Let it Snow!

When you first see the image above, you might think at first glance, it is painted or perhaps a print. Or maybe you wouldn't be quite sure how the artist created the image. But if you were to find out that it was a snowflake created from folding and intricately cutting paper, now that would be quite the amazing feat. This month, we will be looking at the art of snowflakes, in paper form that is! When I was teaching art, every year I did a unit about winter with the 2nd grade students. Living in Wisconsin, we obviously did things about snow, and one of the projects we always did was making paper snowflakes. I taught them about Wilson A. Bentley, the first person to successfully have photograph snowflakes. There is a beautifully illustrated children’s book about him called, Snowflake Bentley that they loved listening to, so I would read it to them, or we’d watch the video story. Afterwards, the students would all gather around the table and I would show them how to fold and cut the paper snowflakes.  And every year, without fail, when I opened the folded snowflake, the kids would oooh and aaaah at what they saw unfold before them, much like the sounds you hear at fireworks.  For now, that plain piece of white paper, had become a beautiful snowflake!  It always warmed my heart, and reminded me how kids so often see the sheer joy in the simplest of things, something we often forget to do as adults. It was one of my favorite units to teach.  So, to celebrate the winter season and all things snow(depending on where you live anyway), this blog is about an artist who takes the art of making paper snowflakes to next level proportions! Artist and entrepreneur, Mariellen VanDyke Brown, created the hummingbird snowflake at the beginning of this blog, and has practiced the art of folding and cutting paper snowflakes since she herself was a young child. If you wish, you can learn more about her by checking out her website. Here are 5 more of her amazing paper snowflakes below for you to enjoy!

If you've never created a paper snowflake, maybe now is the time to try making one! You can follow the instructions below(this was how I taught my 2nd grade students), or you can look online and find more complicated ways to fold the paper so that your snowflake has mores sides. Or, you can even find fun patterns online that you can print out and try. Have fun, explore, be creative--and when you open your paper snowflake, you just might have your very own oooh and aaah experience, and help remind yourself to slow down and enjoy the simpler things. Oh, and . . . let it snow!