
"Water crystals are six-sided. Although making paper snowflakes should not be about slavishly recreating ice crystals as seen under a microscope, hexagonal symmetry (60⁰ radial symmetry) allows for both greater robustness and greater intricacy than the 4-sided (bisymmetric) snowflakes we all learned to make in elementary school. And, honestly, the 4- and 8-sided ones don't look very "snowflakey."
When teaching my high school art students how to make six-sided snowflakes, I started referring to them as "legit" snowflakes to distinguish them from the elementary-school variety.
When teaching my high school art students how to make six-sided snowflakes, I started referring to them as "legit" snowflakes to distinguish them from the elementary-school variety.