A perfect hexagon is surprisingly hard to fold well, mostly because the shape punishes sloppy creases: get one of the six folds slightly off and the whole thing twists. The good news is nothing here is complicated, there are just a lot of repeats, and steps 11 and 12 are the ones worth slowing down for. Once yours sits flat with six crisp sides, try folding several in complementary colours and arranging them into a honeycomb panel — it looks far more difficult than it is.

Making a neat paper hexagon takes nothing more than one sheet, a pair of scissors and twenty-two short steps. Follow along and you will end up with a crisp six-sided shape.

STEP 1. Fold the sheet in half along the dotted line and crease it.

STEP 2. Fold it in half again along the dotted line.

STEP 3. Crease only along the dotted line, bringing the right-hand corner to the middle of the bottom edge.

STEP 4. Line the left-hand corner up with that crease and crease it too.

STEP 5. Starting from the middle of the bottom edge, fold at the two points where the creases cross.

STEP 6. Turn the piece over.

STEP 7. Fold the edge over so the two edges line up.

STEP 8. Fold it back and crease it.

STEP 9. Cut along the line that joins corner to corner, using scissors.

STEP 10. Open the paper out again with the white side facing up.

STEP 11. Crease the paper by bringing one edge in to the center crease.

STEP 12. Make the same crease in the remaining five places.

STEP 13. Fold the paper along those creases.

STEP 14. Fold along the creases so that the corners meet.

STEP 15. Fold the next corner in the same way.

STEP 16. And the next one, again in the same way.

STEP 17. Fold the last two places in the same way.

STEP 18. Pull out the inner corner.

STEP 19. Fold it over to the other side along the dotted line.

STEP 20. Crease along the dotted line.

STEP 21. Fold along the creases to open the corner out and flatten it down.

STEP 22. Do the same on the remaining five corners, and the hexagon is finished.