LLX > Neil Parker > String Figures > Jayne
1. Nauru Opening 1.
2. Pass thumbs over index loops and insert into middle finger loops from below. Return with near middle finger strings.
3. Insert indexes from below into thumb loops, and return with lower far thumb strings. Release thumbs.
4. Insert thumbs from below into lower index loops. Then pass them away from you under all other strings, and pick up far little finger string, and return. Release little fingers.
5. Transfer upper index loops to thumbs. Then pass little fingers over middle and index finger loops and far thumb strings, and pick up upper near thumb string, and return. Release upper thumb loops.
6. Release middle fingers.
7. The far index strings run toward you under the near index strings and thumb loops, around thumb loops, and back away from you toward the middle of the figure. With the right thumb and index, reach from the far side toward you under the left near index string, and pick up the left far index string, between the point where it wraps around the left thumb loop and the middle of the figure. Release the left index, and place the string held by the right thumb and index over the left index, making a new left index loop. Repeat on the other hand.
8. Twist index loops a full twist away from you.
9. Amwangiyo.
10. Nauru Ending.
The central shape usually comes out tightly bunched up. Some manual adjustment is required to open it out so that it looks more like Jayne's illustration; this is most easily accomplished with the aid of an assistant. The opened-out state is not very stable, and tends to collapse back to the bunched-up form when the strings are held in tension.
Steps 6 and 7 above are actually not the original Nauruan steps. The original method releases both the indexes and middle fingers in step 6, and then fishes the new index loops out of the central tangle - a method that is as awkward to perform as it is to describe ([Maude 2001] relies on a picture to describe it). The alternate steps 6 and 7 above, though not original, are equivalent, and much easier to do.
LLX > Neil Parker > String Figures > Jayne