HOW TO MAKE A PIN-WHEEL + WATER FOUNTAIN

Over the summer holidays our son wanted to make a water fountain so we set about doing it by creating pin-wheels from plastic and attaching them to a rig made from various building materials we had leftover from some recent renovation work. He spent the best part of the day creating and playing with his set up, and returned to it making modifications and adding other elements many times over the rest of the holidays. This wasn't because it didn't work, but more that he enjoys experimenting.

We created two types of pin wheels for this project. The first was made of paper. We created a circle from a compass and divided it into six equal parts to create a hexagon. (Keep the compass set to the same radius of the circle and make along intervals of the circle from a starting point.) Then we drew triangles on the hexagon from the centre and cut in each wedge about 2cm from the centre. We then folded one edge of each wedge into the centre. Tape was used to hold each corner into the centre. A pin can be used too, especially if you want the pin-wheel to spin.

The second pin-wheel is made from plastic - using a milk carton (we always try to use materials we already have - it's easier and also sends a good message about recycling).

The actual water feature was created with a piece of timber and fishing wire attached to two existing hooks on the wall. The watering can was hooked over this wood. From a central point on the frame another smaller piece of timber was hung from more fishing wire, which was threaded through two drilled holes at the top of one end. At the bottom centre of the other end was another drilled hole with a screw nut. Again, another thin long piece of timber was attached and on either end of these were two more drilled holes where we attached the plastic pin-wheels with screws and nuts. 

If you wanted to simplify this project you could just attach pin-wheels to a thin piece of dowel or even a skewer.

Here are the instructions on how to make the four-point pin-wheel.

YOU WILL NEED
Paper
Pencil
Ruler
Scissors
Pin or butterfly clip

HOW-TO
1. Cut a piece of paper into a square shape - about 15cm on each side.
2. Draw a pencil mark from each corner to its opposing corner. When you have a cross in the centre, mark 2cm from the middle.
3. Cut along the end corners to the marked middle points.
4. You can glue the end points into the centre or fold them in and secure with a butterfly clip. Because we were using this for a larger project we gathered them with a pin and secured with a nut and screw.

images courtesy of the indigo crew