On 14/06/15 04.54, [email protected] wrote:
65 years ago, when I first learned origami in first grade at Whittier
Elementary School in Berkeley California, water bombs were literally
water bombs.
We folded them, blew them up, filled them with water (not always
totally successfully) and threw them.
Messy, wet and really fun.
Exactly, except my experience is from Gørslev, a Danish country side
school some 45 years ago.
Today, when I teach the model children politely fold along, until I
finally tell them how to use it: then their faces brighten up, eagerly.
The Danish 1944 origami book "Folderier" ("Foldings") calls the model
"Tærningen" ("the cube"). A few later books do not include the model.
Not until Robert Harbins "Origami", translated and published in Danish
1968, it is called "Vandbombe" ("Waterbomb") in origami books, though it
sadly fails to explain why. My own 2008 book "Origami: Teknik og
tradition" illustrates a splashed out waterbomb on a wet wall (for some
reason my wife vehemently objected to being the illustrative target).
In contrast to Gershon (cited earlier in this thread) I've always found
it great that in origami, the known bombs explode in water or
butterflies and are pure fun. And yes, I know about there being persons
objecting to the term "butterfly bomb" due to some soldiers' experiences
during the now ancient World War II, but these connotations do not exist
in Danish, so we happily call them "sommerfuglebomber".
Regards,
Hans
Hans Dybkjær
papirfoldning.dk
society: foldning.dk
