This collapse is similar tothe collapse that formsthe centre of the sand dol-lar in ,but cannot be done in themanner shown there be-cause it generates extracreases (which detractfrom the transparent ef-fect of the snowflake.

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6. Focus on one of theflaps, standing it up.

7. Flatten the flap, squash-ing the shaded area. Notethat the squash issymmetrical!

not

8. Result of previous step.Repeat on other five flaps,

.alternating the thick partof the squash folds

Snowflake ©1997 by Joseph Wu

1.

4. 5.

2. 3.

Diagrammed on January 5, 1997

Start with a white hexagon. For best effect, use a sheet of translucent paper, such as tracing paper.

thick partthin part

Page 1 of 3

Page 2 of 3

Snowflake ©1997 by Joseph Wu Diagrammed on January 5, 1997

9. Swivel. (Shaded areas are thicker.) 10. Mountain fold excess under flap.

11. Repeat steps 9 & 10 five times.

13. The centre completed. Turn over. 14. Swivel.

12.Valley fold three central points outward.

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Snowflake ©1997 by Joseph Wu Diagrammed on January 5, 1997

15. Repeat 11 times. 16. The back completed. Turn over.

17. The completed snowflake.Make sure to look through it at a lightsource.

Notes: It is quite possible that someonehas already done this snowflake. Anyonewho has ever explored the symmetries ofhexagonal paper is likely to have donesome snowflake designs, and these are,necessarily, similar. I know that Yoshi-zawa has done similar work, and I'veseen similar ideas by Dr. Suzuki at the

convention in thesummer of 1996. There are probablyothers. Still, this was an original effort,the result of a challenge by Doug Philipsto design a snowflake for the cover of

. It is one of over 30 different de-signs, the result of an effort to simplifysome of the more complex ideas (be-cause Doug would have to fold 25 ofthem, and also to ease my diagram-ming). I hope you enjoy it, and that youwill use it as a stepping stone to design-ing your own snowflakes.

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