ENGL 3100- Maxwell

A mysterious instructable for class partner work.

For this instructable, you will need;

2 pieces of standard, letter sized paper (can be any kind of paper. It does not need to be colored. I am using colored to help show steps)

Scissors

First, we need to make the paper square. To do this take one corner and bring it over to the opposite side. Line up the edges, then press along the seam to make a nice crease.

Origami turns out best if you are meticulous with getting nice sharp creases and take the time to line up the edges nicely. The best way to make a crease is to use the fingernail. Place the flat part of the fingernail and press it on top of the crease, and run up and down the crease two or three times to insure a good fold. I would recommend you repeat this method for each fold.

Once your paper is folded, trim the excess paper off the triangle with scissors. When you open the triangle, you should have a square!

Repeat step 2 and 3 for the second piece of paper.

You should now have two square pieces of paper. Set one aside. Fold the other one in half (doesn't matter which way).

Open paper back up. Now take the outside edge and fold it to the new crease in the middle. Do this with the other edge too.

Repeat steps 4 and 5 for the second piece of paper.

Fold in half.

Fold outside edge to middle crease.

Fold other edge to middle crease.

You should now have two pieces of paper as shown. Fold both in half to the left. (Hint, this is where the fingernail press along the seams will be useful to help them lie flat.

This is where it gets a little tricky. We're going to work with the left side first (purple paper). Take the top RIGHT corner and fold it to the LEFT edge. (This is the same thing we did in step 1 to make square papers).

Then, on the same piece, we will take the bottom LEFT corner and fold it to the RIGHT edge. You should end up with a kind of parallelogram. If you have a trapezoid, one of the corners was folded in the wrong direction.

Now we will work with the right side (green paper). We'll be doing the opposite of what we did on the purple.

Take the top LEFT corner and fold it to the right edge.

Then take the bottom RIGHT corner and fold it to the left edge.

Double check that your papers look the same as the ones in the final picture.

Put one paper to the side. (I will be working with the purple one first).

Put paper at a 45 degree angle

Take the bottom right corner and fold it to the left to make a triangle. (If it does not make a triangle, it is likely that you are folding it the wrong direction).

Next, take the top LEFT corner and fold it to the right to make another triangle. You should end up with a Z shape.

Now we're going to do the same thing with the green paper. Put the purple piece of paper aside. Place the other paper on a 45 degree angle. We will be doing the exact same thing here.

Take the bottom left corner (the point) and fold it to the right.

Take the top right corner (the point) and fold it to the left.

Remember that if you are folding it over and it is not making a triangle, it is likely that you are folding it in the wrong direction.

You should end up with another z-shape.

Put the green and the purple next to each other as shown.

The purple should be flipped over and placed so that it runs vertical.

For the green turn it 45 degrees to the left so that it runs horizontal.

Place the green on top of the purple. It should have a pinwheel sort of look

We're almost done!

Take the top left corner of the purple and tuck into the green seam.

Take the bottom right corner of purple and tuck into the green seam as well.

Flip our origami over. We will be doing the same thing and tucking the green edges into the purple seam.

Take the bottom right corner, bring up and tuck into the seam.

Then, take the top left corner and tuck into the seam.

Congratulations! You have made a ninja throwing star! Throw it with delight at a nearby sibling, roommate, spouse, or anyone lucky enough to be standing nearby. Be prepared to practice your mad ninja skills if they throw it back at you!