Folding Fantasy Volume 1

PETER BUCHAN-SYMONS
-i-
For my parents, Cynthia and David, for investing many hours in my origami
journey and for giving me Robert Lang's Origami Insects and Their Kin, the
book which started it all.
With special thanks to Sampreet Manna and Boice Wong for folding models
and providing much better photographs than I could have made. Also to Lee
Armstrong for permission to adapt his Dog for use in this book.
Many thanks also to Ken Forman, Lenora Giachetto, Antonio Lobos, Omer
Shalev, Brian Hofmann, André Luís, Júlíus Arnar Björnsson, Malvin Roix
Orense, Robin Glynn, Bodo Haag, Nguyễn Nam Sơn, Pere Olivella, Guillermo
García, and Mehdi Zarrad for their help with testing diagrams.
I'm once again incredibly grateful to my sister-in-law, Natasha Symons, for her
very thorough editing, and for pushing me to improve the quality of this book.
Also to Peter Whitehouse for lending his sought-after experience (and sense of
humour) with both editing text and testing models, and to Colin Webb for his
keen eye with proof-reading and general checks. A second mention too for my
mum, for noticing a few pesky typos in the draft version.
A final thank you to Marc Kirschenbaum for spotting some last minute errors
and for writing a stellar foreword.
-ii-
FOREWORD
Back as recently as 2021, I had the opportunity to sample Peter Buchan-Symons’ A Complete Origami
Nativity, which features thoughtfully designed yuletide pieces. Further research revealed that he has over
two decades of folding experience under his belt, and other intermediate level origami books. None of these
prepared me for this over-the-top collection of fantasy themed origami works. These are all advanced works
covering unusually creative subjects.
Buchan-Symons makes no apologies for the difficulty level of this collection, containing diagrams upwards of
nearly three-hundred steps. Folders with an appetite for tricky sequences will have the opportunity to put
their papers through some interesting contortions. It should be stated that the level of instruction clarity is
excellent – a monumental task considering the level of detail contained.
As with his previous tome, Buchan-Symons expounds on the development of each model, often devoting
pages of explanation on the design techniques utilized. This over the shoulder approach is fascinating, and
especially interesting as various design approaches are explored. You will get to see how disparate methods
like box pleating and circle packing are best exploited.
I always appreciate the thoughtful artistic details that some of the better origami artists come up with. Who
would have thought a snout would be an important detail, but the way Buchan-Symons executes the one in
his Alicorn it feels necessary. The way the deep eye sockets are formed in his Wolf are hauntingly effective.
Many of these pieces have a whimsical element, but then how could one not while rendering something like
a Dragon Dog? Some of the artistic fun is reserved for the folder. The Vampire provides a carefully prepped
canvas for you to flaunt your shaping skills. With the excellent work contained in these pages, here is hoping
that Volume Two of this series comes soon!
- Marc Kirschenbaum
-iii-
CONTENTS
IFFICULTY
NTRODUCTION Simple
ERMINOLOGY Low Intermediate
High Intermediate
YMBOLS
Complex
ANOEUVRES
Supercomplex
APER There are no simple or low intermediate
models in this book. These ratings are here
for consistency with other (easier) books.
OVE POTION
RAGON DOG
EHIND THE DESIGN
OCH NESS MONSTER
-iv-
AMPIRE
AT
EHIND THE DESIGN
OLF
LICORN
UROBORROMEAN RINGS
EHIND THE DESIGN
-v-
AIRY
HIMERA
EHIND THE DESIGN
OBLIN
ITTLE DRAGON
ICIOUS LITTLE DRAGON
EHIND THE DESIGN THER BOOKS BY THE AUTHOR
ONTRIBUTORS
-vi- EGAL INFORMATION

INTRODUCTION
For just a moment, put yourself in the shoes of an origami designer. Suppose you’re attempting to design an
origami cow. You've folded a satisfactory front end, but you don't have enough paper left for the hind legs.
Rather than starting again or adjusting the front section to free up more paper, you turn the leftover paper at
the rear into a fishtail. You call the model a 'mercow', and then declare it done. Now you've finished a model
which was easier to design – and probably much easier to fold – than the cow you originally intended to
make.
This is the great freedom of the fantasy genre. At first glance, the ability to choose the most convenient body
proportions, or even make up an entirely new creature, seems so freeing it feels like a cheat. And similarly,
labelling a model as 'Fantasy' allows the designer to shrug off any potential criticism that the model "doesn't
look right" (I hasten to mention that I find the origami community isn't ever this blunt and that critique is
generally much more constructive than that).
Yet designers never actually seem to use this critical impunity as an excuse to take shortcuts and make easy
models just because they can get away with it. On the contrary, origami designers do quite the opposite:
whereas real subjects often limit the imagination and result in relatively simple figures, the ability to add
more heads, wings, or limbs has led people to deliberately engineer some of the most complex origami
designs of all time. Designing fantasy origami therefore satisfies a creative itch which isn't fully scratched
with realistic origami subjects.
Thankfully, this mythological complexity doesn't deter the folding fanatics, which is good, because this
collection contains some of the most difficult origami you can fold from step-by-step diagrams, and is
intended for those with the necessary experience. In this context, models like the Bat and Loch Ness
Monster, which would typically be on the upper end of origami difficulty, are merely appetisers for the later
models, which have triple or more the number of steps. You have been warned.
I've also written a few extra pages entitled 'Behind the Design' for a few models which exemplify something
noteworthy in the design process. None of these sections give a complete picture of designing the model
from start to finish, nor any additional help on actually folding the models, but I hope these sections will be
of interest to those who are keen to understand origami design.
I've called this collection 'Volume 1', because I have every intention of making another book in this series.
But I make no promises, not least because this book isn't just my own creation, but a collaborative work. I
owe a great debt to everyone who has so generously given their time and effort to make this book a reality.
HOTOS VS DIAGRAMS
You may observe that some of the models photographed do not completely
match the diagrams. Such discrepancies are always limited to the shaping
stage of folding, meaning that the underlying base (i.e. the vast majority of
steps) is always identical. The diagrams show just one possible interpretation
of a model, which is no more valid than another interpretation.
Encouraging you to have personal creativity has much more value than giving
you an exact replica of something I've made. So add your own details with
confidence and take pride in making each model your own.
1
TERMINOLOGY
The first occurrence of an origami-specific term will be in bold and accompanied by the definition.
Note that while understanding the terminology is useful, the text is merely a supplement to the images and is
not enough to fold from alone. Use the images as the default method of reading the diagrams.
Raw corner – The actual corner of the paper. Raw edge – The actual edge of the paper.
Crease – A line that has

Intersection – A point where previously been folded but is
creases and/or edges meet. now flat. In a diagram, creases
terminate a short distance away
from a raw edge.
Corner – A point where the
paper forms an angle less
than 180°. Coloured side – The side of the
paper which is usually intended
to be seen in the final model.
Edge/folded edge – An
edge created by folding.
White side – The side of the
paper which is usually intended
Flap – A portion of paper that can independently swing about an axis. to be hidden in the final model.
Angle bisector – The term used to describe a line that halves an angle.
Base – The partially-folded stage of a model when all required flaps have been created, but there has been
no artistic shaping. A base is axial if there is a line which passes through all flaps, and all flaps hinge on lines
which are perpendicular to this line. Such a line is called the axis of the base. Creases which end up on the
axis after folding the base are axial creases.
Diagrams – The set of images (and accompanying text) used to convey a folding sequence.
Crease pattern (CP) – The folds used to create the base of a model. The crease pattern for each model is
shown before the diagrams begin.
IRCLES ON CPS
For axial bases, each flap of the
base is represented by a circle on
the crease pattern. Some bases
are partially axial and only have
some circles drawn.
These circles are at the core of

circle packing – see page 20.
2
SYMBOLS
Turn over – By default, the symbol means flip the Reference point – A small blue circle highlights an
paper over from left to right. important position.
Zoom in/out – A large blue circle with zoom lines Hidden/imaginary line – A relevant line that
shows more detail than can be normally seen for cannot be seen directly will either have an x-ray
one or more steps. view or will be dotted (or both).
Repeat – Repeat the numbered step(s) on the region(s) shown. Repeating one action on the reverse within
the current step is shown in the same way.
3 3
2
2. 3.
3. 4. 5.
Rotate – Turn the paper in the direction shown by Push arrow – Push Open/inflate – Open
the number of turns given. here/move this bit of up a part of the paper.
paper.
1/4
Right angle – This symbol shows two Divisions – Split the length into the proportions
perpendicular lines (you may need to imagine one shown. This normally means dividing into equal
of the lines being extended). sections, possibly with no folding sequence given.
3
MANOEUVRES
These are the named types of fold you will see in this book. Note that, where applicable in the text, the
hyphenated form of a manoeuvre is the verb and the non-hyphenated form is the noun.
Fold/valley fold – A dashed line shows where to make the fold, and
this line is called the fold-line. An arrow with a symmetric solid
black arrowhead shows the motion of the paper.
Mountain fold – A mountain fold is the opposite of a valley fold. It

