Both boys and girls of any preschool and primary school age love to engage in design. Cubes and constructors, plasticine and paper - even the smallest children feel the urge to build the same tower of cubes. Early activities of parents or caregivers with children directly affect the development of their abilities.
Design helps the formation of imaginative thinking, helps improve hand motility, broadens the horizons. At 3-4 years old, the child is already able to make an easy craft out of paper . He is able to fold paper, learn to cut with scissors, create three-dimensional designs, do-it-yourself paper crafts. At the same time, accuracy, accuracy of movements develop.
The easiest way to keep a child busy with paperwork without giving him dangerous scissors or glue is with origami.
Introducing Origami
The first lesson in origami is best to start with the creation of the lightest paper crafts, the child's hand should get used to working with this material. Start by exploring the simplest geometric shape, the square. Try to tell on behalf of the square what you can do with it. In a playful way, you can explain that he has sides and angles, and show the child how to find his center. By learning to fold triangles, a child can be shown how to make a composition of them by folding, for example, a Christmas tree. From a folded rectangle, you can make a door that can be glued onto a foundation prepared with the help of an adult in the form of a painted house.
Gradually, tasks can get complicated. Of the squares of different sizes, turned into triangles, the child can be asked to fold a Christmas tree, expanding downward. A fungus can be constructed from a triangle and a rectangle folded by a child. Origami paper craft templates can be found in special books. Below is an origami diagram of the Crane.
Origami for Advanced Masters
Origami art is a suitable creative activity not only for children, but also for adults. This calms, creates a meditative attitude, and allows you to ultimately create a beautiful little thing with your own hands.
Modular origami is more complicated than a primitive child’s, but it also allows you to create not only simple paper crafts, but also more complex, voluminous compositions. Such creativity requires spatial imagination, perseverance and patience. The most popular direction of such an origami is the creation of flowers. You can make a tulip, a rose and a primrose from paper - they will turn out bright, voluminous and elegant. In this form of origami, the paper not only keeps on its own, due to the force of friction. The master can resort to the use of glue to hold together some parts, especially when it comes to the manufacture of complex large structures.
Newspaper weaving
The art of weaving newspaper tubes has become widespread relatively recently, but hand made masters already know how to create real masterpieces in this technique.
Any newspaper article begins with the process of twisting them into tubes, which become the basis of the future product. By combining them in various ways, interwoven with each other and decorating, you can make light crafts from paper, for example, a small basket, or you can make a beautiful wall panel.
To roll the tube, you need a newspaper, a long knitting needle, PVA glue, a clerical or kitchen sharp knife. A newspaper spread is folded in half lengthwise and carefully cut with a knife. Then they fold and cut again until four strips for four tubes are obtained. After that, they take a knitting needle and, applying it to the edge of the newspaper at a slight angle, begin to gently twist. Having screwed it to the end, a drop of PVA glue is applied to the corner, slightly pressed, a needle is removed and the resulting tube is laid aside until the glue dries. When weaving, the tubes must be held in order to give them their intended shape. Weaving begins with products of small size, over time, considering and evaluating all the features of the material.
Of the newspaper tubes, baskets and caskets, photo frames and mug stands, vases and wall panels are most often woven. But a developed imagination allows you to use this material and type of technology almost unlimitedly.
Quilling
Quilling is another growing form of paper craft. This is a technique of twisting narrow long strips of paper into a spiral with their subsequent modification to make flat or volumetric compositions.
Quilling comes from Mediterranean Europe. This hobby is quite common in America, England and Germany. It is also called "paper filigree." Despite this name, the technique allows you to make simple paper crafts even for a child. Spirals of paper in skillful hands turn into flowers and patterns used to decorate gift wraps, handmade cards, albums, photo frames. Products made using the quilling technique are also used as wall decorations, and even make jewelry out of them. This is a budget, beautiful and simple type of needlework.
Quilling uses dyed paper of special density. It is important that both sides and the cut itself be the same color, although sometimes paper with two different colors on both sides of the sheet is used for a special effect.
Sets of ready-made paper stripes for quilling are sold in specialized stores, but you can cut strips yourself.
Trimming
In this technique, volumetric figures and images can be made of paper. For cutting, thin and soft paper, for example, corrugated, is used. Small squares are cut out of it, which are then folded into cones or funnels. The top of this cone is lubricated with glue and glued to the base. Multi-colored cones glued to the base create a voluminous and beautiful panel. Thus, you can make a picture or a postcard, or you can create an interior topiary.
Iris folding
This technique of paper creativity in Russia is not too common, but has a rich history and unlimited opportunities for self-expression. At its core, it is a technique for folding paper strips in such a way that their pattern resembles a twisting spiral. The pattern is laid out from colored paper or patterned paper, carefully selecting shades to make it harmonious. From above, the resulting pattern is covered with a frame - a motif cut out of paper or a silhouette. As a result, even a child will be able to make an easy craft out of paper - a beautiful panel or a postcard.
Papier mache
Papier-mâché is a simple and affordable technique with great potential for needlework. In this technique, caskets and caskets, vases and jewelry, theater props, puppets, animal figurines and figurines, toys, covers with painting, embossing and varnishing are made. Even interior decoration elements are made from papier-mâché: from decorative panels for walls and doors to architectural stucco for walls and ceilings. Beauty and originality are distinguished by papier-mâché frames for mirrors, candlesticks, lamps and even furniture. However, even the lightest paper crafts can be made using this technique.
Papier-mâché (French papier mâché) means "chewed or torn paper". The basis of papier-mâché is paper, which easily turns into a mass that can be molded. The composition of the mass is added glue, gypsum or starch.
Three techniques for making papier-mâché products
First way
A model of the product is being prepared, which will need to be pasted over with paper. It can be made of wood, clay, plasticine or gypsum. The model can be smeared with glue and fixed under the layers of paper, and can be removed from the paper layer, for which it is pre-coated with petroleum jelly. Torn wet paper is applied to the selected model with glue. Alternating a layer of paper with a layer of glue, paste over with layers, the amount of which can reach up to a hundred. Previously, starch-based paste was used for bonding, but special glue is currently available. Paper sticking in layers is called machining.
Second way
The product is formed from liquid paper pulp, for which the paper a day before planning to start work, cut or torn into pieces and soaked in hot water. After this, the soaked mass is boiled. Then the water is squeezed out, pieces of paper are loosened and dried. The dry mass is mixed with chalk and little by little a special glue is poured into it from a mixture of wood glue and starch paste until a dough with a soft and plastic structure is formed. Such paper dough is poured into a mold or applied to a product.
Third way
For this type of paper mache, you need solid cardboard and PVA glue. The method resembles plywood manufacturing technology. The model is made by gluing pieces of cardboard. After that, the cardboard is subjected to pressure, specialists use brackets and a stapler to fix glued plates or vice and clamps. Dried products are putty, polished, primed, then painted and varnished or embossed.
Thus, paper is one of the most versatile, inexpensive, and easy-to-use materials for creativity and needlework. You can make a light craft from paper, decorate your life, transform the interior, make an original gift that resembles a work of art.