Folding Hearts from Straws
Part AStraw stars are not only intriguing in their rosette shape, they are realtively easy to create, once you understand their secret. Thesteps involved in making such stars is completely different from regular paper stars. I learned how to make these from the owner of aJapanese gift shop in Chinatown - at the price of buying the straws first...lol. However, the main difficulty in learning how to createthese is the difficulty in teaching; scanned diagrams and written instuctions cannot fully illustrate the procedure. The basics of creating straw stars are: a) start folding in the CENTER of the straw, allowing for TWO ends of the straw to be manipulated. b) foldfive triangles. c) wrap the two ends of the straw alternately around the triangles.Packages of opaque or transparent colorful straws can be found in many Japansese gift shops,often used for making roses, or even stars. These straws are particularily useful because of theflexiblity of the plastic, however, in some cases, regular straws can be used if the plastic is thinenough(for example, straws from McDonalds). The use of plastic instead of paper allows forthere to be enough resistance to hold the structure of the star. Technically, paper can be used,but it would take an enourmous length to do what plastic can do. Stiff plastic may also be used,if folded into a strip.1. Make a 45 degree FOLD in the *center* of the straw while flattening it somewhat. This willcreate a 90 degree corner. It is important to try your best to estimate the center of the star inorder to make the best use of the material. In this image, the left side is overlapping the right.Tip: Fold the straw in half, and match up the ends to estimate the center.Part B2. Fold the left(or overlapping) side of the straw behind the the otheanother 90 degree angle. The previously left side is now on the righ3. Fold the right now underneath side of the straw behind the otherside is now on the left. Your first triangle should now be formed.4. Fold this trianlge behind the two ends of the straw. Form four morepeating the same basic process. However, each time, remember tover the the top side. After each two folds of the sides, fold them uinfront of the last one.5. You wish to have five triangles in total.Tip: There may be much resistance from the straw while foldig the thold onto your triangles tightly, or they may collapse.Part C6. Wrap the triangles around each other so that the first triangle thasides of the stars on the other side. If you only hold onto the last tritrangles should fall into this natural position. The intention is to wrathe straw around the five trangles in an alternating manner.7. Always start folding with the end that is ontop, alternating betweends, one over the other, between the two triangles, move the trianbetween the valley of the next two trangles. Continue this process uthe straws.8. As the star builds...Tip: Keep the folds very tight, and use your fingers to keep them fr9. Tuck the end that is ontop into one of the fold of the star. You ma
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