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My mischievous star

MSC archived stories - July 9, 2022

Karla (age 8) has just ended her second year elementary studies in June. She's on summer vacation now before resuming school at grade 3 in 2 months time.


Karla is the third youngest of a family of seven. Mayra (mom) and Efren (dad) are hard-working parents making pots and chimneys and survive on $400 a month from their work. She attends the Jacqueline Byer Dial Center in the city of Tonalá – known for its pottery, hand-blown glassware, textiles alike from Mexico.

 

Mayra tells me that Karla loves singing and dancing, and helps a little in the family business so she can learn to make pottery. Mom says, she's very mischievous, loves getting wet in the rain and doing her makeup with many friends. She's indeed an extrovert and outgoing when once gave 'V' hand gesture as genuinely happy seeing me. I'd not be surprised if she was in a paint party to end up like an exploded bomb!


Last year, I gave Karla to do something creative – Origami, the art of paper-folding. It's just what she wanted and mom said, "thank you so much for your origami advice. She loves it."

Here are the instructions if you like to give it a go..

(1) find a piece of rectangular shaped paper, (2) fold it in half like a greeting card, (3) turn it 90 degrees clockwise, (4) bring two top corners towards you to make the equal sized 2 triangles in the middle, (5) fold the top half of the strip over the triangles, (6) turn the whole thing over, (7) fold the other half over the big triangle, (8) open the hat and fold it flat-down to make a square, (9) fold the top triangle diagonally over, (10) turn the whole thing over, (11) fold the other triangle diagonally over, (12) open the hat and fold it flat-down again to make a square, (13) hold it upright from both hands, and stretch open two outer edges fully, (14) open the base underneath slightly and place it on a level surface.

enjoy!

Comments

  1. chelaka29 March 2025 at 12:16

    I'm ready to try this! (What does it make?). What a creative thing for a child to do.

    July 10, 2022

    ReplyDelete
  2. chelaka29 March 2025 at 12:16

    I first learned this origami around the same age as Karla, remarkable you still know how to make it by memory. It's a type of creative therapy (more about at www.thejapaneseshop.co.uk/blog/japanese-origami-creative-therapy). I've asked a few children to try this out (example added to media), hope the steps make sense :-)

    July 10, 2022

    ReplyDelete
  3. chelaka29 March 2025 at 12:17

    How great that she liked your origami lesson!

    July 11, 2022

    ReplyDelete

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