involves folding some paper behind, and the fold-line is shown with
a dot-dot-dash pattern. A white hooked arrowhead shows the
motion of the paper.
Unfold – A symmetric white arrowhead shows an unfold. This will

often be combined with a valley fold in one arrow, and the text will
say "fold and unfold".
Reverse fold/inside reverse fold – An inside reverse fold is used

where two or more layers of paper meet at a line called a spine. The
spine is pushed in on itself and changes orientation from a mountain
to a valley. An arrow shows the direction of motion.
Outside reverse fold – An outside reverse fold is the opposite of an

inside reverse fold – the valley fold is on the front layer and the
mountain fold is on the back. An outside reverse fold wraps the
paper around itself so that the spine faces outwards.
Squash fold – A squash fold is used to open out and flatten a folded
edge symmetrically. This is like performing an inside reverse fold,
but leaving the spine open.
Swivel fold – An asymmetric squash fold is called a swivel fold.
Rabbit ear – A rabbit ear combines three valley folds and a

mountain fold at once. Usually this brings all three sides of a
known triangle to lie along one line.
4
Pleat – A valley fold and a mountain fold performed together is called a
pleat. Often this is done with a pair of parallel lines.
A diagram will usually have a symbol to show what is happening to

layers of paper that can't be seen directly.
Preliminary fold – One of the standard origami bases is called the

Preliminary Base, shown on the right above. The folds used in making
this base are replicated frequently enough that it has become a
manoeuvre in its own right to refer to a similar type of fold. A
Waterbomb Base uses the same combination of folds, but begins with
the square rotated an 1/8 of a turn, and is shown on the right below.
Mixed reverse fold – Sometimes a reverse fold will involve multiple

spines. Such a reverse fold will combine an inside reverse fold at one
spine and an outside reverse fold at another. By default, it should be
assumed that the mixed reverse fold doesn't lock any layers.
Crimp – A crimp is a combination of two reverse folds performed at the

same time. Where the reverse folds can be performed individually, the
text will often say "reverse-fold in and out" rather than directly
referring to a crimp.
Petal fold – A petal fold combines two swivel folds which are side by
side. Often the two swivel folds are mirror images of each other.
Double swivel fold – A double swivel fold combines

two swivel folds, one in front of the other. This is a bit
like an inside reverse fold, but involves rotating a
partially hidden edge.
Double rabbit ear – A double rabbit ear combines two rabbit ears.
Usually the rabbit ears are mirror images of each other with one on the
front and one on the back.
5
Spread-sink – A spread sink is like a squash fold (and is sometimes
called a spread squash or squash sink), but doesn't have any folds
terminating at the edge of the paper.
Open sink – The standard form of sink is the open sink

which is most easily performed by opening and flattening
the region to be sunk, pinching a mountain ridge along the
entire folded loop, then inverting the area within the loop.
Closed sink – A closed sink is like an open sink, except it

locks the layers of paper together. Hold all flaps together and
invert the point/edge at the top. The paper cannot be fully
opened and flattened, but instead, the paper will resemble a
cone during the sink.
Mixed sink – It is possible for a sink to be neither fully open nor fully
closed. If a model requires a mixed sink, then either a diagram or the
text will specify which flaps need to remain free or become locked.
Double sink – Successive sinks can be combined in one diagram (and

by default assume that these will be open sinks). Similarly, sometimes
three or more sinks can be combined in this way. The text will usually
say "sink in and out" rather than naming a double or triple sink etc. for
these general multi-sinks.
Unsink – Sometimes a point needs to be folded in a way that looks like

the undoing of a sink. These are some of the trickiest individual
manoeuvres, so be patient and be prepared to open up the paper
significantly to achieve the result.
Box stretch/Elias stretch – A box stretch straightens the edge

of pleats to sharpen two points on either side. The paper often
has to be opened out significantly. This manoeuvre is usually
performed in box-pleated or hex-pleated designs.
Collapse – A collapse is the catch-all term for a

combination of folds not covered by any other named
fold. Naturally, these are often the most difficult steps.
6
PAPER
What type of paper should I use?
Standard origami paper (kami) is coloured on one side and white on the other and is reasonably thin. This is
the cheapest and most readily available origami paper to use, but won't be appropriate for most models in
this book, because it has a tendency to tear and won't hold its shape.
For complex origami, expect your first attempt(s) to have some mistakes – I will refer to such a model as a
test model (this is often called a testfold elsewhere). You will only make a more polished version – called a
display model – when you are more familiar with the folding sequence.
For test models, the only paper requirement is that you can progress far enough to see all the steps and
prepare yourself for making a display model. I recommend using whatever paper means you can practice
most affordably (I often unfold other models and use the same sheet of paper for test models).
However, each model has specific paper attributes required to make the most effective display model. These
attributes might be any of the following:
● Duo – The paper has different colours on each side. This is for any model which has a colour change,
meaning it deliberately uses both sides of the paper so the final model uses two colours.
● Thin/ultra thin – Roughly speaking, the paper weight is less than 50gsm/30gsm respectively. This
is needed when there are lots of layers in some parts of the model.
● Shapeable – The paper will stay in place after folding. Sandwich paper – two layers of tissue paper
surrounding a sheet of foil – is particularly effective here.
● Wetfoldable – The paper can be dampened before being folded into shape and will then stay in
shape after it dries. This technique is an optional alternative to using shapeable paper.
● Textured – The paper is not entirely plain, useful for mimicking fur, scales, wood etc.
● Tearproof – The paper is strong enough that it won't rip at particularly high stress points.
You can either choose your paper based on the attributes above or use the recommended paper. One
particularly good choice, if you are willing to invest the time, is to prepare double tissue paper, which
satisfies most of the requirements above in one paper.
How do I make double tissue paper?

There are multiple similar methods people use to make double tissue paper. Below is the method I use, with
measurements suitable for making a 45cm/18'' sheet.
You will need:

● A large flat, non absorbent board, at least 55cm/22'' in width and length. A sheet of glass is a
common choice, but a standard 'self-healing' cutting board does the job perfectly well here. This
should be larger than the tissue paper you will need.
● Two sheets of large tissue paper at least 50cm/20'' in width and length.
● Methyl cellulose powder (MC).
● A spoon, or another mixing implement.
● A bottle with a lid.
● Water.
● A long cylinder.
● A wide paintbrush.
7
Method:
1. Stir around 30ml / ⅛ cup of methyl cellulose in about 250ml / 1 cup water.
2. Mix thoroughly and leave it to rest until you cannot see any clumps of powder
(stirring again if necessary). This usually takes at least 4 hours.
3. Spoon the mixture into the bottle and then add another 250ml / 1 cup water.
Put the lid on (tightly!) and shake the mixture.
4. Leave the bottle to rest until there are no visible air bubbles. This usually takes
at least 12 hours. After this, the mixture will be clear, and be noticeably more
viscous than water.
5. Clean the board and the paintbrush thoroughly to remove any dust or dirt that
you don't want in the paper.
6. Pour about 60ml / ¼ cup of the MC
solution on the board. Use the
paintbrush to spread the mixture evenly
across the board, covering an area
larger than the tissue paper you will be
using. Add more MC solution if
necessary.
7. Roll one sheet of tissue paper around
the cylinder, avoiding any wrinkles. This
will be the first sheet, and will be wetter
than the second sheet. This means the
colour is more likely to bleed out of this
sheet, so if you are using two different
colours, you should use the lighter
coloured sheet here.
8. Unroll the tissue paper onto the board
so that it doesn't have any wrinkles. Use
the paintbrush to brush any air bubbles
to the sides out from under the tissue
paper, so that it lies completely flat. Do
this carefully because the wet tissue will
tear easily – a wide paintbrush prevents
too much pressure in any one spot.
9. Roll the second sheet of tissue paper
around the cylinder, again avoiding any
wrinkles.
10. Unroll the second sheet of tissue paper
onto the board so that it overlaps with
the first sheet. There should be enough
liquid that there are no dry patches. If
there are dry patches, carefully brush a
small amount of the MC solution over
these regions. As before, use the
paintbrush to brush any air bubbles to
the sides out from under the tissue
paper, so that it lies completely flat.
11. Leave the paper to dry fully. This could
take more than 24 hours. It is important
not to peel off part of the paper while it
is wet, because the peeled region will
become stretched relative to the rest of
the paper even when it dries.
12. When the paper has dried, peel it
carefully off the board, and cut it to size
(see page 9).
8
What shape of paper do I need?
All models in this book start with a square sheet of paper. If you are preparing your own paper, you will need
to cut it to a square shape yourself. Here's one method you can use for preparing an exact square:
3. Using a sharp pencil and a ruler,

mark two points, one on each folded
edge, which are the same distance
1. Imagine roughly how the largest from the right angle. Ensure that the
2. Fold the edge onto itself.
possible square would fit on your line connecting the points doesn't
paper. Fold an approximate diagonal cross any of the original edges of the
for that square. paper (some of which are hidden).
4. Using a cutting tool, such as a craft 5. Unfold to get your square.

knife, carefully cut along this line.
Make sure the layers do not slip as
you cut the paper.
How big should my paper be?

