Origami Umbrella Project

How to Make an Umbrella Out of Gum Wrappers

By Tom Hall

Shield yourself from the elements with gum wrappers. It will be a little small, so you may not want to depend on this unless you're less than six inches tall!

I know from the title you probably thought there'd be a helmet that protects you from Martian death rays. That is another project that you'll just have to wait to see. That's an advanced topic reserved for those without alien implants. For now, you can just use some Reynold's wrap like I do and hope they don't abduct us again and plant little chips in our brains that make us create weird things and write instructions for them. But I digress...

I think this is a nice miniature umbrella you could possibly use for a decoration of some type. It could be suitable for a dollhouse. Let's get started on this project.

Materials Needed:

• 13 gum wrappers (14 if you're superstitious) — 2 of them of a different color than the others (try your own color scheme — maybe pick your favorite team's colors). I got the green ones from Wrigley's 5 gum.
• Ruler

Project Instructions:

Step 1: Make 9 sticks.

You will need nine (9) sticks to complete this project. Eight (8) of them will be part of the finished Umbrella. The other one is just for use in shaping the other sticks.

Get busy —- you have nine (9) sticks to roll and you'll need four flat wrappers for the umbrella top. You'll want to use the best looking ones you can find for the top since a lot of the surface area will be visible on those wrappers. If any of the wrappers have little nicks or scratches, these are fine for the sticks.

Here's a link to play a video of making a stick: Stick Video on YouTube.

Step 2: Make the sections for the top.

Unfold each of four wrappers all the way out. Place them flat with the paper side facing up.

Fold each of them in half end-to-end bringing the smooth edges together, then unfold so they're flat again. This makes a crease in the exact center.

Fold each side bringing the serrated long edge to the middle of the wrapper. This will create a triangle of each piece. Make sure you make each one the same size. When you are done folding, you should be able to line them up together in a square.

Unfold the sides of each wrapper to that the side sticks straight up in the air. These vertical pieces will be the connections to each other forming the top of the umbrella.

Step 3: Connect the sections into two halves.

Make two half pieces for the top.
In this step you'll connect the four sections together to form two halves of the top of the umbrella. This is the tough part of the project.

Take two of the sections and bring them together at the point. Make sure they are of differing colors so you'll have alternating colors on the finished top.

Make sure the vertical sides line up with each other exactly. Keep them in line with each other as much as possible during the following process to ensure the umbrella has a symmetric appearance.

Roll the connection
Take a stick and place it at the top of the vertical sides where they meet. The stick needs to remain parallel to the fold at the bottom as you roll the combined sides around the stick. Roll the stick all the way down to the crease, keeping it as tight as possible. This can be frustrating because the vertical pieces slide around and slip when trying to get a tight roll. Keep after it and eventually you'll get the hang of it and have a good rolled connection between the sections. If you rip the paper or get everything bent out of shape like I did, don't be discouraged. They're just gum-wrappers that you were going to throw away anyway. You can always get fresh ones and try again!

Once you have the first pair connected properly, do the same for the second pair.

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