry were you thinking of Haricot?
The guide entry to Origami is already written (A570458), well before I arrived on the scene, though I did update it. Maybe there is scope for 'Tips for teaching origami'.

Peter Engel created the kangaroo, and it should look something like this: http://d307280.p33.patchhost.com/displayphoto.asp?ModelID=2398 One place the instructions can be found to make it is in the book Origami for the Connoisseur ISBN: 0870406701 (http://www.angelfire.com/art/gilad/BO_Conn.html to see it and othe models from the book). It is a model developed from the bird base used to make flapping birds.

Pimms

Yes, I was thinking about an Entry on teaching origami to children who are all thumbs and no patience

A6788686 There you go. I may need to expand on it a bit before submitting it to PR.

My budget is super tight at the library and I can't afford to buy nice paper for the kids to fold. So I let them decorate plain paper themselves before they make their birds and animals. And I save wrapping paper for them.

Very good Pimms

Going for the shortest entry prize?

It wouldn't win (Mostly Harmless)

Longer entries on Blackberries ready soon

Fruit, or those annoying hand held email/phone thingies?

Be ready for a Beany rant if it's the latter

Calm Down, its only a soft fruit entry.

There is already an entry mentioning the gizmo A2284229 if you want to rant on its threads

Pimms

Ooops I did it again.

Well, not quite 'oops', it was deliberate. Last weekend the charity organisers ran another craft afternoon along the same lines. I sat for the afternoon with a paper samurai warriors hat on helping children make an origami creature. They had the photographer from the local paper turn up, who recognised me from events with my musical society he's been to before.

This time, having learnt from the previous occasion, I stuck to assisting the children in making frogs - just frogs. However this is a slightly more complex model to fold than the flapping bird and on several of the sessions I ran over slightly, finishing the figures for those who had been unable to keep up.

It was a little irritating to hear several children repeatedly say "I can't do this". I reinterpreted this inside my head as "I'm not sure how this is done, please show me again"

After the first session I realised that the general skill level exhibited meant that I would be hard-pressed to have them turn out frogs within a half hour, even with me completing all the petal folds for them, particularly if there were more than four in the group. It seemed to go ok and I cam away with a box of Ferrero Rocher chocolates from the organisers. I preferred the I got last time.

My daughter got upset when I ignored her during her session with me - I didn't have time to give her full attention while busily folding four other frogs. One of the organisers is a teacher and he toild me afterward he'd found it useful seeing how I explained how to make and demonstrate the folds. He made the suggestion that next time I made water bombs or colour changers, which might be more feasible in the time.