The Froebel Variations

Friedrich Froebel was a German who laid the foundation for kindergarten. In his curriculum were paper folding lessons. He created patterns from a pinwheel base, which have now been dubbed Froebel variations. I will demonstrate three versions, but there are other variations that can be folded, so feel free to experiment.

Here are the three versions I will be teaching:

  

Before you can start, create a pinwheel base, except do not preform the final step. It will need to look like the photo below:

Now take each of the points in the air and fold them down flat

Once it looks like this you can begin

Yellow:

Step 1: (working with just the top left corner) valley fold the center point to the top corner

Step 2: Now valley fold it back partway, to start crimp/pleat folding it

Step 3: Continue to pleat fold the flap until the tip lines up with the rest

 Like this:

Step 4: Repeat on the other 3 sides and the first version is done

Red(ish):

Step 1: Start with your model looking like this:

Step 2: (working with just the top left flap) Mountain fold the center point up and inside the flap

Step 3: Mountain fold the point my finger is pointing to, and mountain fold it behind 

 It will look like this:

Step 4: Repeat step 3 on the other side

Step 5: Repeat all steps on the other three parts and it is completed!

Blue:

Step 1: Start with your model looking like this:

Step 2: (working with just the top left corner) valley fold the bottom and right edges to the center

Step 3: Open these newly folded flaps up and squash fold them flat

Step 4: Repeat on all others sides and your model is complete!

If you want, you can fold all of the points in the center out to vary the model even more. The fun with these models is all the experimenting you can do to get beautiful patterns.