Flaky Friday

We are not having a white Christmas here, that's for sure (and it is very rare), but this is a way of compensating: complicated looking (but easy to make) end three dimensional paper snowflakes. These are rather large decorations, and they look especially nice in a window, I think - plus they are the kind of pretty things you may want to leave there, even after Christmas. 

They are printed on heavy paper or card stock, and the trick is all about cutting slits and folding the pieces correctly, and these cool paper sculptures are quite simple to make. 

Everything is explained in this old post from 2016, and there is a photo tutorial as well.

So give them a try - or check out some of the other posts I have done on snowflakes, that are a bit of a thing for me, I guess...

THAT window - because it's a tradition!

So, there it is, same as every year - and always something new.
I love it! Such a great tradition. Read more here!

Sharp Looking Snowflakes

Here is my second paper project for this Christmas season.

These crisp and sharp looking snowflakes are very 3D and almost architectural - and, as usual, far simpler to make than they look. They are made from six slitted and folded strips of heavy paper or card stock - I had to experiment a bit before they became okay, meaning sturdy and stiff enough to stay in shape.

I made a couple of attempts in regular printing paper, and they got all saggy and floppy. You'll need 200 or 220 gram card stock, the kind you can use in the printer (= hobbykarton). You also need to use a knife and a cutting mat - but that's as complicated as it gets. The rest is super simple. See instructions further down...

I love the intricate three dimensional quality of these - and all they really are, are some folded strips of paper and a bit of glue! They look great in a window, where they can twirl around a bit.

Get the template right here - one print, six strips, will make one rather large snowflake. 

Please make sure to print these on heavy paper or card stock, and follow my advice about scoring or tracing the dotted lines in the design, something I often explain and mark out on my templates.

The idea of tracing the folding lines is simple: make a slight dent in the paper, and it will fold easily, in sharp lines and precisely. And taking a minute to trace or score these lines, will really help you in the folding.

Do like this:

Cut out your six strips very precisely, cut the slits as marked, and score / trace the dotted lines a bit - use the tip of a needle or (careful not to cut) use your knife. 

Start working the slits upwards and downwards like shown - a bit like a pop-up-card.

 The six strips should eventually look like this......

As you can see, the snowflake is beginning to happen... 

Glue the bits together, two and two, let them dry for a second, and then finish up, by assembling the three units. 

Punch a hole and hang your festive flake!

While longing for snow and some proper winter

It is so wet, grey and damp here in Copenhagen. I normally try to see the beauty of all kinds of weather, but it's a bit of a far stretch, these days. The other day I came across a bit of snow, while browsing away in my coffee break. Oh, man, do I long for some actual snow, and perhaps a bit of sunshine! But in the meantime, one might enjoy looking at these fragile wonders.

More than two years ago I wrote about some fantastic snowflake photographers, so I felt like including this guy in the company. His name is Alexey Kljatov, and he lives in Moscow - a nice place to live, if you love doing technically amazing close up photographs of snowflakes, I guess. 

All the photos here, are taken on the balcony outside his Moscow flat - and for the nerds, he explains his work method and his equipment in detail, at his website (where you can see even more snowflakes)!

I just think they are almost unreal and very beautiful.

Flaky windows for the very lazy

The snowflake window, which I shared with you the other day here, and showed you last year here, demands that you put in some serious hours. But I found some alternative solutions for the lazy.
And it is so very, very okay to be lazy.

The first quick fix is from a Danish magazine, Alt For Damerne, using paper doilies.
The one in the middle is from Dutch sticker company Studio Haikje.
Tha last one I borrowed from the Danish blog Piger i Provinsen - the one with the masking tape.
I have seen this star in many versions around town, and I have seen fantastic, entire windows done
up in the most stylish way - very islamic architecture, very clever! See for yourself, here...

Making a quick christmas window is easy peasy. Nothing to it, as you can see.
I could easily see this tape idea developed a bit, with the zigzag scissors from the sewing drawer,
or simply cropping the ends diagonally, which would make the design even more starry or flaky.

And then I stumbled upon the Swiss designer Claudia Caviezel, a lady who has taken this media
to a completely new level.

