Star Wars Kirigami (Journey to Star Wars: the Last Jedi)

Marc Hagan-Guirey’s kirigami work has been featured before . . . almost 3 years ago, in fact. He had designed some absolutely breathtaking Star Wars scenes, which were on exhibit thanks to a successful Kickstarter campaign. Now, anyone can reproduce some of Marc’s work with his new Star Wars Kirigami book.

The large 11”x14” book contains 15 kirigami models ranging in difficulty from “beginner” to “expert.” Each one is a ship taken from somewhere in the entire Star Wars saga films. All that is needed are a cutting knife, a ruler (metal is preferred), and a good cutting surface. A cutting mat is highly recommended for these types of projects. It’s as simple as cutting and folding . . . if your cuts are precise.

It’s also the prize for this month’s giveaway; three winners will get to try their hand at kirigami. Make sure to enter into the drawing for your chance to win.

Here’s Marc demonstrating one of the models from the book:

Along with the models are illustrated instructions along with movie stills, ship concept art, and ship facts. There’s plenty inside to appeal to your imagination and creativity.

I used to have a Snowspeeder toy when I was a kid, and I loved it. So, I decided to cut out the Snowspeeder as my first piece. Right away, I can tell you that this book is going to be destroyed by the time all 15 models have been cut out. The book suggests photocopying the sheets, but the book still has to be destroyed to get them out. There’s no saving it.

Removing the model sheets is tricky; they’re really glued in there. I tried cutting the sheet out with an X-ACTO knife, but I was just making a mess. So, I just went in with my fingers and carefully tore the sheet out. That was faster and cleaner, but, I had an untidy edge from my cutting fiasco. Fortunately, the model sheets seem to be printed with a little bit of extra space for trimming away bad edges.

The cut and fold lines are printed on the reverse side of the model sheets so that the final build is nice and clean. Blue lines are for valley folds, and red lines are for mountain folds. The instructions say to score the mountain folds on the unprinted side by poking holes and flipping the sheet over. Not wanting to deviate from the instructions, I did just that. It results in nicer folds for a tidier model.

The model took a few hours, and I was patient & careful. When the time came to fold, I took my time and worked the folds a little at a time. It’s so easy to fold or bend the wrong areas. In the end, though, I got it assembled. To my surprise, there are even several legs that hold the model up.

Following the photography suggestion in the book, I was able to capture the Snowspeeder in a lovely blue glow. I taped together several blue construction sheets to make the backdrop, and I used a blue LED light for the light source.

I had a lot of fun. There were a couple of times where I wanted to rush, because I was eager to see the end result. Even though I took my time, I was still hit with a “wow” moment. The model is a jumbled mess of partial folds one moment, and a fully formed ship a split second later.

What I really love is that, unlike conventional pop-up cards or pop-up books, the supports are designed as physical features of the model. I don’t know if that is how kirigami works, or if that is Marc’s talent showing through.

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