Living Coasts in Torquay is aiming for a place in the record books – by making the world’s biggest origami penguin.
The bid will take place on Thursday, November 18, Guinness World Record Day, in the run-up to Torquay’s Christmas Festival and Christmas Lights Switch On event, on Saturday, November 20. The attempt will be made in the entrance hall of Living Coasts at around 11am to 11.30am, where people will be able to watch for free.
Living Coasts’ Alex Small came up with the idea and will make the giant paper model along with marketing manager Stuart Wright.
The world’s largest origami penguin needs a suitably large sheet of paper. With no single sheet of the right size available, Alex and Stuart have to make their own using 35 smaller sheets donated by Robert Horne paper merchants. These will be held together by 60 metres of masking tape donated by Exmouth Power Tools. The end result is a sheet six metres – nearly 20 feet – square.
It will take 12 folds and two people to make the penguin, which will be something over three metres tall when complete. Wooden batons inside will help to keep it upright. The two have been practicing on smaller penguins to perfect their folding techniques.
Stuart told the Devon Week: “Living Coasts is famous for its penguins – so we thought we would make the biggest penguin in the world! Getting the paper sorted out has been very tricky. And getting it to stand up is going to be quite a challenge. People are very welcome to come down to the Quay and watch – it is going to be amazing.”
(from a press release)
(image: Alex Small with five foot origami penguin – which is set to be a three metre one)
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