The Little-Known World of Paper Clips

I went looking for a paperclip yesterday and found a package of them in my office-supply-closet-from-Hades, where angels, but not mice, fear to tread. I had no idea I had such designer paper clips, all stripy and colorful and textured. This inspired me to take a peek online to find out what other nouveau paper clip designs there might be. Maybe I'd even start a paper clip collection! A quick google showed me that there is some serious paper clip interest in the Big World.

Early Office Museum provides a History of the Paper Clip, complete with paper clip ads and an early paper clip gallery.

Kyle MacDonald at One Red Paperclip fanagled a house out of a paperclip through a series of trades over the course of a year. (And I have a WHOLE BOX of paperclips.)

Then I found Paper Clips, The Movie. This documentary from 2004 is about a middle school project in Whitwell, TN, where students collected a paper clip for each person who died in the holocaust, collected holocaust memorobilia, built a memorial and developed a scholarship program. I wonder if this project had any basis in Operation Paperclip, a code name for extracting scientists from Nazi Germany during WWII?

For those of you who are craft-inclined, here's how to make a Paperclip Angel.

And finally Justin Schlecter's portfolio of Paperclip Art. These are very cool, mostly geometric paperclip sculptures. My personal favorite is the 180 paper clip Fancy Dodecahedron.

I think it's clear that my 10 minutes of paper clip googling have revealed a Secret Paper Clip Underworld. I had no idea there was so much interest, art and international intrigue in the lowly paper clip but now that I do, I must have more, more, more.