Throughout this book, I'll refer to the width or dimensions of the paper to avoid confusion with papermaking
size. Each model in this book has a recommended width for the first time you fold a model, which is intended
to be the most comfortable width when the model is folded on its own.
On step 1 of each model is an image of the final model relative to the starting width of paper, which you
might want to use to create a to-scale scene with multiple models. This can put a significant constraint on the
starting paper width on some models (e.g. the Fairy and Love Potion), so be prepared for a significant
challenge if you wish to fold such a scene.
The paper dimensions mentioned in this book are all multiples of 5cm/2'', for the sake of convenience and
adhering to convention.
9
LOVE POTION
First time: 25cm/10''
Paper preferences:
• Duo
• Textured
• Thin
Recommended papers:
• Kami
• Foil-backed paper
Rear Heart
This is the simplest model in the book, and uses the familiar
Preliminary Base.
If folded precisely, there are visible gaps above the heart

and along the bottom edge. After folding the model once,
you may wish to fold the model again, but this time
deliberately adjusting the location of folds in steps 6 to 16 Stopper
so that these gaps less noticeable. and
neck
Front Heart
Start heart colour side up.
1. Fold and unfold the diagonals. 2. Fold and unfold four angle 3. Fold the raw corners in using the
bisectors, but only crease firmly at the intersections shown and unfold.
raw edges shown.
10
4. Fold and unfold the raw edges 5. Turn the paper over. 6. Fold the raw corners in using the
using the intersections shown. intersections shown and unfold.
7. Fold opposite raw edges together 8. Make a preliminary fold. 9. Swivel-fold the left edge using
and unfold. existing creases (see the next image).
9-10
10. Fold the edge down. 11. Repeat steps 9 and 10 on the right. 12. Make a preliminary fold.
11
9-12
13. Repeat steps 9 to 12 behind. 14. Fold angle bisectors and unfold. 15. Fold the raw corner down using
the reference shown.
16. Petal-fold using creases from step 17. Fold the corner up using the
14. references shown.
17-19
18. Fold the corner down using the 19. Unfold steps 17 and 18. 20. Repeat steps 17 to 19 on the left.
references shown.
21. Rabbit-ear the flap using creases 22. Outside-reverse-fold using creases 23. Fold the small flap to the left.
from step 17, swinging the excess from step 18.
paper to the right.
12
24. Spread-sink the flap 25. Untuck the paper from behind the 26. Fold one flap upwards.
symmetrically. folded edges and spread it as low as it
will go.
27. Fold and unfold. 28. Reverse-fold the corners using the
creases you just made. Each flap
should go between the coloured raw
edge and the white region behind it.
29. Fold the white corners to the 30. Mountain-fold the corners behind 31. Mountain-fold the edges to the
centre and unfold. using the creases you just made. centre.
14-31
32. Repeat steps 14 to 31 behind. 33. Fold the raw corners to the centre 34. Reverse-fold using the creases you
of the heart and unfold. just made.
13
35. Spread-sink the top corner to 36. Fold the edges underneath to 37. Mountain-fold the top behind.
make a square. narrow the neck of the bottle.
36
39
38. Repeat step 36 behind. 39. Optionally, you may wish to round
off several corners with mountain-
folds, reverse-folds and sinks to make
the model less angular. Repeat behind.
14
DRAGON DOG Adapted from Lee Armstrong's Dog
Paper preferences:
• Duo
• Textured
Recommended papers:
• Duo Thai
• Washi Deluxe
The first half of this model is Lee Armstrong's Dog, which he Ear Eye Nose
taught at the British Origami Society 2022 spring convention,
during which he indicated the potential for modifications.
This means Lee can take full credit for the very satisfying
pivot in steps 18 and 19.
Lee has kindly given permission for this adapted model to be Foreleg
published.
The extent to which this is a Dragon or a Dog is largely

influenced by your choice of paper. For the former, textured
paper that mimics scales can be effective, but this is usually
the same colour on both sides, whereas suitable duo paper
tends to be more fur-like.
Hind leg Tail

Start body colour side down.
1. Fold and unfold the diagonals. 2. Fold the central vertical line and 3. Fold the raw edges to the crease
unfold. you just made.
15
4. Fold the upper raw corners to the 5. Turn the paper over. 6. Fold the lower raw corners to the
centre and unfold. centre.
7. Turn the paper over. 8. Fold the edges into the centre. 9. Fold and unfold the opposite raw
edges of the white square together
through all layers.
10. Fold the corner up. 11. Fold the raw corner to the left using a fold-line which
connects the intersections shown, then unfold.
12. Fold along the folded edge 13. Swivel-fold using creases from 14. Fold the raw corner to the right
through one layer only, then unfold. steps 11 and 12. using a fold-line which connects the
intersections shown, then unfold.
16
11-15
15. Mountain-fold the raw corner 16. Repeat steps 11 to 15, flipping left 17. Mountain-fold the left half of the
underneath using the crease you just and right. paper behind the right half.
made.
1/4
18. Open both the pocket shown on 19. Flatten the paper using existing 20. Rotate the paper ¼ of a turn
the front, and the equivalent pocket creases. clockwise.
on the back, and pivot the thin flap to
the left about the circled intersection.
The paper won't lie flat until step 20.
22
21. Fold the two edges together, ensuring the fold 22. Fold an angle bisector and unfold. Repeat behind.
goes through the intersections shown, and unfold.
23. Fold a vertical line through the intersection 24. Outside-reverse-fold back and forth using
shown, then unfold. creases from steps 21 and 23. This should trap the
horizontal raw edges.
17
27
26
25
25. Swivel-fold so that the raw 26. Reverse-fold using existing 27. Fold an angle bisector. Repeat
corners lie on the white right angle. creases. Repeat behind. behind.
Repeat behind.
28 29 30
28. Pull out the raw edge. Repeat 29. Fold two angle bisectors, and 30. Petal-fold the raw edge down to
behind. unfold. Repeat behind. form a corner. Repeat behind.
31 32 33
31. Fold the corner back up. Repeat 32. Reverse-fold the corner inside. 33. Fold an angle bisector to the
behind. Repeat behind. hidden edge shown, but don't crease
all the way to the raw edge on the left.
The paper won't lie flat from now on.
Repeat behind.
36
35
34. Crimp the right section using the 35. Fold one flap to the left. Repeat 36. Fold the corner down using a fold-
creases shown, pivoting about the behind. line which connects the intersections
circled intersection. shown, then unfold. Repeat behind.
18
37 38 39
37. Mountain-fold the corner behind 38. Swivel-fold the raw corner to the 39. Swivel-fold the raw edge to the
using the crease you just made. left using an existing mountain fold, left. Repeat behind.
Repeat behind. and a new valley fold which connects
the circled points. Repeat behind.
40
40. Bring the flap shown to the front. 41. Outside-reverse-fold the tip. 42. Crimp the top right section,
Repeat behind. pivoting about the circled
intersection.
44 45
43. Closed-sink the corner. 44. Mountain-fold the tip underneath. 45. Valley-fold the corner underneath
Repeat behind. the third folded edge. Repeat behind.
46
46. Swivel-fold the white corners to 47. Crimp the tail using two outside
make eyes. Repeat behind. reverse folds.
48
48. Rabbit-ear the raw corners to

make spiky ears. Repeat behind.
19
DRAGON DOG
Design geometries
The design geometry of an origami model refers to the restrictions the designer makes on the creases of the
model's base. The most usual type of restriction is to include only certain angles for the creases.
Some common design geometries are:

● Pure box pleating: the angle between any two creases in the base is a multiple of 45°.
● 22.5° geometry: the angle between any two creases in the base is a multiple of 22.5°.
● Pure hex pleating: the angle between any two creases in the base is a multiple of 30°.
● Circle packing: no restrictions.
OTE
The term "circle packing" is a description of creases on a crease pattern and shouldn't be
confused with the circle method, which is the design process of arranging circles within a
square to determine where features of a subject should be. Often the circle method results
in a circle-packed design, but it's possible to obtain a more restrictive design geometry.
Head
Hair Fingers
Foreleg
Face
Wing
Hind leg
Cloak Tail
Two examples of different design geometries in this book: The Vampire on the left uses pure box
pleating, whereas the Alicorn on the right uses 22.5° geometry.
It is helpful to categorise a model by its most restrictive design geometry. So while 22.5° geometry
technically includes purely-box-pleated models, it's generally understood that we aren’t including purely-
box-pleated models when talking about 22.5° geometry.
A model can use multiple different design geometries in one design – see page 104 for more on this hybrid
approach.
Generalising design geometries

