Dancing Diamond

My students love this animated figure. Only very subtle hand movements are needed to make diamond ‘dance’.

• Ten Men loom.

• Do an a weave (thumb picks up near little finger string; finish the weave and reset the loom).

• Now do a complex weave: Pass each thumb under the near lower index string and pick up the far lower index string (so far this is like opening 3); with the tips of each middle finger push the upper far index string toward you, under the upper near index string (and over the lower near index string), then push it down through the thumb loop; on each hand hook your thumb over the string pushed down by your middle finger (at this stage you can release your middle finger), then downflip this stringand draw it through the thumb loop, which slips off.

• Now finish the weave (with each thumb pick up the upper near index string, navaho the thumb loops) and extend the figure (middle finger picks up lower near index string, release little fingers, turn palms away).  Care must be taken to lift the proper lower near index string since it becomes somewhat entangled by the procedure. You now have a doublewalled diamond flanked by coiled strings.

• To make the diamond ‘dance’, shift your hands back and forth ever so slightly (tilt all ten fingertips to the right, then to the left). Only very small hand movements are required to make the diamond dance.