Turkish Toothpick Trick

by TimAnderson

24K11129

Intro: Turkish Toothpick Trick

Yener, our host in Istanbul, taught us this nifty trick over a dinner of "Kokorech" which is spicy lamb tripe.
Here's Yener with the toothpicks, about to start out.

STEP 1: Break But Don't Separate

Take 5 toothpicks and break them in the middle. Fold them over but don't separate the two halves. Make sure you don't break them apart. There need to have some slivers still connecting the two halves.

STEP 2: Arrange Thus

Lay them out in an arrangement like this, with the broken ends inward. Like an "Asterisk".

STEP 3: Just Add Water

Take a teaspoon of water and gently pour it in the center of the arrangement.

STEP 4: Magic!

As soon as they get wet the toothpicks start moving!
They flex their little broken-splinter muscles and push against each other.

STEP 5: Toothpickinetic Sculpture

They push and flex and the asterisk grows and morphs into a big Star!

27 Comments

Magzzee 8 years ago

Wow awesome! TYSM for taking the time to post.

jasara 9 years ago

Goody goody trick

:D

CCube55 10 years ago

great, practice a fue times. befor in a large crowd.

Fikjast Scott 10 years ago

This is so cool. I will show my father who has been using toothpicks for years.

ynze 11 years ago

Nice! Will try it!

killerjackalope 14 years ago

That's nifty, like watch cereal assemble itself but way cleverer...

ThinkBeforeYouSpeak 14 years ago

The coat backpack was a partial failure, some of the ideas from it were cool though.

killerjackalope 14 years ago

That's a shame, in hindsight a shoulder bag would have been simpler... you going to publish the results or let it lie?

ThinkBeforeYouSpeak 14 years ago

I haven't decided. That would required me to take pictures and talk about how i made it. Just to make another failed instructable.

killerjackalope 14 years ago

Eh it's been some time since I've been featured, despite both my writing and pictures improving immensely since then... I suspect there's a good project in it somewhere though...

ilpug 12 years ago

this is a great bar trick... gotta do this.

spankeerrrrrrr 12 years ago

what a chance i am from turkey tootpick means: kürdan
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