Pure box pleating and pure hex pleating are special design geometries because their defining angles, 45° and
30°, arise in squares and equilateral triangles respectively. These shapes tessellate to tile the plane, and form
a grid of lines. An entire grid can be folded onto the paper relatively quickly, providing a large number of
easily-locatable points. This convenience helps both the designer and folder immensely.
20
Possible lines with generalised box pleating and generalised hex pleating respectively.
We can use a grid to define angles of creases which are not permissible with pure box pleating or pure hex
pleating. This grid-based approach is called generalising and leads to two more design geometries:
● Generalised box pleating: there is an underlying square grid and every crease is at an angle of 45°
to lines on the grid, or connects two vertices of the grid.
● Generalised hex pleating: there is an underlying triangular grid and every crease is at an angle of
30° to lines on the grid or connects two vertices of the grid.
22.5° geometry
I am particularly partial towards 22.5° geometry. Indeed most of the models in this book fall in this category.
Some key advantages of this include:
● Crease locations can usually be found relatively easily.
● The large range of possible angles allows for both fairly sharp and stumpy flaps.
● The most advanced traditional bases use 22.5° geometry, so these can often be employed as a small,
familiar part of a larger design.
● The whole model is visually consistent, because only a limited number of angles are used.
I suppose it's only fair that I also mention some disadvantages too:
● For subjects with very thin flaps – insect legs, for example – 22.5° isn't a small enough angle to be
useful without further work.
● Small details are harder to fine-tune compared to the grid-based design geometries.
● Structures in the middle of the paper can be tricky to collapse… and to diagram!
● You can't generalise 22.5° geometry to align creases to an underlying grid, like you can with box
pleating or hex pleating. This is because the basic shape associated with 22.5° geometry is an
octagon, and octagons do not tessellate.
These points mean 22.5° geometry is the usual design choice for many simple or intermediate level
mammals, such as Lee Armstrong's Dog.
Modifying an existing design

Almost all origami designers begin their design journey by modifying someone else's model. So let's take a
look at Lee's Dog to see what we can learn and then see how we can modify it.
The hind legs are examples of the "stumpy", stylised legs found in some simpler 22.5° geometry models. I'm
rather fond of the flat base of these legs which we might say is formed naturally – without simply folding the
tip of a longer point behind. I should stress this isn't just an idealistic preference: long points use up more
paper than short points, so in general it's inefficient to form a long flap only to subsequently fold some of it
away and make it into a shorter flap. The wasted area isn't the small amount of paper in the folded tip, but
actually a large amount of paper at the perimeter of the flap that isn't needed if the original flap is shorter to
begin with.
Step 20 of the Dragon Dog. The flat base on each of the hind legs occurs naturally.
21
This Dog makes for a good starting point, and is just the sort of inspiration that many designers use. To
capitalise on the visual consistency of 22.5° geometry, it would be nice to make forelegs which match the
shape of the hind legs. This requires some more complex manoeuvres than the original model uses, so here
is where we take the creative reins.
It is possible to make matching forelegs with natural flat bases. One option is to use the crease pattern
shown on the left below. However, this breaks up some existing lines, and it takes several extra steps to find
explicit references for the new creases and then fold them. Given that the model isn't too tricky, it seems
counterintuitive to overcomplicate it. Instead let's use the more accessible crease pattern on the right, even
though it does simply fold the corners behind (see step 44 of the Dragon Dog on page 19).
Left: One possible crease pattern for creating forelegs with a natural flat base.
Right: A simpler crease pattern.
At this point, we should probably consider what subject we're making! There are some loose corners above
the hind legs which are in about the right place for a pair of small, stylised wings. The raw corners on the
head can easily be used to make horns, and there is plenty of paper in the tail, so some sort of dragon seems
workable.
Ear Eye Nose
Foreleg
Hind leg Tail
The final crease pattern and folded model of the Dragon Dog.
If you experiment with shaping this base, you might find, as I did, that the inner dog seems to linger (though
that could well be my lack of imagination). So in honour of Lee's original model, we'll call this a Dragon Dog –
possibly the first origami one of its kind. All that remains is to finalise the details. One unexpected blessing
from the original base is that the features which are particularly dragonish – wings, tail, horns – all have an
easy colour change if desired. When folding this model, use duo paper to reveal this quirk.
22
LOCH NESS MONSTER
Paper preferences: Recommended papers:
• Duo • Double tissue
• Shapeable • Foil-backed paper
• Thin
Head
Although the Loch Ness Monster has a smaller number of steps

than most models in this book, it demands a sort of precision not
found elsewhere: take great care to be as precise as you can when
folding steps 45 to 50!
You have the option of making a more elegant, slender Nessie in a

couple of ways: either reduce the width of the body segments or Body Body
make the curved segments smoother by crimping in more places, segment segment
but at a shallower angle each time.
Tail
Begin water colour side up.
1. Fold and unfold the diagonals. 2. Turn the paper over. 3. Fold opposite raw edges together
and unfold.
23
4. Fold the raw edges to the diagonals, 5. Make a preliminary fold. 6. Reverse-fold using existing creases.
only marking firmly in the sections
shown.
7. Fold the flap up and 8. Fold an angle bisector 9. Fold to the intersection 10. Fold to the intersection
unfold. though all layers and unfold. shown and unfold. shown and unfold.
11. Fold the flap up. 12. Fold the flap down 13. Fold the flap using the 14. Unfold step 13.
using the second horizontal references shown.
crease.
24
13-14
15. Repeat steps 13 and 14 16. Rabbit-ear the corner 17. Fold and unfold at an angle which is parallel to the
symmetrically on the left. using the creases made in upper slanted folded edge.
steps 13 and 15.
18. Unfold back to step 12. 19. Reverse-fold the flap 20. Rabbit-ear the corner 21. Open-sink using the
inside using the lower using the same creases as creases made in step 17.
horizontal crease. step 16 so that it sticks out.
9-21
22. Fold the flap down. 23. Turn the paper over. 24. Fold the flap up and 25. Repeat steps 9 to 21 as
unfold. shown (i.e. not a reflection).
25
26. Fold the right flap up. 27. Fold the bottom flap to the top of 28. Make a valley fold which connects
the white region and unfold. the intersections shown.
29. Note the top edge of the 30. Fold the flap in half 31. Unfold back to step 27. 32. Fully-mixed-reverse-
flap is not quite horizontal. again and unfold. fold the flap. You will need
Fold the flap in half using a to partially unfold the left
fold-line parallel to the top half of the paper to achieve
edge of the flap. this.
27-34
1/2
33. Open-sink the middle 34. Wrap the coloured edge 35. Rotate the paper ½ a 36. Repeat steps 27 to 34.
corner in and out using which is underneath the turn.
existing creases. flap shown to the front.
Incorporate the outer layers
by treating them as though
they are stuck to the middle
layers as you do this.
26
1/4
37. Rotate the paper ¼ of a 38. Fold the white flaps so that they are 39. Fold the corner down
turn. perpendicular to the blue region. The paper will using the references shown.
remain three-dimensional from now on.
40. Squash-fold the flap. 41. Fold the tip to the right. 42. Pull out the raw edges. 43. Mountain-fold the top
half behind.
44. Fold the top edge to the blue raw

edge and unfold.
27
45. Fold and unfold one quarter and 46. Fold and unfold the central 47. Crimp the flap using the lowest
three quarters of the way along the section into thirds. valley fold, so that the upper portion
length of the flap. of the flap rotates by 1/8 of a turn.
48. Crimp the flap using the lowest 49. Crimp the flap using the valley 50. Crimp the flap using the final
valley fold, so that the upper portion fold shown, so that the right portion of valley fold, so that the end of the flap
of the flap becomes horizontal. the flap rotates by 1/8 of a turn. touches the blue raw edge. You will
need to wrap the layers
asymmetrically around the inside
spine for this final crimp.
39-51
51
51. Tuck the white flap under the blue 52. Repeat steps 39 to 51 on the left-
raw edge. Repeat behind. hand flap. If you wish you can rotate
the paper over first, so that you don't
need to do this as a mirror image.
28
53. Fold and unfold the left-most flap 54. Crimp the flap using the lowest
into thirds. crease.
55. Crimp the flap using the lowest 56. Fold and unfold the corner. The
crease. fold-line should be slightly above
halfway down the flap's length.
57. Crimp the flap using the valley 58. Reverse-fold the tip in and out to
fold you just made. make a small mouth.
59. Optionally, you may wish to fold the blue

corners underneath to make the water a square.
29
BAT
Paper requirements:
• Not duo
• Thin
Recommended paper:
• Tissue Foil
Ear
Nose
Both sides of the paper end up visible in the Claw

