How to Make Throwing Stars

The traditional origami throwing star is four-pointed, but, like the rest of this ancient art, it requires a skill for paper folding and is fairly complicated to make. This version of the paper throwing star is somewhat less complicated for the average person, and instead of four points you will end up with eight. Here's how to do it:

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• 8 square pieces of paper, same size (origami paper or similar)

Making the Points

1. Take one of the pieces of paper and fold two opposing corners together to create a triangle. Crease the paper well then unfold it. Do the same thing with the other two corners.

2. Fold over both corners from one side of the paper so that they meet in the middle of the paper; you should have a triangle on one side of the paper now.

3. Fold the piece of paper in half at this point. You will fold it lengthwise such that you are dividing the triangle (from Step 2) in half. As you fold, though, use your finger to push up on the non-triangle end of the paper to force an interior fold. You should now have something that resembles a parallelogram. This will be one of the points for your star.

4. Repeat Steps 1 through 3 for all 8 pieces of paper.

Putting the Points Together

5. Insert the "closed" end (the end that was the triangle in Step 2 above) of one of your pieces of paper into the "open" end (the forced fold in Step 3) of another piece.

6. Tuck the tips of the corners of the open end over the sides of the closed end that you just inserted into it. This will help keep the pieces of paper firmly together.

7. Put the closed end of a third piece into the open end of the two pieces you already have combined. Fold the corners over this new piece as you did in Step 2.

8. Repeat Steps 1 and 2 for the remaining 5 pieces of paper so that they are all fit snugly together. At this point you should have something like a circle.

9. Create the star by gently pushing two of the opposing sides towards each other. This should bring the sides closer together while pushing the two points out. Do the same thing for the other sides. Do not push the sides in so much that they are touching, though; there should still be a gap in the center.

10. Twist the star clockwise then push in the sides again, pushing them together. Make one more clockwise turn and push in the final two sides so that all sides are touching in the middle to form a circle. The eight points should all be sticking out.

Tips & Warnings

• Use two different colors of paper for an interesting effect. Then alternate the colors when putting your star together.
• Make sure to securely fasten all of the corners on your star. Otherwise it will come apart easily when it's thrown. If some of the corners come untucked as you are putting the star together, simply tuck them back in.
• You could make a four-pointed star instead of an eight-pointed star by pushing the sides all the way in on Step 5 and not doing Step 6.