It started as a simple purchase that he thought his 11-year-old daughter would enjoy. More than 10 years ago now, Larry Wallace bought a book with paper dolls on the cover, thinking it would be a fun project for his daughter.

The book turned out to be on origami--the traditional Japanese art of paper folding--and while the projects in it were too hard for his daughter, they led Wallace to what has become his hobby and his passion. Wallace also happens to be a custodian in the Hickman Mills (Mo.) Consolidated School District and a vice president of the Hickman Mills Federation of Support Personnel. To many students, however, he's Mr. Origami.

I probably never would have gotten into it without that book," Wallace says. But there was something about making the folds and figuring out how they worked that got him hooked. Today, he estimates that he has memorized about 100 folds, and he owns an extensive collection of origami books that contain thousands of other patterns.

Wallace has become a frequent visitor to classrooms in the district, as teachers invite him to share his skills with their students. "Some of the kids are actually better behaved for me with origami than they are during the year. They like the hands-on thing," he says. While he works with students as young as third grade, who can do simple folds, Wallace finds that sixth graders are just about the ideal group for a project.

As much as possible, he tries to link his projects to the classroom curriculum. One of his favorites for a science class, for example, is a volcano that "erupts" when you pull a couple of the folds. And origami is highly mathematical, with all the required angles and folds, so it's a natural for math.

But it can also work with literature, such as a story many sixth-grade classes read about a girl who is dying from cancer as the result of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Told that if she folds 1,000 cranes, she will get one wish, her friends chip in and help her reach that goal; in the end, she wishes for world peace. Wallace, naturally, teaches the class how to make a crane.

He also has a large repertoire of holiday-related projects, such as baskets, hearts and even Christmas trees. His personal favorites, Wallace notes, are probably flowers and insects. In fact, he likes combining them so that a butterfly, spider or other bug hides inside the flower. One of his most ambitious projects, clearly a labor of love, was done for a friend's wedding. He figures it took him about a month to make the 1,000 flowers in nine different colors that served as centerpieces and other decorations for the affair.

"It does take a lot of patience and a lot of interest to stay with it," Wallace comments. "In the origami books, they explain it and give you pictures, but quite often, it's hard to figure out what the author wants you to do, even with the pictures. I like the challenge of figuring out what the author has done."