final form of the Bat, so it's actually better to
use paper which is the same colour on both
sides here.
Wing
As a challenge, you may like to fold a scene with
a Bat and a Vampire. If you use a 40cm/16''
sheet for the Vampire, use a 10cm/4'' square
for the Bat.
Leg
Tail
1. Fold and unfold the diagonals. 2. Fold and unfold angle bisectors. 3. Fold the raw corner to the
intersections shown and unfold.
30
4. Fold the raw corner to the 5. Fold angle bisectors and unfold. 6. Fold the raw corner over.
7. Fold the top edge to the centre and 8. Fold angle bisectors and unfold. 9. Turn the paper over.
unfold.
10. Fold and unfold using the 11. Fold and unfold using the 12. Collapse on existing creases to
intersections shown. intersections shown. bring the circled points together. The
paper won't lie flat until step 14.
13. Bring the circled corners together 14. Swivel-fold using existing creases. 15. Fold the raw edge over. The paper
and flatten the paper. won't lie flat until step 19.
31
16. Fold and unfold. 17. Open-sink. 18. Fold the raw edge back over.
15-18
19. Repeat steps 15 to 18 on the right. 20. Fold through the intersection 21. Fold the corner to the intersection
shown and unfold. shown and unfold.
22. Mixed-sink in and out. The near 23. Fold the corner upwards.
layers are open, and the far layers are
closed.
24. Squash-fold the flap. 25. Fold the flap to the left. 26. Unfold steps 23 to 25.
32
23-27
27. Sink the flap so that the circled 28. Repeat steps 23 to 27 on the right. 29. Petal-fold the corner up.
point at the bottom isn't locked to the
layers below it.
30. Fold the corner back down. 31. Petal-fold the edge down. 32. Rabbit-ear the corner to the right.
33. Fold the corner up. 34. Reverse-fold the corners so that 35. Swivel-fold the flaps on each side,
the raw edge becomes vertical. opening between the first and second
layers.
36. Turn the paper over. 37. Reverse-fold the raw edges in,
creating new mountain folds.
33
38. Fold the bottom corner up and 39. Fold and unfold angle bisectors. 40. Fold the raw corner down.
unfold.
41. Fold the corners over. 42. Fold and unfold through the near 43. Swivel-fold so that the top edges
layers only. become horizontal, creating new fold-
lines on the far layers.
44. Fold the corners down. 45. Turn the paper over.
46. Closed-sink. 47. Mountain-fold.
48. Crimp the corners. 49. Reverse-fold.
34
50. Reverse-fold. 51. Reverse-fold.
52. Fold and unfold. 53. Open-sink using creases made in

steps 38 and 52.
54. There are no references from this 55. Reverse-fold.

step onwards. Crimp the corners in.
56. Crimp the wings. 57. Shape the claws, face, and ears.
35
VAMPIRE Folded and photographed by Sampreet Manna
Paper preferences:
• Duo
• Shapeable
• Ultra thin
Recommended paper:
• Double tissue
Hair Fingers
Face
This model contains some of the fiddliest folding in this book. It may be
Cloak
helpful to try folding steps 25 to 40, where the flaps for the face are
made, on a test piece of paper first. You can use the crease pattern at
the bottom of page 51 for this purpose.
Start skin colour side up.
1. Fold and unfold, marking firmly 2. Fold and unfold the raw edges to 3. Fold and unfold the raw edges to
only at the raw edge shown. the crease, marking firmly only where the creases you just made, marking
shown. firmly only where shown.
36
4. Fold and unfold the top raw edge to 5. Fold and unfold the bottom raw 6. Fold and unfold the bottom raw
the creases you just made. edge to the creases indicated, folding edge to the crease you just made and
firmly only where shown. unfold.
7. Fold and unfold the central vertical 8. Fold and unfold the raw edges to 9. Fold and unfold the raw edges to
line, folding firmly only at the raw the intersections you just made, the intersections you just made,
edge shown. folding firmly only where shown. folding firmly only where shown.
10. Fold and unfold the right raw edge 11. Fold and unfold the left raw edge 12. Fold and unfold a diagonal line
to the creases you just made, folding to the creases indicated, only folding using the reference point shown.
firmly only where shown. firmly where shown.
37
13. Fold and unfold a diagonal line 14. Turn the paper over. 15. Fold and unfold three diagonal
using the reference point shown. lines using the references shown.
16. Fold and unfold a diagonal line 17. Fold and unfold three diagonal 18. Fold and unfold five vertical lines.
using the reference shown. lines using the references shown. You may like to pleat the two creases
surrounding each fold-line together to
achieve this.
19. Fold and unfold the raw edge to 20. Fold and unfold six horizontal 21. Fold a raw corner over a small
the creases shown and unfold. lines. amount using the references shown.
38
22. Pleat two pairs of creases 23. Bring the mountain-folds together, 24. Pleat using one pair of creases on
together. and fold the top section over so that it the left and right and push the valley
becomes perpendicular to the bottom fold down as shown.
section. The paper won't lie flat until
step 29.
25. Pleat the next pair of creases. 26. Reverse-fold the corners of the 27. Pleat the next pair of creases in
middle ridge. the same way as steps 24 and 25.
28. Squash-fold the flap down. 29. Fold the connected layers to the 30. Unsink the point from under the
left, to reveal the corner which was hood. You will need to unfold a
reverse folded in step 26. significant portion of the paper to
achieve this.
39
31. Fold the edges in, creating a small 32. Unfold the flaps, but keep the 33. Spread-sink the left edge. You will
gusset at each top corner. gussets in place. need a small closed sink at the circled
corner and the paper will not lie flat
until step 37.
34. Fold an angle bisector by bringing 35. Open-sink to narrow the corner. 36. Fold one edge to the left, and bring
the vertical edge to the dotted line the top edge down.
shown, then unfold.
33-36
37. Repeat steps 33 to 36 on the right. 38. Fold the flap up. 39. Fold the layers to the right.
29-39
40. Repeat steps 29 to 39 on the left. 41. Lift the flap up perpendicular to the rest of the paper.
40
42. Begin to box-stretch using the 43. Continue to box-stretch. 44. Continue to box-stretch.
creases shown.
45. Finish the stretch and flatten the 46. Reverse-fold the raw edge using 47. Reverse-fold the raw edge in and
paper. existing creases. out.
48. Fold the flap upwards and box- 49. Fold the corner upwards using an
stretch the pleats. Note the horizontal existing crease.
valley-fold is not the top-most crease.
50. Stretch the nearest pleat flat and

pull the remaining pleats upwards.
41
51. Pull the flap upwards. You will 52. Swivel-fold the raw edge to the
need to make a small box-stretch in right. Use the references shown as the
the third nearest folded edge on the end points for the diagonal fold-lines.
right.
53. Fold diagonally using an existing 54. Turn the paper over.
crease.
55. Reverse-fold the edge. 56. Fold and unfold an

angle bisector.
58 58 58 59 59 59 60 60
57. Open-sink using the 58. Fold and unfold an 59. Fold and unfold angle 60. Reverse-fold in and out.
creases you just made. angle bisector. Repeat in bisectors. Repeat in the Repeat in the nearest two
the three layers three layers underneath. layers underneath.
underneath.
42
61. Pleat the raw edge using existing creases. You will need to partially
unfold the paper and make a small box-stretch at the top of the paper to
achieve this.
62. Closed-sink the corner using

