It always amazes me what kids get up to with a piece of paper. Powered by boredom its almost alchemy what adroit creations rise from the sheet.
When I was a kid we used to create opening and shutting paper thingies. These had different stuff written on the insides of what were a bit like petals. Stuff like You Stink or Go Out with Me or Nice Legs! It was a bit like a folded bird's beak that your fingers opened and closed. If it had a name I can't recall it.
Another thing we did was to tear a piece out of an A4 sheet and create a ragged hole. That became a hole in the back of someone's trousers, which you drew. You then drew a dog with a similar piece in its mouth. To complete the picture you then formed a crease in your index finger and held this crease behind the hole. It looked remarkably like a bare butt!
A similar effect was achieved using a five or ten pound note, when they weren't plastic. A couple of folds were made in the Queen's neck and voila! The royal bottom!
Obviously paper planes were essential origami and they still are. I often find a foolcsap jet whizzing past my face!
A new fad, at least to me, is kids making bang flaps out of paper. Various folds are made to create a sort of 2-ply triangle. When forcibly flicked forward it creates a loud bang and is really quite annoying if you're an adult. Kids love it!
Last but not least there are paper boats. I imagine readers will be masters of the maritime fold.
Did you do anything else with paper?
I remember that in the late 1960s or early 1970s there was a British series on TV about Origami. Hosted by Robert Harbin, who also wrote several books on the subject. I had one or two of these, and enjoyed paper folding, but have not done any in decades.
ReplyDeleteYes, I think I had one of those books too Paul. Great times.
DeleteWe used to make the bang flapper things from card and paper (they used to occaisionaly come free with comics, so we just made our oqn copies of them when they broke). My first origami attempts were from the Rupert Bear annual 1969, a paper pagoda. I still have Robert Harbin's Origami book from 1970(first pub 1968) and went through packs of Origami paper. Like Paul I have not done any for years.
ReplyDeleteSo you made those bangers too eh Timmy!
DeleteI actually met Robert Harbin when I was a kid in 1971.
ReplyDeleteI was on holiday in London, with my mum and we went into a cafe for lunch.
We recognised him from the telly and he gave us his autograph and a paper flapping bird, neither of which I still have, sadly.
It turned out the cafe was above the HQ of The Magic Circle, a club for professional magicians, of which he was a member.
Wow, sounds like a grand holiday in London that Mish. That's cool and funny that the Magic Circle was above the cafe! Bet their meals just disappeared! ha ha
DeleteOrigami was so cool! Those perfect square sheets of paper in all those pretty colors...
ReplyDeleteI used to make origami balloons back in school. They folded flat but when you blew into the opened end, it inflated. You had to prod the sides to deflate it though back into it's flat state.
ReplyDeleteWe also made frogs. Based off the balloon folds but one side would be folded very differently to make the back legs. They would even hop when you pulled back on their rear with a fingernail. Small ones went further than the large frogs.
Balloons! Wow! I've not heard of those Lance. I may have seen the frogs though. Its amazing what can be done with paper!
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