LLX > Neil Parker > String Figures > Elementary School
1. Position 1 on the left hand only. Let the string that would be held by the right hand hang down in a long loop.
2. With the fingers of the right hand, grasp the left hand palmar string and pull out to the right, until the long hanging loop is fully absorbed. Drop the right hand loop, leaving a new long hanging loop.
3. Repeat 2.
4. Pass the right index and middle fingers to the left, though the long hanging loop, and separate them, so that the index passes under and lifts up the near string of the hanging loop, and the middle finger passes under and lifts up the far string of the hanging loop. Then insert the right index from above into the small left thumb loop, and the right middle finger from above into the small left little finger loop. Move the right hand back to the right, pulling the strings hooked under the right index and middle finger back through the long hanging loop.
The motion of the scissors is demonstrated by repeatedly separating the right index and middle fingers and bringing them back together.
This figure is a continuation of "Scissors."
5. Bend the left index, middle, and ring fingers down over the two left palmar strings. Pass the left index down into the loop held by the right index, the left middle finger down between the loops held by the right hand, and the left ring finger down into the loop held by the right middle finger.
6. Pass the right hand to the left over the left hand, and drop the loops held by the right hand down behind the back of the left hand. Straighten the left index, middle, and ring fingers.
7. There will now be two left palmar strings - one close to the bases of the fingers, with other strings wrapped around it, and one hanging loose farther from the base of the fingers. With the right hand, grab the farther, looser string, and gently pull it to the right.
Any figure of this general shape was called "Witch's Broom."
I have a vague recollection that there was another figure that began by making "Scissors," called "Frog's Legs", but I no longer remember how to make it, or even what it looked like (other than that it bore some resemblance to the hind legs of a frog).