Stormflakes: a holiday craft

[ccstat]

I posted these in the gallery, but wanted to add some extra commentary here, with tips for anyone who wants to try making some themselves.

My son and I were making snowflake decorations for Christmas, and I thought that the intricate swirls and symmetry would lend themselves to the glyphs from the Stormlight Archive. But if you are making a stormlight snowflake, you obviously need to have one with 10-fold symmetry, not the normal 6 (or heretical 8) of standard paper snowflakes. To get 10-fold rotational symmetry, start with a "fold, one cut" five pointed stars, for which there are many different instructions online. I started out following this diagram, then switched to an angle guide for increased speed/precision. Once you have a 5-fold symmetric starting point, you can fold it in half again (giving you results like the first photo below) or proceed directly to the cutting (giving you something like the other two).

Hint #1 The paper will cut more cleanly if you fold it accordion style (like this /\/\/\/\ rather than this ///\\\). So, when your paper is folded in half and creased to demarcate 18 or 36 degree sections, alternate mountain and valley folds to get your starting wedge.

At first I tried starting with an 10-fold symmetric wedge and cutting around the sword glyph to give 10 identical swords in one stormflake. Here you can see my attempts modeled on the symbols for Windrunner (top) and Skybreaker (bottom).

I think they turned out  remarkably well, despite being "practice" runs using old print jobs. Initially I had planned to flank the swords with their associated surge glyphs, but it quickly became apparent that it wouldn't work out that way. The stack of paper is 20 sheets thick, so it gets pretty difficult to cut detailed lines and to keep the shape entirely uniform from the top of the stack to the bottom. After making the sword, I just didn't have room to add the other symbols--at least, not with the thickness of the lines I was cutting.

For the next one, I started with a 5-fold symmetric wedge and cut different glyphs out from each side, resulting in 10 swords of alternating order. This stormflake features Bondsmith and WIllshaper.

I actually like it a bit better than the first two, partly because two shapes are more visually interesting than one, and partly because the minimalist lines of the swords turned out cleaner than the outlines had. Or maybe it's just because these ones more clearly resemble swords rather than spokes of a wheel. (Then again, those first ones definitely resemble snowflakes more, which was initially the point.) The thinner stacks did let me cut finer detail, but once again, adding surge glyphs was infeasible.

Determined to include a sword and glyph together, I started with the order glyph with the simplest lines: Truthwatcher. Cutting a large Truthwatcher glyph into the 5-fold wedge, I interspersed them with a tiny Double Eye symbol. I then added an offset circle beside the hilt to put the surge glyph in. I chose Progression as the simpler of the two surge glyphs (Illumination has like 5 times as many lines, and they are twisty! No thank you.) I used an exacto knife to cut out the shape inside that circle. This step was more labor intensive than I expected because my knife only cut through ~4 sheets at once cleanly, so I had to recreate the glyph in several batches.

It's not lying entirely flat, so the Truthwatcher glyph isn't quite as clear in the photo as on the real thing. The flower petal shape was a happy accident of the swordglyph shape and of trying to give some visual separation to the individual swords. Once I saw it, though, I knew it was perfect: the surge that powers growth and an order that uses it, on a shape symbolic of growth and beauty. Exactly the theme I would have tried for if I'd known to think of it. I had been a little disappointed while making this that it was losing some of the divine numerology, but If I'd tried too hard to get 10 I never would have gotten this beautiful result. I think it looks rather like a poinsettia, which is appropriate for the non-stormlight holiday as well.

As an aside, I also thought to try to include the Alethi script. It's symmetric, so it ought to be easy to add along one of the creases, right? Not so much. To cut with the precision necessary to make it legible, I would need to use an exacto knife rather than scissors, and reduce the thickness of the paper stack. I still think it's a good idea and may try it, but as with the glyphs, it is much easier to model an overall shape than to reproduce lines exactly, and with an alphabet you have to be able to distinguish the letters from each other. If I do get it to work, I'll post the photos here.

Hint #2 The glyphs in SA are made up of many disconnected lines, which is difficult to reproduce in this medium. Give yourself freedom to interpret the shapes and ideas rather than trying to copy the drawn versions.

I hope this inspires your holiday crafting. I look forward to seeing any stormflakes (or other creations) you decide to share.

[CalaCrisp88]

That is awesome!