Himmeli, a Geometric Heavenly Craft!

This is a popular Christmas craft in Finland, and it has been made in various nearby countries as well for hundreds of years. It’s name is believed to come from the German word for heaven: Himmel.

It was originally made from straw and hung over the kitchen tables to procure a good harvest. The more intricate and complex the better the harvest.

Design wise a lot of the Himmelis seem to be based in the octahedron (made from 8 equilateral triangles, or diamond shaped polyhedra. They have become a modern minimalist decoration object sometimes used as a air plant holder. These are made of brass.

I decided to create one based of my favorite regular solid (or polyhedra) the dodecahedron (12 pentagons). My original intention was to create a star, but you will see what I ended up with! I used paper straws, string and wire to make them.

Here is a step by step instruction photo display of how to make a typical diamond or octahedron shaped Himmeli:

You will need:

paper straws

string or yarn

thin wire (one you can bend easily with your hands)

scissors

wire cutter

ruler

pencil

Steps:

Figure out what design you’d like to make. Depending on your design measure the straws. For example to mame the most common Himmeli, an octahedron, you will need 9 straws of the same size.

My final design is something like a dodecahedron star amusement park ride! Here it is:

Here is a video with the process:

And these are some more images:

Making Himmelis was a LOT of fun! This was my spinning Himmeli! A dizzing heaven!