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The Six-fold Way
Cutting
paper snowflakes is great fun, but you really ought to make them
six-sided, like real snowflakes. Real snowflakes are never eight-sided.
This
picture shows how to fold a piece of paper to make a proper six-sided
snowflake. Starting with an ordinary piece of 8.5x11 paper, first fold
it in half, then fold it in half again.
Next is the tricky part;
you have to make a 1/3 fold as shown in the third picture. After that,
fold the remainder over the first third, cut off the excess, and you
are ready to start creating your own paper snowflake. |
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Making Anatomically Correct Snowflakes
Now
here is your next challenge -- instead of making random cuts here and
there, try cutting your folded paper to make something that has real
snowflake features. In the example on the left, note the two concentric
hexagons in the center of the flake, the central ridges on the arms,
and sidebranches coming out from the branches at 60-degree angles.
This paper snowflake looks like a real snowflake! |
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Some Practice Snowflakes
Here
are some actual snowflakes for you to practice on. Your mission is to
cut paper snowflakes that look like these. In addition to getting
the outlines right, try putting in some cuts to display the
internal features of each crystal, as I tried to do in the above
example.
Good luck, but be warned ... cutting anatomically correct snowflakes is not as easy at it sounds! |
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