Stuff that occurs to me

All of my 'how to' posts are tagged here. The most popular posts are about blocking and private accounts on Twitter, also the science communication jobs list. None of the science or medical information I might post to this blog should be taken as medical advice (I'm not medically trained).

Think of this blog as a sort of nursery for my half-baked ideas hence 'stuff that occurs to me'.

Contact: @JoBrodie Email: jo DOT brodie AT gmail DOT com

Science in London: The 2018/19 scientific society talks in London blog post

Thursday, 9 April 2020

An even easier way to make bunting from folded paper - no printer needed #Buntingmas

My clever friend Yasmin sent me this simplified bunting pattern, which makes a string of small bunting flags (plus the connecting 'rope') from a piece of paper, in the manner of folding-and-cut-once to make a string of people.

Here's her drawing, click on it to enlarge. Below is the result when I tried it out (my paper is quite thick so I didn't fold it all the way across as it would have been hard to cut).

If you're celebrating #Buntingmas (it starts this Saturday and carries on throughout lockdown, or as long as you want really) then this is possibly the quickest and simplest way of generating some bunting (short of already having bunting ready - all possibly forms of bunting are valid). Some more ideas are in the blog posts linked at the end.

Instructions: fold one edge of a piece of A4 (or any) paper then continue folding in a concertina style back and forth to end up with a piece of paper that looks like lots of letter W when looked at from the side. Cut out a small perpendicular notch, then angle the scissors down to form a pointed half triangle to join the other side. Once cut and unfolded this will produce a string of triangles with a connecting piece between them - a string of bunting, ready to be decorated.

A photograph of one string of bunting made using the method above, showing the unfolded points forming a single string of bunting. Multiple strings can be made from one piece of paper - the flags are small and will probably stick to a window just with water if you don't have glue or other sticky things (or prefer not to use).

You can then trim off the top section (shown on the left in this picture) and repeat the process multiple times down your folded concertina strip.

Take a picture and share it using the tag #Buntingmas :) 

Previously in #Buntingmas
#Buntingmas (it's 11 Apr): How to make low-tech bunting from paper (Wed 1 April 2020)
Folding paper and producing the flags which can then be taped to string, hole punched, glued, blue tacked to the wall or damped and stuck to the window (or just arranged artfully on a table). If you've use water-solube pens etc to decorate them you might want to give the 'damp and stick to window' a swerve, but I stuck a blank bunting to my window on 1 April and it's still there.

How will you celebrate Buntingmas? Craft ideas and classroom activities (Sat 28 Dec 2019)
This post lists some craft options including cake decorations (roll out some icing, cut vaguely triangular shapes, stick on a cake), bunting can be knitted or crocheted, made from modelling clay, actual fabric, paper or you might prefer to draw some online bunting.

The post also has some suggestions about using patterns on flags in communication - eg maritime signal flags, or using the position of flags as the communication (eg semaphore).  Not mentioned in the post is heraldry (another post is coming on that topic) but there's a link to an article about kids making their own coat of arms or personal flag by dividing a shield or flag shape into four and then drawing some favourite things in each segment.




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