existing creases.
63. Fold the corners over, leaving a 64. Fold the flap down.
slight gap in the centre.
65. Open-sink the central point. 66. Fold the connected set of flaps 67. Rabbit-ear the edge, swinging the
down. excess paper to the right.
43
68. Bring the hidden valley fold up to 69. Reverse-fold two near corners. 70. Fold the nearest flap down.
meet the mountain fold in front of it.
71. Fold the last flap down. 72. Shape the layer you just folded 73. Pull the second edge down on
down to form eyebrows. each side as shown and open the
layers to form eyes.
74. Squash-fold the nose slightly. 75. Fold firmly halfway between the 76. Fold and unfold diagonal lines
second and third horizontal crease through the circled intersection.
from the top then unfold.
77. Rabbit-ear through all layers, 78. Pull one layer out to the right. 79. Unwrap the raw edge from the
using the creases shown. layer you just moved.
44
81
81
81
81
80. Fold the layer behind. 81. Unsink the fifth edge to the right. 82. Repeat step 81 on the other four
edges.
83. Unwrap the raw edge. The paper 84. Wrap the raw edge underneath. 85. Mountain-fold the edge behind.
won't lie flat until step 85.
86. Fold two layers to the left. 87. Reverse-fold the corner. 88. Fold and unfold between the
circled intersections.
89. Reverse-fold, pushing the raw 90. Reverse-fold the white edge so 91. Reverse-fold the edge.
edge underneath as far as it will go. that it sticks out at the left.
45
92. Fold one layer to the left, while 93. Mountain-fold the corner 94. Mountain-fold the white corner
bring the slanted edge upwards. underneath. out to the side.
87-93
95. Fold one layer to the left. 96. Repeat steps 87 to 93 on the right. 97. Mountain-fold the raw corner out
from behind to match the corner on
the left.
98. Curl the top behind to form the 99. Curl the right edge so that it is
top of the head. This will bring the directly in front of the centre crease.
hairline up a little.
46
100. Curl the left side so that the edge
101. Swivel-fold the point shown
tucks into the notch as shown. This
diagonally and flatten the resultant
may come unfolded in future steps; if
white rectangle.
so, simply retuck it later.
102. Unwrap the raw edge. 103. Fold the corner over. 104. Mountain-fold the corner behind.
105. Rabbit-ear the triangle, bringing 106. Treating the model as a cylinder,
the corner back down. fold the bottom edge inside using the
lowest crease.
47
107. Fold the edge under again, using 108. Pleat the cloak to resemble a bat 109. Narrow the neck with valley
the next crease. This should lock the wing. folds.
model in place.
110. Fold the top of the cloak round to 111. Curl the hand to suggest the
suggest the arms, and shape the cloak. Vampire is holding the cloak up.
48
VAMPIRE
How much detail should a design include?
Some origami designers love to include as many details as possible. I'm sure this is partly motivated by the
joy of losing oneself in hours of intricate folding. But the cynical side of me thinks it's a matter of origami
pride – a constant contest to prove that you have the very best technical design skill.
Of course there's much more to complex origami design than simply being able to cram more details into a
model, but much of this is hidden under the surface. Usually the true cleverness of a design isn't visible from
merely looking at a photo of the finished model.
Other designers are minimalists, with the view that less is more. One problem with this approach is that
there are certain subjects which are then objectively off-limits: surely we can't make a three-headed dog, a
seven-headed serpent, or a nine-headed bird without at least three, seven, or nine individual flaps
respectively?
Or maybe we can, and we need to be a little more creative with how we approach the subject. Sometimes a
wider perspective allows for a model such as 'Seven-headed serpent viewed from the side'.
'Seven-headed serpent viewed from the side' using only three folds. Does this really count?
I'm certainly not going to be prescriptive about how other people design, but here I will outline how I
approach interpreting a subject, using my Vampire to explain my process.
What difficulty level are we aiming for?

The very first thing I do is choose roughly how complex I want the model to be. Here we'll have to consider
the subject and use prior folding experience to estimate what difficulty level the model is likely to need. My
natural tendency is to keep adding more and more features, so setting a mental complexity limit is useful as
a guide, and helps prevent the model from becoming bloated. Later on, I might need to reassess my
expectations of what is a reasonable folding difficulty, or perhaps I might deem a few extra additions worth
the effort.
Most humanoids lie in the high-intermediate to complex difficulty range. Since this is an origami book aimed
at experienced folders, for the Vampire we'll aim for a complex model which should be foldable in about two
or three hours. This is a nice difficulty to aim for – less than this and we might need to restrict some features
and compromise the final model, but we also won't have to go overboard with time-consuming details.
49
What are the essential features?
Having set a difficulty level, I next note the essential, recognisable features of the subject. For a vampire, the
most distinctive feature is a pair of fangs – without these, the Vampire would be very hard to distinguish
from a regular (if creepy-looking) human. And with fangs ought to come some sort of mouth.
Indeed, many origami designs representing vampires are simply two sharp points in a disembodied mouth.
However, we want a complex model, so we'll make our list of essential features a bit longer. Let's include a
whole head (so the fangs aren't floating), and we'll attach that to a body of some kind (so the head isn't
floating). To forgo adding limbs to this list, we can have a cloak. At this stage we'll get away without any
more than a suggestion of arms and legs. Vampires are typically depicted as pale with dark clothing, so let's
make the skin using the white side of the paper and the cloak with the coloured side.
So our essential features are fangs, a head, and a cloaked body with a colour change. We might be tempted to
stop there, but I don't like to wrap up my list of essential features without considering the scale. Although
the face and particularly the body will be relatively large compared to the entire final model, the fangs will
need to be small and precisely located to look remotely realistic. This could cause a problem: if we have very
intricate points in one area, but the rest of the model is just broad expanses, we'll have a visual mismatch. So
we'll add eyes and a nose to this essential features list. These won’t add too much difficulty since there are
already going to be small flaps on the face to make fangs. We could specify a colour change for the eyes here
too… now you might recall me saying barely a page ago that I can be tempted to include too much. I'd better
stop there!
Different interpretations of a Vampire: Features of ever decreasing importance are added. Where
would you stop?
What are the non-essential features?

When we design an origami model we'll often have some extra paper which we may as well use for
something, so let's specify what sorts of things we might also want, in a rough order of preference:
● Arms
● Legs (or just exposed feet beneath the cloak)
● Fingers
● Hair with colour change
● Ears
● More details on the clothing (for example a hood or a bat emblem)
● A held item (such as a skull, perhaps with a colour change)
● A colour change for the eyes
The list could go on. Remember though, we aren't going to deliberately design these into the model, so there
isn't much point contemplating this too much. Also, I personally get diminishing returns on satisfaction
when folding endless features of a supercomplex model.
50
Arranging the features on the square
For standing humanoid figures, I like to make the model three-dimensional and viewable from the back as
well as the front – in other words, I don't like a gaping hole at the back of the paper if I can help it. This can
make clothing very tiresome to design, but we're in luck here. Since we only need a body-length cloak,
there's an easy solution: wrap one side of the paper around to the other side to make a cylinder.
This will force the head to come from paper at the top of the square. For now, let's put it in the centre.
Head
Left: Roll the paper to make a simple cylindrical cloak shape.

Right: The head will therefore be somewhere at the top of the square.
The head needs a number of small details. Rather than making lots of very small flaps perfectly suited for
each facial feature, let's just use a very simple stick figure to make a regular structure of suitable flaps. We
might worry about the efficiency of this approach, but for very small flaps, the actual wasted paper on the
whole model is negligible, so it's worth prioritising ease of folding (not least because small points are already
going to be very tricky to fold). Box pleating excels when creating this sort of detail, so for the sake of ease,
let’s commit to making a box-pleated model.
Different flaps on the face will need to be different widths. For example, the fangs should be thin and pointy,
but the cheeks will need to span the whole width of the face. This is one of the major shortcomings of the
basic stick figure approach. We'll bear this in mind in creating a simple assortment of flaps for the facial
features. One such arrangement is shown below:
Top of Head*
Eyes
Eyes* Nose and cheeks*
Nose and cheeks
Fang Fang
Fang Lips Fang
Lips Chin*
Chin
Neck and Body*
Left: A simple stick figure with one flap for each facial feature. Flaps that ought to be wide are
labelled with an asterisk (*). Right: one arrangement for making these flaps.
51
Let's scale this crease pattern for the head, so that it's the right size relative to the height of the body, and
place it at roughly the right distance from the bottom raw edge. With only a small adjustment, these creases
align conveniently on a 16×16 grid (powers of 2 are easy to fold, so should be the default ), which
determines the position precisely. Any leftover paper at the top can be saved to be used later as hair. As this
is at the edge of the paper, we can use a colour change so that the hair will be the same colour as the cloak.
Eyes
Fingers?
Nose and cheeks
Fang Lips Fang
Chin
Scale the face flaps to the right size relative to the rest of the body. Can we utilise the horizontal
pleats on each side?
The resulting crease pattern has a number of horizontal pleats propagating to the left and right which we
can think about using for some of the non-essential features considered earlier. For example, the pleats hit
the raw edges at about the right height to make fingers. We don't have enough paper for fully independent
arms, but we can make some hands attached to the cloak. As this is at the raw edges, it should be easy to get
a colour change to make the hands using the skin-coloured side of the paper.
However, if we use the crease pattern above, there are two problems: both of the “arms” are too short, and
one of the hands is completely hidden because of the way the cloak wraps around. There's an easy fix for
both of these. We can offset the creases so that the head isn't in the middle, meaning one of the arms is now
the right length. As for the other arm, we can forget about it and save some folding time.
This decision establishes the final location of the flaps, and it's a routine exercise from here to use these flap
locations to make a base (often with some amount of trial and error). The final Vampire crease pattern is
shown below.
Hair Fingers
Face
Cloak
Crease pattern and folded model of the Vampire.
52
WOLF Designed for Jess Green and Elenwen Tanathar
Paper preferences:
• Textured
• Wetfoldable
Recommended paper:
• Tant
Nose
Ear
Neck
Foreleg
There is a lot of pre-creasing in this model – around a third of

