Learn a Magic Trick

Rabbit from a Hat

Effect

The magician begins with a picture of a top hat and after making a few folds in the paper produces a model of a rabbit.

Method

This effect uses the Japanese art of origami. The paper is printed in such a way that after the rabbit figure is complete, the rabbit's face and feet are printed on the figure. If you pre-fold the figure before performing, it can be made in less than 15 seconds (with practice), making the apperarnce of the rabbit almost magical. To download the hat picture Click Here and save to a .gif file. Then you can print the file from your graphics browser. For a full-sized (7.5 inch) picture, scale it to 200% when printing.

In the following pictures, red lines mark mountain folds (the center of the fold points up, like a mountain) and the blue lines mark valley folds (pointing down).

Make mountain folds along both diagonals and a valley fold horizontally across the paper. This will produce a two-layered triangular form. Arrange it so that the body of the hat is facing you.

Valley fold the top layer of both the right and left sides of the form along the lines shown. The left side shows the where the fold is to be made, and the right side shows the fold after it has been made.

Valley fold both triangles formed in the last step along the vertical lines shown and tuck the pointed ends into the opening along the long side of one triangle. This completes the under side of the rabbit.

TURN THE FORM OVER.
Valley fold both right and left sides as indicated. The corners that protrude down below the rest of the form will become the ears.

Valley fold both ears so that they point out to the side.

One more set of folds will finish the face and point the ears toward the back. The final step in making the rabbit is to inflate the body. Hold both ears and place your mouth up to the rabbit's mouth. Purse your lips and blow a quick, sharp burst of air into the rabbit. Once inflated, it should look like the picture below.

Presentation

I suppose that just about every magician has been asked to produce a rabbit from a hat. That's just exactly what I propose to do today, but perhaps in a little different way than you might think. I am going to take a hat and turn it into a rabbit. (Take out the picture and show it.) Here is the hat. You can tell that it's a magic hat by its shape and by the things flying out of it. (perform the folds as you continue.) What I am doing here just changing the shape of something that already exists, but when God created the world and the sky and the sun and stars, He made them out of nothing. Before God created the world there was nothing. But He spoke and created all of this beautiful universe and everything in it, and everything He made was good. The last thing God made was the most important part of His creation. The Bible says that God took the elements of the earth and fashioned them into the form of a man. Then God breathed His own breath into it (inflate the figure) and the man became a living soul. God looked at the man created in God's own image, and said "It is very good."
Even after the people God created had disobeyed Him, He still loved them, and loves us today. He has provided the answer to the problem of our disobedience and given us the opportunity to be restored to fellowship with Him, our Creator.

Last month's trick.

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