Ok, lemme give you the quick run down on how these work. Because I super duper pinky swear they are easier than they look!⁠ You start by cutting 8 pieces of the nifty paper. It’s called glassine paper or kite paper. It’s translucent and rather like that crinkly waxed paper you often see used for the bags a cookie might come in at the bakery.⁠

Then you fold each piece of paper up the same way. The folds are shockingly simple (seriously, if you can fold a letter to put it in an envelope, you can do this). All the fancy business happens because the paper is translucent. That makes it so that spots with one layer of paper are lighter than spots with two layers of paper, which are lighter than spots with three layers of paper, and so on.⁠

Once you’ve got your pieces all folded, you hold them together with a big clear sticker (I worked up a little template that makes it super easy to space them evenly, which has proven to be shockingly useful), and hang them in a sunny window.⁠

The light streams in, all of a sudden the world seems less grim, and it’s a teeny tiny bit easier to hang on until the days start getting longer again.⁠

Really though. If you can fold a piece of paper neatly in half, you can do this. And I’ll have the instructions for it back out soon!