the steps. Rather than being stated in the text each time, it is
assumed that you will only fold in the regions shown.
Torso
Note that the crease pattern on the right shows a slight
simplification around the tail to highlight the 22.5° geometry.
Hind leg
Start fur colour side up. Tail
1. Fold and unfold the diagonals. 2. Fold and unfold opposite raw edges 3. Fold and unfold angle bisectors,
together, only marking firmly in the only marking firmly in the bottom half
lower half of the paper. of the paper.
53
4. Fold the intersections together, 5. Make a fold-line which connects the 6. Make a fold-line parallel to the raw
only marking firmly where shown, intersections shown, only marking edge which goes through the circled
then unfold. firmly where shown, then unfold. intersection, then unfold.
7. Make a fold-line parallel to the raw 8. Fold and unfold vertical lines which 9. Fold to the crease you made in step
edge which goes through the circled go through the intersections shown. 6 (don't unfold).
intersection, then unfold.
9-11
10. Fold the corner to the intersection 11. Unfold step 9. 12. Repeat steps 9 to 11 on the right.
shown, only marking firmly where
shown and unfold.
54
13. Fold the raw corner down as 14. Fold and unfold. 15. Fold and unfold.
shown and unfold.
16. Fold and unfold to the creases 17. Fold and unfold raw edges to the 18. Fold and unfold to the creases
shown. creases shown. shown.
19. Fold and unfold raw edges to the 20. Fold and unfold the raw corners to 21. Fold the circled intersections and
circled intersections, making fold- the circled intersections. unfold.
lines perpendicular to the raw edges.
55
22. Fold and unfold the raw edges to 23. Fold and unfold angle bisectors; 24. Fold and unfold the raw edges to
the crease shown. ensure the fold-lines go through the the nearest creases.
circled intersections.
25. Turn the paper over. Some of the 26. Fold the vertical creases to the 27. Fold the raw corners over, noting
unimportant creases will no longer be centre and unfold. the intersections carefully. Treat the
shown. folded over triangles as though they
are part of the rear layer for the rest
of the model.
28. Divide the regions shown into 29. Fold and unfold to transfer the 30. Divide the regions shown into
equal parts. crease to the near layer. equal parts.
56
31. Fold the creases together and 32. Fold the raw corners to the 33. Fold and unfold two pairs of angle
unfold. intersections shown and unfold. bisectors.
34. Fold and unfold two pairs of angle 35. Make fold-lines which connect the 36. Fold and unfold vertical lines
bisectors. circled intersections and unfold. through the intersections shown.
37. Fold and unfold a horizontal line 38. Fold and unfold to divide the 39. Fold a horizontal line through the
through the intersection shown. regions shown equally. intersections shown and unfold.
57
40. Fold a horizontal line through the 41. Fold and unfold to divide the 42. Fold and unfold vertical lines
intersections shown and unfold. regions shown equally. through the intersections shown.
43. Fold and unfold angle bisectors. 44. Make fold-lines which connect the
indicated intersections.
1/8
45. Fold the left half of the paper onto 46. Rotate the paper 1/8 of a turn 47. Open-sink in and out using
the right half, while bringing the raw clockwise. existing creases.
corner down using the existing
creases shown.
58
48. Pull the raw corner up. 49. Fold one edge down and spread- 50. Collapse using existing creases –
sink the corner on the left. The paper this is similar to a double-rabbit-ear.
51. Collapse using existing creases – 52. Fold the circled vertex on the left
this is similar to a double-rabbit-ear. to the intersection on the right.
53. Rabbit-ear to flatten the paper. 54. Reverse-fold two small corners. 55. Fold the flap to the left.
57. Fold the near edge up, and spread-

56. Unsink the raw edges. sink the corner on the right.
59
57-59
58. Unfold the edge to bring it down 59. Sink the edge; open on the left and 60. Repeat steps 57 to 59 on the top.
again. closed on the right.
61. Fold the flap to the right. 62. This step is an odd collapse. Bring
two corners to the left using the same
structure as half a preliminary fold,
while pivoting paper underneath. The
circled corners won't fold flat until
step 64.
63
63. If the paper is already flat, this step is optional. 64. Fold the flap to the right.
Otherwise, open-sink the very small hood at the corner so
that the paper can lie flat. Repeat on the upper side.
66 67
65. Fold two flaps up, and fold one 66. Pinch the existing mountain-folds 67. Rabbit-ear and bring the folded
layer down so that it lies shown, and flatten the paper to the edge up and make a vertex at the
perpendicular to the rest of the paper. left of this ridge. Repeat behind. circled point. Repeat behind.
60
68
69
68. Closed-sink the vertex using an 69. Collapse using mostly existing 70. Fully-mixed-reverse-fold using
existing mountain crease and a new creases to flatten the paper. Repeat existing creases.
mountain which connects the circled behind.
intersections. Repeat behind.
1/4
71. Rotate the paper ¼ of a turn 72. Fold half the layers to the right 73. Fold the flap down using a
anticlockwise. and squash-fold the central edge. The horizontal line which connects the
paper won't lie flat until step 78. two indicated points.
74. Unsink the shallow corner. 75. Pinch mountain-folds where

shown.
61
76. Collapse the corners to the centre 77. Fold the raw corner underneath to 78. Sink an edge upwards on each
using the folds shown. flatten the paper. side.
79. Open-sink the edge in on each side 80. Fold the corners out again. 81. Fold the small corner down.
using existing creases.
82. Turn the paper over. 83. Collapse the raw corner to the 84. Fold and unfold to transfer the
right, so that the raw edges become creases to all layers.
horizontal.
62
85. Sink in and out; open near the raw 86. Closed-sink in and out. 87. Fold the flap on the left down as
corner, and closed on the rear layers. far as it will go and unfold.
88. Fold the flap to the side using an 89. Crimp the paper down using 90. Fold the near corner as far as it
angle bisector and unfold. creases from steps 87 and 88 – open will go and unfold.
the pleat so as not to lock the layers.
91. Open-sink the corner. 92. Fold and unfold two lines which 93. Rabbit-ear using all new creases.
connect the points shown and unfold. The paper will not quite lie flat from
now on.
94. Fold a line which connects the 95. Swivel-fold so that the central 96. Double-swivel-fold the edge using
intersections shown and unfold. section of the edge becomes vertical. creases from step 92 (this is much like
an open sink).
63
97. Open-sink the near edge. 98. Closed-sink the remaining edge. 99. Fold an angle bisector and unfold.
87-99
100. Repeat steps 87 to 99 on the 101. Pleat the bottom of the white 102. Fold the left half of the paper
right. region up to the nearest horizontal onto the right half.
crease, using a new valley fold.
1/4 105
104
103. Rotate the paper ¼ of a turn 104. Swivel-fold some paper 105. Inside-reverse-fold, with the
clockwise. underneath using the angle bisector spine between the second and third
made in step 98. Repeat behind. layers. Repeat behind.
106
106. Reverse-fold again. Repeat 107. Reverse-fold two corners.

behind.
64
107-109
107-109 107-109
108. Crimp the flap so that 109. Flatten the foot 110. Repeat steps 107-109 on the
the lowest edges become and shape the claws. other three feet.
horizontal.
111. Crimp the neck upwards. 112. Crimp the neck upwards. 113. Bend the tail out.
114. Sink the hidden corner upwards. 115. Fold an angle bisector and
unfold.
116. Crimp the paper, spreading the 117. Fold and unfold. 118. Shape the head by opening and
layers of the middle edge flattening the paper to the left of the
symmetrically. topmost corner. Pleat some paper
underneath where shown – the
mountain fold was made in step 117.
The paper will be three-dimensional
from now on.
65
120
119. Flatten the middle of the three 120. Shape the hole under the end of 121. Crimp the front of the face,
ridges. the near ridge to make a deeper eye flattening the paper near at the raw
socket. Repeat behind. corner.
123
122. Squash-fold the nose. 123. Tuck a small corner underneath. 124. Fold the raw edge underneath all
Repeat behind. the way around the head.
125
125. Pull out some paper to add more

volume to the neck and chest. Repeat
behind.
66
ALICORN
Paper preference:
• Duo
• Shapeable
• Textured Head
Recommended paper: Foreleg