She designed these patterns for room dividers in the Zürich airport business lounge.
And they are - masking tape stuck directly on enormous, layered glass panels! Cool.

My favourite window

Late yesterday afternoon I took my small camera with me out jogging, in order to document
if my favourite window in the local neighbourhood has gone into christmas mode. I have been
following it patiently, but missed it the last week or so - but I was not dissapointed yesterday.

And I love that they have added red and purple this year, that looks great, usually it's all white.
Really grainy and poor photos, but daylight is almost non existant here in Cph at the moment.

So, as I wrote last year, they do this every year - and it is a seasonal installation that gets completely refreshed every year, so you must imagine that all these exquisite tissue flakes simply gets scrubbed
down some time after New Year in a frenzy of window cleaning.
I like that, somehow. It adds to the elegance of the whole thing.

And since I had my camera with me, I tried to take some evening pictures of all the lights in the
windows - all the stars and fairylights people put up, here in the gloomy Scandinavian winter.
It proved almost impossible, with the small camera, and they got really blurry. But I kind of decided
that I liked that, since it was the greyest of foggy days, so I exaggerated a bit and ended up with these....

They captured the day perfectly.

Flaky - part three

Just a few blocks from here, some of my friends live.
And every year at christmas, they have this fine tradition: on one of the early weekends in the season
they get together and make paper flakes for this fantastic themed window. Every year it is the same -
and, of course, every year it is different!
So here it is - Stine and Eriks delicate tissue paper snowflake extravaganza!
To me, it is one of the more important local signs of christmas - and I keep an eager eye out for the
flakes from late november / early december - and if I think they are the least bit late, I will send them impatient emails.

It took me a while to do this post, as this window is so hard to show properly in a photograph....
Originally I wanted to take a picture at night, but that proved impossible, as reflections of the street
lights were all you could see. But I hope you get just hint of the fragile prettiness here....

Going all flaky on you

Apropos snowflakes, I have to show you these breathtakingly beautiful photographs by the japanese photographer Yuji Obata.

They are from a series called 'Hommage to Wilson A. Bentley', 2005-2006 - honoring the pioneer of snowflake photography (born in rural Vermont in 1880), who took thousands of photos of snowflakes
in his lifetime.
 
Inspired by a Breughel winter paiting, in 2003 Obata went to Hokkaido, one of Japans northernmost islands, to photograph speed skaters and other wintery scenes, and got particularly involved in trying
to capture the snow itself.

Take a look at his fine book 'Wintertale' right here:
http://www.photoeye.com/BookteaseLight/bookteaselight.cfm?catalog=ZD657&image=1


Had to google a bit more about old Wilson A. Bentley. And here he is.

Wilsons interest in snowflakes started in early boyhood when his mother gave him a microscope.
It took him years of experimenting with camera equipment and general inventiveness, before he
actually managed to capture the evasive flakes.
His approach was scientific and systematic. Apparently he numbered his flakes. Patient guy.

I found this lovely montage of the flakes 889-900 - and a large single perfect snowflake.
As they all are, of course.

A quiet start

I welcome you all to this seasonal pop-up-blog, in which I will be writing about - well, something,
I wouldn't be surprised - as I am sometimes prone to rantings.

But most of all, I will give you a little something to print and make every day - usually woven hearts,
but sometimes not. The hearts are my thing, though, so you can expect a few of these. I make them
every now and then, so some of them are not necessarily christmas-like. But you will see....

No cheating, though. No advent calendar downloads until December 1st.

Last year Copenhagen was covered in snow, at this time. I love snow and everything about it and,
contrary to popular belief, it is not that common to have two months of snow, as we did last winter.
It was glorious.
I so hope we will have some this year again. Piles of it, enough for skiing, enough for us to get really
used to it, and just relax and enjoy it.

The only sort-of-slightly christmassy decor I have felt inclined to do, is perhaps a bit inspired....
The flakes are made of Hama-beads, and these I will definitely be mentioning later.
As I have a bit of a fetish. And, as you can see: foggy, wet weather. No snow.