How to Make a Modular Origami Star

First: try a lot of other origami models that are not this star, because life is hard and so is origami. 🙂

Actually first: you’ll need six sheets of paper. Squares! And it would be ideal if there’s either color on both sides or the back is plain white, because you’ll see a bit of the backside on the finished star.

It’s funny because I literally didn’t follow my own advice. This is where we’re headed:

This is an example of modular origami, so we’ll be making a relatively simple unit–and then making the same thing five more times–AND THEN we’ll put it all together and it’ll actually look like something.

I really like this model because it’s not ridiculously hard to put together. It’s a cool introduction to modular origami if you’ve never tried it. Or a breath of fresh air if you have tried modular origami.

Sound fun? Cool. Buckle up.

Okay, so you’ll need to start with your first square white- or backside up.

Then we’re going to fold it in half, bottom to top (top being the edge furthest from you):

You might not be able to tell in the picture, but the raw unfolded edge should be furthest away from you at this point.

Got it so far? You’re doing great. You made a fold!

Now we’ll take that folded bottom edge and act like we’re going to fold the whole thing in half again, but we’re only kidding, so we’ll just make a light crease in the approximate middle. We’re only doing this for reference, so as long as you know where it is, you’re good.

Now we’re going to take the top-left and bottom right corners of our little rectangle and make them line up with the crease we just made–AND we’re going to make these folds run through the bottom-left (from the left) and top-right (from the right) corners.

This might sound confusing, but that’s why we have pictures, right? I got you.

You should have a parallelogram now. It’s pretty cute.

Take the cute lil guy and fold him left to right so that the left diagonal edge lines up with the right diagonal edge. You’re folding it in half, really, but it won’t be pretty because it isn’t symmetrical.

Okay, so now you’re gonna undo that fold. I know. I’m sorry. We’re just kidding again and only doing it for the crease.

Don’t hate me, but we’re actually going to fully unfold it now. you should have the white side up, like this:

And now we’ll fold along creases that already exist, so that’s fun: fold along those diagonal creases on the left, both top and bottom. You should see triangles of the front side of your paper:

Now take that crispy crease across the middle and let it happen. I mean, fold the top edge down to meet the bottom edge:

This, my friends, is a trapezoid. Welcome back to geometry class.

Okay, we’ve come to the hardest part, now. I 100% believe in you, but if you don’t know origami, you might need a moment to catch your breath.

Do you see how, in the trapezoid, we have a couple of parallelograms and a triangle made out of creases? What we’re going to do is flip the paper inside out at the point where the two parallelograms meet.

Still breathing? Good. If you’re lost, think about reversing that fold across the middle, but leaving the leftmost parallelogram segment alone. If you invert that crease, the paper will want to flatten out to the shape I have pictured. I promise.

It might not seem like it, but we’re kind of almost done.

Now we’ll need to invert those triangle pieces through the white part on the bottom. It’s a lot like the last part, but a little less dramatic:

Because I’m an imperfect human being, my module isn’t quite lining up right, but hopefully you get the picture. the white part should approximately line up with the front edges, leaving you with a front-colored parallelogram on the left + a white triangle on the right.

Okay, so that’s… one module. Of the six you need. 🙂

It’ll go by faster than you think. I’ll be here waiting once you’re done.

I’m serious. Literally take another square, white/backside up, and repeat all that. 5 times.

If you’re still with me, I am so proud of you. Hats off to you, honestly.

So when we put this together, try to keep the white triangle off to the right, to make it easier.

We’re going to use the little triangle arms to lock around other units. Give em a little hug. These are two, pre-hug: