8 Pointed Container

 
This 8 pointed container is one of the hardest boxes available in this web site. It’s not technically difficult, but it does have many steps and you need to be persistent to accomplish the model.
If you use a sheet of paper that is 6″ square, the final container will be about 3″ in diameter and about 1.5″ high. I recommend that you use the largest sheet of paper you have; 8 inches square or larger is good. The smaller the paper, the harder it will be to fold the box because there are multiple layers of paper (thick) towards the end of the folding sequence.

Start with a square sheet of paper with the colored-side facing up. This paper was cut from a roll of wrapping paper.

Fold the paper along the diagonals in both directions; unfold. This gives you a “X” shaped crease.

Turn the paper over.
Fold the paper in half (left to right).
Unfold.

Fold the paper in half (top to bottom).

Gently push the top-left and top-right corners of the paper towards one another.

As you do this, the top layer will lift up. Observe the movement of the red dot.

A little more…

Swivel the flap of paper pointing towards you to the right. There should be a similar flap of paper behind the model: swivel this flap towards the left.

This shape is called a Preliminary Base and you see it a lot in origami.
Next we will do a Squash Fold: start by lifting the top-right flap.

Pry open the two layers of paper and…

squash down. Align the crease on the top layer of paper with the edges of lower layers of paper so you can squash evenly.

It should look like this when you are done. Turn the model over and repeat.

Lift the right flap up.

Peel open the two layers,…

and press down flat.

Like turning the pages of a book, swivel one flap of paper from right to left. Do the same behind: swivel one flap from left to right.

Repeat the squash fold as in steps 6 above. Start by lifting the right flap.

Pry open the layers and squash down.

Turn the model over and repeat the squash fold on the back side as in step 7.

Lift.

Squash.

Like turning pages of a book, turn one flap from right to left. Do the same on the back side: turn one flap of paper from left to right.

Imagine that this is an upside down ice cream cone. Our goal is to fold the “ice cream” part under the “cone” part of the model. First, valley fold the “ice cream” part as shown.

Next, tuck the trianglular flap of paper under. You will need to change the valley fold to a mountain fold. This is shown in the next 3 images.

Lift the top layer of paper.

Fold the triangular flap down.

Tuck it under the “cone part”.

This is how it looks like when done. Turn the model over and repeat on the other side.

Fold the paper up as shown.

Tuck the flap under.

You will need to do this two more times. Do the “turn page” move.

Repeat two more times (front and back).

When done, it will look like this. You can also do steps 12 to 18 with this alternative method.

Let’s move on: fold the bottom-left and bottom-right corners of the model towards the central midline.

Unfold

This part is a bit tricky and you will need to unfold the model a little to perform the task. The goal is to fold these small triangles in and under the model. This is shown in the next 3 images.

Lift the top layer of paper.

Using the creases made in step 20, fold the corner so it pops inwards. The valley fold will change to a mountain fold.

If you had x-ray vision, you would see that the small triangle is now underneath (dotted red line) the top layer of paper.

Repeat on the left side.

This is how it looks like when both sides are done. Turn the model over and repeat.

Valley fold the two corners in.

Unfold.

Tuck triangles in between the layers.

Repeat this two more times for the other two flaps.

This is how the model looks like so far. Again, there is an alternate way of doing these steps of the 8 pointed container.

If you rotate the model and look at the open end, you will see that there is a total of 8 flaps: 4 flaps on each side. This is how you get the octagonal shape of the 8 pointed container.

Let’s keep going: fold the bottom section up as shown. Do this on the back side too.

Repeat this fold on the other six sides. Access the other layers by sequentially turning the flaps like you would turn the pages of a book.

This is how the model looks after you’ve done step 28 a total of 8 times.

Almost done: fold the model in half (join the red dots) and unfold. This helps define which part of the model is the base of the container and which parts are the side-walls.

Rotate the model so you are looking at the open end.

Flare open the 8 flaps. Arrange and adjust the flaps until you get an evenly spaced star shape.

Insert your finger and push the inside of the model until the model opens up into a box.