Star Wars snowflakes may be an impressive way to celebrate the holidays, but if you like your seasonal decor more fantasy than science fiction, graphic designer Krystal Higgins has you covered: She's designed eight (relatively) easy-to-make paper snowflakes based on the sigils of the major houses in Game of Thrones.
Higgins is a big Game of Thrones fan, but that's not the only reason she zeroed in on the series for her snowflakes. "The sigil characters inspired me to get creative about how I could abstract animal shapes into a pattern, while still keeping them recognizable," Higgins told WIRED. "The antlers on the stags, for example, were incredibly tricky, but also ended up looking incredibly cool as part of a whole snowflake. I wanted to create something that would look interesting to folks who don't watch the show or read the books."
Snowflakes are a bit outside of Higgins's usual bailiwick -- these are the first she remembers making since middle school -- but she embraced them this year as a festive project that would be inclusive for religious and secular friends alike. Will there be more to come? Probably, says Higgins: "I may continue with animal themes or even dive into some complex patterns from the depths of my imagination. I'm also a Doctor Who fan, so perhaps Tardis-inspired snowflakes are in my future!"
For aspiring snowflake designers, she offers the following advice: "Sketch, prototype, and sketch again. I sketched several versions of each snowflake before drawing the final designs in Adobe Illustrator." Higgins also took steps to make sure the patterns would be all-ages-friendly: choosing to stick with octagonal snowflakes instead of the scientifically accurate but harder-to-fold hexagons, and testing each pattern to make sure it could be cut out with standard scissors.
Download patterns for snowflakes for the sigils of house Targaryen, Stark, Lannister, Baratheon, Greyjoy, and Tully, Arryn, and Martell from her website.
And since we couldn't resist trying one ourselves, here's a House Targaryen snowflake by WIRED's own Angela Watercutter:
