After a lot of prototypes I discovered that paper does not work well with my paper toys. I tried 120gsm, 160gsm, 250gsm, 260gsm, 290gsm, and 300gsm and photo paper. All of which had very different results. Some where just to heavy and created unsightly tires at the edges. But the colour would be vibrant and more to what I was trying to achieve. Some card such as the 160gsm worked perfectly as it seemed like card and paper. It gave more of a loose feel. Though I worry about the slotting sections because if used roughly they might rip or won’t be strong enough to hold sides together. The card which I found worked as a overall winner was the 260gsm. Slightly thicker, it had a stronger hold on everything there for was more stable.
Tag Archives: paper
Instructions and Biography’s
After I had created templates for four of the eight characters I then began writing up the Instructions pages. These would appear on the back of the Character Profiles. On this page a short Biography for each character is also created so the child can read it and actually imagine this characters personality. It Brings them to life and adds more fun into the building of the Paper Toys.
Rough draft
Rough Draft
Example: Guildhall Bio and Instructions
Biography’s for remaining Characters:
St Columb’s Cathedral/ Grandma Collie: Collie, the oldest lady in the City, born in 1633 has a small pointed hat and extravagant glass dress. She loves telling stories about her past and trying on different hats. Over the years her glass dress has gotten damaged and she’s had to replace it. Very religious, she encourages people to say their prayers.
Free Derry/ Wallie: Born in 1969, Wallie is small but strong and noble, he has stood up to a lot during his life. He roams free around the city and paints murals on the sides on houses in the Free Derry Corner.
Heritage Tower/Henry T: Born in 1791 but got a new hat in 1824. He used to capture people but now collects lots of artifacts about World War One and paintings of the walls.
The Tower Museum/ The Towers: A family of three, they have lived here since 1992. This little family has lots of stories to tell you about Derry/Londonderry and is always keen to learn and discover.
City Walls/ The Archie Brothers: The Archie Brothers are the oldest family in Derry/Londonderry. The eldest born in 1613 and the younger three in 1789, 1803 and 1865. These big strong boys mind the city by joining hands together and are very protective about who they let in or out.
Millenium Form/ Musical Millie: Millie, this fat baby was born in 2001. She’s always singing, dancing and playing about. She sometimes sings so loud she can be heard from across the city. She adores attention and loves it when people come to see her.
The Peace Bridge/Pixie and BB: Pixie and BB are the cities new twins, born in 2011. They just want to be together all the time but can’t because there is a lot of water between them. They can only stretch over to each other and hold hands. They want all young people to have fun but keep safe when crossing the water.
Package folder
Just came across this cute and creative folder tutorial by Silver Craftroom, which gave me great inspiration for the folder which this work will need to be placed in.
Paper Buildings
As I am leaning towards designing the attractions of Derry/Londonderry into Characters to then create into a range of Paper Toys, I researched paper buildings and illustrations for some inspiration.
Illustrations:
Paper buildings:
Be Different!
I want this paper toy to not only be an entertaining piece which children can build with their family, want it to be something that is educational and interactive. A few ideas I have had to achieve this is:
- Including information somewhere hidden within the toy
- Including extra flaps or hidden sections
- Special paper- vanishes, hardens or glows in the dark
- include Augmented reality
Inspiring pieces of art:
Extra hidden messages, information, different textures etc;
Plaster of Paris,- hardens when soaked in water.
Invisible ink:
Vanishing paper:
Glow in the dark paper or ink:
Augmented reality:
I aim to include some of these features into my paper toy to make it different.
Origami Paper Toys
Paper Toys are mainly considered to be these print, cut and glue character figurines, however there are other forms which are also are given this name. Anything and everything paper related which a child can somehow use, change or play with is seen as a paper toy.
This did make it difficult when trying to research children learning through paper toys, as all articles would usually refer to these forms of paper toys and not to those which I am aim to create.
