Giant penguin world record bid for Living Coasts

Living Coasts in Torquay has aimed for a place in the record books - by making the world’s biggest origami penguin.

The bid took place on Thursday 18th November, Guinness World Record Day, in the run-up to Torquay’s Christmas Festival and Christmas Lights Switch On event, on Saturday 20th November. The attempt was made in the entrance hall of Living Coasts at around 11:30am, where people and media were able to watch for free.

Living Coasts’ Alex Small came up with the idea and will make the giant paper model along with Marketing Manager Stuart Wright.

The world’s largest origami penguin needed a suitably large sheet of paper. With no single sheet of the right size available, Alex and Stuart had to make their own using 35 smaller sheets donated by Robert Horne paper merchants. These were then held together by 60 metres of masking tape donated by Exmouth Power Tools. The end result is a sheet 6 metres – nearly 20 feet – square.

It then took 12 folds and two people to make the penguin, which is something over 3 metres tall when complete. Wooden batons inside will help to keep it upright. The two had been practicing on smaller penguins to perfect their folding techniques.

Stuart: “Living Coasts is famous for its penguins – so we thought we would make the biggest penguin in the world! Getting the paper sorted out has been very tricky. And getting it to stand up is going to be quite a challenge. People are very welcome to come down to the Quay and watch – it is going to be amazing.”

The penguin is currently on display at the entrance hall to Living Coasts.

For more information visit http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/devon/hi/people_and_places/nature/newsid_9206000/9206748.stm