The Hotchkiss Library hosted a small workshop Saturday, Nov. 23 on how to make Froebel, the 16-pointed Christmas Star made from folded paper. The star has no commonly recognized name in English, known also as the German Star, the Polish Star, the Pennsylvanian Star and the Advent Star.

The star, made of four thin strips of paper, is named after Friedrich Fröbel, a German educationist credited with the creation of Kindergarten. Fröbel used paper folding as one example of how to teach young children mathematical concepts.

Fröbel also was one of the first to encourage the use of patterned geometric building blocks for young children as gifts, which were later adapted for children’s education about sixty years after his death. However, Fröbel is not the creator of the folded star despite it being named after him. The knowledge of crafting it is speculated to have been known to many well before his time.

The Froebel Christmas Star, however, is no children’s feat. The four strips of paper require a shockingly high level of preciseness in order to reach the finished product, and while the first few steps may give the impression of an easy craft, the star proved a significant challenge for those in attendance who represented a wide variety of ages. Many of the steps are more akin to weaving than they are to folding. Instructor Anne Cameron spent multiple weeks practicing herself in order to prepare.

On the day of the workshop, Cameron used a video as an assistant, slowly going through step by step and checking in on each table. Soon, as the project reached its more complex stages, Cameron went from table to table and back again going over many of the specific rules on exactly how to fold the stars. Despite the difficulty, participants kept a determined outlook. After many attempts, do-overs and backtracking, attendees eventually finished their first star.

  

Matthew Kreta

The 16-pointed stars go by many names depending on where they are made.