Bent Wire Crank Toy

For this project, we had to get wire, I picked up 14 AWG wire because it seems the most stable while also being able to bend easily, and by following the guide in Make magazine, we would be able to make a wire crank toy that had a bird dip its head.  Once I assembled the parts and started cutting the wire, I noticed first that the measurements on the guide were either way off, or meant for tiny hands.  Either way, I doubled what was said in the guide and it worked out a bit better.  However, once I got to the coil, I found a bit of difficulty.  It was not very simple to bend and it took quite a while to get a shape that vaguely resembled a coil structure.  After about 10 minutes of struggling, I finally accepted the coil-esque shape and moved on.  I delicately pieced out the other shapes needed to create the toy, and I had a better outcome than I originally thought.  It wasn't how it looked in the picture, but it was a passable recreation.  After doing this project, I feel that given the right tools, I would definitely be able to do another project like this, as I have learned some tricks and methods of what works and what does not.

Toy Paper Monster

I have seen and made my fair share of paper toy monsters/characters, and I can safely say that there are few things that compare to the simplicity and magic when it comes to paper-craft.  With the right instructions, after about and hour, you'll have a crazy, cartoonish, fun toy/model that started out as a piece of paper.  It is one of the simplest form of creation.  And the only tools are the paper, instructions, glue and imagination.  I wish we had these when I was growing up because these spark so much creativity within children that it's impossible to not love them.  The character that I made was called the doctor.  It's a green scientist with a big head and six arms.  After about 30-35 minutes of gluing and sticking I had a finished product.  It was a fun exercise and I hope we can more exercises like this one.