Snowflakes

My inner geek was excited when I discovered this tutorial to make 6 pointed, or hexagonal, paper snowflakes. Why was the geek excited? Because real snowflakes form in nature with a hexagonal structure. It pleases the geek within to make paper cut-out snowflakes that resemble the actual structure of ice crystals. (For more in depth, entertaining science behind ice crystals, visit this post by the fantastic folks at Radiolab.) The idea to sew multiple flakes together as window hangings came from this tutorial at maya*made. It worked beautifully with my snowflakes cut from thin newsprint-like pages of dumpster rescued books.

Now, the inner geek (Ok, the geek isn't really an inner geek at all. Let your geek flag fly!) Where was I? Oh, yes. I was not satisfied with my inadequate, inexact eyeballing it attempts to fold the doubled over triangle of paper into thirds. So. Here's how to fold your triangle into perfect thirds every time.

The triangle of paper is a right triangle, meaning the legs of said triangle form a 90 degree angle. Divide 90 degrees into 3 equal parts and you have 30 degrees. So, you need to fold up the legs of the triangle at 30 degrees. Have I lost you? It's easy if you have a sewing or quilting ruler like the one pictured here. 

The angle marked in red, below, is 60 degrees. Half of this angle, marked in green, is 30 degrees.

Line up the legs of the paper triangle with the 90 degree angle marked in aqua, below, then fold the bottom edge up so the fold aligns with the 30 degree angle line marked in green.

Like this:

Then all you need to do is take the edge that remains aligned with the aqua line, above, and fold it down to meet the edge of the fold you just created. Perfect thirds.