TOY-MAKING AT HOME
HOW TO MAKE A HUNDRED TOYS FROM ODDS AND ENDS

PREFACE

This work has been compiled with the assistance of Mr. Walter Higgins, the well-known instructor in woodwork.

The volume fulfils a long-felt want in that it supplies fascinating amusement for evenings at home. The making of toys is an engrossing pastime, and the home-made toy is invariably more novel than the shop-bought article and of superior quality, besides which there is always a satisfaction in "I made it myself."

The purpose of the book is to give simple and easily understood instructions and plain diagrams and sketches for making toys from the odds and ends that are usually discarded as useless. Matches, Match Boxes, Cotton Reels, Cocoa Tins, Cigar Boxes, and even Egg Shells comprise the materials from which are evolved Shops, Working Models, Dolls' Furniture, Boats, Steam Engines, Windmills, and scores of other toys dear to the hearts of boys and girls.

Perhaps the chief charm of the occupation is that literally dozens of toys can be made at a cost of less than a penny. Every toy described in this book is practicable, and can be easily made by anyone possessing the smallest amount of handicraft skill. At the same time the instructions are such as will prove of the utmost value to instructors of handicraft classes.

MORLEY ADAMS.

TOY-MAKING AT HOME
TOYS FROM ODDS AND ENDS

In every household there are countless things which are thrown away immediately they have served one purpose. Cotton-reels may be taken as an instance. It does not occur to the majority of people that these little wooden articles, strongly made and well finished, may be put to some use, even when the cotton has been wound from them. Yet from them quite useful furniture can be made and playthings innumerable. And so it is with many other things—match boxes, broken clothes pegs, cocoa tins, mustard tins, egg shells, cigar boxes, nut shells, corks, incandescent-mantle cases, old broom handles: there is no end to the list.

In the following pages we have set out to explain, largely to boys and girls, just how these odds and ends may be used for the construction of toys, games, and interesting models. The list is not by any means complete: such examples as are given are merely suggestive examples. The boy or girl who has patiently and thoughtfully made some of them will be in a position to devise and construct many more on similar lines.

Most boys and girls are familiar with those little paper windmills, which turn round gaily in the gentlest breeze—the ones which the rag-and-bone man gives in exchange for an old bottle. They make a capital toy for baby brothers and sisters, and they are very easy to make. All you need is a six-inch square of stiff paper—coloured for preference—and two pieces of cardboard, each an inch square. First, you draw out your square as in Fig. 1, and then cut down the diagonals nearly to the centre square. Now take hold of a corner, and fold it over to the centre. Secure it there with a small dab of glue. Serve each of the other corners in turn in similar fashion. Now glue on your two cardboard squares—one at the centre of the back and the other in the front, covering the folded corners (Fig. 2). All you need now is a stout pin to push through the centre of the cards into the end of a stick.

Fig. 1.

Fig. 2.

Now if you nail two strips of wood in the form of a cross, and pin on four or five differently coloured wheels, you will have a jolly little toy for which baby will thank you (Fig. 3).

Fig. 3.

N.B.—We shall frequently mention the word "glue" in the course of this little volume: therefore we had better explain just what we mean. Unless we state definitely otherwise, we refer to the prepared glue sold in tubes under various names—"Seccotine," "Le Page's Liquid Glue" and so on. These adhesives are admirable for all light work. They act best when put on thinly, and allowed partially to dry before the parts are pressed together.

A very interesting little toy, which you can make in a few minutes, is the

Colour Wheel.—Take a piece of white cardboard, and from it cut a circle about 3 inches across. Now from the middle of this cut another circle about 3/4 in. across. This can be done quite easily by putting a sharp-pointed knife blade into the compass in place of a pencil.

Divide the circle into seven equal parts, and paint or crayon the sections with the colours of the rainbow—red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet.

When this is dry, make a large loop of string and put it through the round hole of the card; and hold the ends of the loop one in each hand. Now if you turn the string at one end as if you were turning a skipping rope, and then suddenly pull it tight, your card will revolve very rapidly, and you will find that instead of a coloured card you have what appears to be a light grey one. This is really a little piece of science, for it shows that the white light about us is really made up of the different colours of the rainbow (Fig. 4).

Fig. 4.

A simple Counting Top.—Take a