Got some paper, a pair of scissors and a desire to deck the halls with everything from Darth Vader to Tusken Raiders? Then boy, do we have the perfect holiday craft project for you: Make Star Wars snowflakes.
Best remembered as a cherished form of busywork in classrooms before the holidays, paper snowflakes have gotten a George Lucas-worthy overhaul thanks to graphic designer Anthony Herrera. Inspired by some concepts he saw on the blog Matters of Grey, Herrera started designing his own snowflakes a few years ago and just recently released his 2013 collection, which include Han Solo in Carbonite, Slave Leia, AT-ATs, and – naturally – Darth Vader.
"The Star Wars snowflake designs began as just doing designs of characters that me and my daughter wanted to make three years ago," Herrera told WIRED in an email. "The second year I introduced vehicles, and this year I decided to push further by designing battle scenes."
With each year, the designs have gotten more intricate and detailed, but the process of creating them as remained the same: sketching figures with a paper and pencil until a symmetrical pattern emerges, then scanning the designs and vectors them into sliceable wedges. The latest batch took him about three weeks to compile and he said he has plenty of ideas for new flakes next year, so no two will ever be the same – in a manner of speaking. Hopefully with Star Wars: Episode VII coming in 2015 he'll have even more snowflake fodder in the future.
Check out our favorite finished versions of Herrera's flakes (from both 2013 and previous years) above then download the PDF pattern beneath each and get to crafting. Herrera also has a lot more designs on his site. A warning: Most designs aren't for the casual flake-maker, so patience you must have. ("I do get a little grief from fans about how difficult some of them can be," Herrera said.) Also, have an X-Acto knife at the ready, and the Force if you can use it.
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