This Is When,

a little boys toy,

becomes a big boys toy, the toy in question, a paper plane, or in this case a paper bird,

 an ornithopter is a flying machine that uses flapping wing motion to fly, just like a real bird, named after the last passenger pigeon, Martha, who died in captivity at the Cincinnati Zoo in 1914, the Flying Martha Ornithopter is a simple mechanical toy powered by a rubber band,

to fly, simply wind up the bird and gently release like a paper airplane, similar to an airplane, the forward motion of the ornithopter allows the flapping wings to deflect air downward, producing lift, no batteries needed, the Flying Martha is made by hand by Haptic Lab kite artisans, the bamboo frame is strong yet flexible, (bamboo has a higher tensile strength than most steel) and is shaped using only the heat of a candle flame,

Haptic Lab partnered with the woodblock print artist Nic Annette Miller to create a deluxe artist edition of the Flying Martha, 

She printed the wings in her signature style using a letterpress, 

 these pieces will be hand-assembled in Haptic Lab's Brooklyn studio, in all of the Flying Martha Ornithopter kits the wings and tail are crafted from mulberry paper, used in traditional kite-making for centuries, mulberry pulp has very long fibers making the paper extremely tear-resistant for its weight, and unlike the plastic wings of other toy ornithopters, the mulberry wings of the Flying Martha make a pleasant sound while flapping,

 why the passenger pigeon? made in the likeness of the extinct passenger pigeon, the Flying Martha is symbolic of humanity's role in a rapidly changing world, the passenger pigeon was once the most numerous bird species on the planet, with an estimated population of 3-5 billion birds, no one could have imagined that the entire species would disappear in one human lifetime, Haptic Lab is a small design company based in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighbourhood in Brooklyn, NY, the model is not on sale yet and no I am not on commission, I just thought it was a good example of a toy becoming a big boys toy, rather like My Wild Gears was developed from Spirograph.