For mainly inspiration purposes and to clear up some of my findings, below are some paper toys which I found children also enjoy creating. Possibly these might inspire to include some functionality into my own paper toys?
Origami for kids
I have already looked into origami however as my project is specifically aimed at children (aged 6 – 12 mainly) I realised I would need to look at origami for kids. These forms of origami are much easier to make with very few folds. Some are even simple enough for the child to create on there own.
Some simple origami:
Paper Toys
Here consists of my inspiration and development on creating the Paper Toy for the package.
Research on Paper Toys:
Paper toys are a form of origami. Originally From China but generated into Japan somewhere in the sixth century, it is the art of folding paper. Paper toys recently are digitally designed patterns which are then printed, then cut and folded together using guidelines to create the character.
After discussion and feedback i have decided to concentrate more on the paper toy. Try and make the paper toy very different. Think about interactivity and how it can be educational, fun and hopefully a souvenir to the child.
In an articled ‘Get them into origami: easy paper crafts for kids’ on the site Kidsspot.com, they outline clear points why to introduce origami to children:
- It develops and stimulates mathematical thinking.
- It’s cheap as: all you need is paper.
- It’s as addictive as computer games minus the danger that they’ll fry their brains.
- There’s a wide range of folds to suit all ages and levels: from really, really simple, to very challenging and complicated.
- The satisfaction of transforming a piece of paper into a three dimensional paper sculpture will do wonders for your child’s self esteem.
Different Paper Toys:
The paper toy will be on either:
- A character which caroline and I will design for the city of Derry/Londonderry
- Tourist attractions in Derry turned into characters
- Derry Buildings
- Historical, folklore myths on Derry which could be designed into characters
Think:
- what will make this paper toy different?
- attract children
- educate them on Derry?
- be interactive?
- how it connects to Caroline’s project
- be fun
- Does a parant need to help with the making of the paper toy or can it be done fully by the child
- Simple click into or cut and paste the sections together?
- Size?
- Colour?
- Realistic/Cartoony
- Difficulty
- Type of card/paper
- Audience/ Age group
Further thoughts:
- A two form paper toy – transforms into two characters
- Include information or history about an attraction in Derry/Londonderry on the paper toy
- Additional pieces to the paper toy such as hidden flaps, removable parts, invisible text, vanishing parts, adding water to paper which hardens and molds, write on to sections, etc. Fun little things that children would find entertaining.
- Augmented reality parts, showing further history e.g a fairy or ‘wisp’ – linking to a myth or folklore event.
Interactivity, children fun, children learning through tasks
Origami inspirations: As paper toys originally are inspired by origami I decided to look into origami for kids, simple origami and origami toys. I found that simple origami can be completed in minutes and usually only have a few folds, however the end model wouldn’t be as exciting as a more complicated one.
Origami for kids is a great way to allow parents to help and interact with the children, whilst folding origami. Some models for kids are simple enough to be completed on there own where as others would require parents help.
Origami toys can one of two, simple stationary models or action models. They can range from a simple boat to a talking frog.
For my paper toy I need to settle on an age group, only then will i be able to decide on how many parts the toy will include.
origami jumping horse
leaping frog
origami snapper
Ice cream origami
Kids easy build bunny
fortune teller
Pelican
Paper toy buildings:
Discovering special paper and more:
2in1 paper toy:
This paper toy can be transformed from a space ship into a robot- I might try and experiment with something like this, e.g a building to a robot.
Building wall turned into a character:
Glow in the dark writing:
I’m finding it hard to get any visual examples on what I am possibly thinking for my paper toy but idea was to write or colour on it, possibly it glow?
Augmented reality:
This is a very rough idea, just a suggestion thought of in a one to one meeting with my supervisor but it is thinking ahead, thinking in the far future direction. It is to include augmented reality on the paper toy, possibly displaying a short animation on further information about Derry/Londonderry.
Children's Paper Toys 