• Washi deluxe
Wing
Torso
Hind leg
Tail
There are multiple horse-based mythological creatures, including the Alicorn (a winged unicorn). This model
can be easily modified to make others too; the simplest change is to ignore steps 71 and 91, which show how
to fold the horn, in order to make a Pegasus.
With a bit more experimentation you can make a unicorn by hiding the paper used to make the wings, or you
can just make a standard horse if you exclude the steps for the horn. Although, it feels like this would waste a
large amount of paper at the raw corners, the most efficient origami horses fold these corners behind
anyway, so the loss isn't as significant as it first appears. I'll leave the unicorn as an exercise for the reader.
Start body colour side up.
1. Fold and unfold the diagonals. 2. Turn the paper over. 3. Fold the opposite raw edges
together and unfold.
67
4. Fold the raw edges to the vertical 5. Fold the raw edges to the horizontal 6. Fold the left and right raw edges to
crease and unfold. crease and unfold. the intersections shown and unfold.
7. Fold the left and right raw edges to 8. Fold the left and right raw edges to 9. Fold the left and right raw corners
the intersections shown and unfold. the intersections shown and unfold. to the intersections shown and unfold.
10. Turn the paper over. 11. Fold the top raw corner to the 12. Fold the raw edges to the
intersection shown and unfold. intersections shown and unfold.
68
13. Fold the raw edges to the 14. Fold the raw corner up, so that the 15. Fold the raw corners in, so that
intersections shown and unfold. fold-line goes through the the fold-lines go through the
intersections shown and unfold. intersections shown and unfold.
16. Fold so that the fold-lines go 17. Turn the paper over. 18. Fold the raw edges to the crease
through the intersections shown and and unfold.
unfold.
19. Fold the raw edges to the crease 20. Fold the raw corner to the 21. Fold the raw corner to the
and unfold. intersection shown and unfold. intersection shown (don't unfold).
69
22. Swivel-fold the raw corner to the 23. Crimp the raw corner in and out. 24. Swivel-fold the corner down.
right.
25. Fold and unfold to transfer 26. Open-sink. 27. Reverse-fold the raw edge to the
creases through all layers. left.
28. Reverse-fold the raw edge to lie 29. Fold two flaps upwards. 30. Fold the flap to the left.
vertically.
24-29
31. Repeat steps 24 to 29 on the right. 32. Reverse-fold the raw corner. 33. Bring one of the upper flaps to the
right and spread-sink the lower
corner symmetrically.
70
34. Fold all flaps downwards. 35. Fold one edge to the right. The 36. Fold and unfold.
35-38
37. Open-sink using creases you just 38. Fold the layer down to flatten the 39. Repeat steps 35 to 38 on the right.
made. paper again.
40. Fold two flaps upwards. 41. Fold two corners to reveal the 42. Make a valley fold between the
white triangle. intersections shown and unfold.
43. Fold the raw edge using the 44. Fold the raw edge using the 45. Swivel-fold, using the crease from
references indicated and unfold. references indicated (don't unfold). step 43.
71
46. Spread-sink the corner upwards 47. Rabbit-ear the raw corner down 48. Fold and unfold an angle bisector.
symmetrically. to the right.
49. Squash-fold the flap. 50. Unfold the paper a little and 51. Reverse-fold the edge in to
unwrap the raw edge, sending it sharpen the two corners.
behind the white diamond.
52. Fold the corners down using 53. Untuck two layers on each side.
horizontal valley folds.
54. Swivel-fold the flap to the right 55. Squash-fold the point upwards. 56. Swivel-fold the point down.
while squash-folding the rear layer, so
that the lower edges become
horizontal.
72
54-57
57. Fold the flap to the left. 58. Repeat steps 54 to 57 on the right.
59. Fold two flaps down. 60. Pleat the top section down, 61. Make a small valley fold level with
creating a new valley fold through the the folded edge.
intersection shown.
62. Unfold the pleat. 63. Swivel-fold, bringing the raw 64. Fold the flap using a fold-line that
corner up. goes between the indicated points.
65. Ensure you can see the reference 66. Make a vertical mountain fold 67. Swivel-fold using the creases from
shown (otherwise return to step 64). through the intersection shown. Only steps 64 and 66.
Unfold the flap. fold the top two layers of paper.
73
1/4
63-67
68. Repeat steps 63 to 67 on the right 69. Refolds the pleat from step 60. 70. Rotate the paper ¼ of a turn.
moving flaps aside as necessary – the
71. Mountain-fold the paper in half 72. Fold the corner down as shown to 73. Fold the corner down to point in
while collapsing the upper section make a right angle with the folded in the direction indicated.
using existing creases. edge.
74. Fold the corner up using a fold- 75. Fold the corner down to make a 76. Unfold steps 72 to 75.
line around two thirds of the way up right angle with the folded edge as
the edge, as shown. shown.
77
77. Valley-fold through the points 78. Make a valley fold through the 79. Make a valley fold through the
shown, only marking firmly in the intersections shown. intersections shown, only marking
region shown. Repeat behind. firmly in the region shown.
74
80. Reverse-fold using the creases 81. Open sink using creases from step 82. Double-swivel-fold using creases
from step 72. 77. from step 78.
83. Fold the edge down gently. The 84. Reverse-fold using creases 85. Fold the edge back up.
paper won't lie flat until step 86. between the indicated intersections.
86. Bring the folded edge 87. Crimp the central edge down using 88. Unsink the edge, using the creases from
to the right. The paper new valley folds which go through the step 79 and flatten the paper.
won't lie flat until step 89. circled points – the dotted lines are
extensions of the lines made in step 79.
89. Note the angle of the rightmost corner 90. Reverse-fold using
should have changed very slightly since step 73. existing creases.
Unfold everything from step 71 onwards. The
75
91. Rabbit-ear using existing creases 92. Squash-fold the corners. 93. Mountain-fold a small amount of
made in step 75. paper underneath.
94. Fold the raw edges to the intersection shown

so that the fold-lines go through the intersection
on the right.
95. Fold the raw edges outwards, while lifting 96. Refold the collapse from step 71: mountain-
the right section upwards. The paper won't lie fold the paper in half and flatten.
flat until step 97.
80-88
97. Repeat steps 80 to 88. 98. Outside-reverse-fold using 99. Crimp the head upwards.
existing creases.
76
100 102
101
100. Reverse-fold the corner. Repeat 101. Swivel-fold the corner to the 102. Fold the flap back. Repeat
behind. right. Repeat behind. behind.
104
105
103
103. Reverse-fold the leg. Repeat 104. Reverse-fold the front edge. 105. Fold the edge underneath.
behind. Repeat behind. Repeat behind.
107
108
1/6
107 108
106. Rotate the model. 107. Crimp the forelegs, and reverse- 108. Make a small collapse at the end
fold the hind legs. Repeat behind. of each leg to make a hoof by pushing
up a middle layer of paper. Repeat
behind.
110
109. Crimp the tail so that the model 110. Pleat the wings to suggest
stands. feathers. Repeat behind.
77
OUROBORROMEAN RINGS
Paper preferences:
• Shapeable
• Ultra thin
Recommended papers:
• Double tissue
• Foil-backed tissue
Head C Tail B
Head A Head B
Use large, thin paper for this model – although there are not as
many numbered steps as other complex models in this book, the
sink in step 45 takes a lot of time (to do neatly) and the resultant
model will have a lot of layers.
Tail A Tail C
Start colour side down.
1. Fold and unfold. 2. Turn the paper over. 3. Fold and unfold.
78
4. Fold and unfold the raw edges to 5. Fold the top left raw corner to the 6. Fold the bottom right raw corner to
the creases you just made. crease so that the fold-line goes the intersection shown. Only mark
through the bottom left raw corner. firmly at the raw edge, then unfold.
Only fold firmly at the raw edge
shown, then unfold.
OTE
Except for some initial creases
(made in steps 5 and 6), the
model is rotationally symmetric;
rotating ½ a turn keeps the
model the same. Until step 34,
when repeating steps, you should
rotate the paper ½ a turn, then
perform the repetition.
7. Fold the lower raw edge to meet the 8. Fold and unfold the raw edges to
intersection shown, fold the top raw the lower crease you just made, only
edge to meet it, then unfold both. marking firmly in the regions shown.
7-10
9. Fold the left raw edge to meet the 10. Fold the raw edges to the left- 11. Repeat steps 7 to 10 on the top
intersection shown, fold the right raw most crease you just made then half (except there will be creases
edge to meet it, then unfold both. unfold. instead of mere intersections this
time).
79
12. Turn the paper over. 13. Fold the corners over using the 14. Fold and unfold angle bisectors.
intersections shown. Note that they are not supposed to
meet at the diagonal.
15. Fold halfway between four pairs 16. Pinch mountain folds which 17. Fold the angle bisectors of the
of creases. connect crease intersections from parallelogram you just formed. Make
steps 14 and 15. these folds as accurately as you can.
18. Extend the creases you just made 19. Turn the paper over. 20. Fold and unfold the corners
to the edge of the paper. together.
80
21. Fold and unfold the raw edges to 22. Fold and unfold the raw edges to 23. Fold the raw corner to the corner
the nearest creases. the creases shown. shown and unfold.
21-24
24. Pinch mountain folds which 25. Repeat steps 21 to 24 on the top 26. Connect three pairs of crease
connect the crease intersections half. intersections with valley folds. These
shown. These are angle bisectors are parallel to the folded edges.
between creases made in steps 15 and
16.
26-27
27. Fold two more lines parallel to the 28. Repeat steps 26 and 27 on the top 29. Turn the paper over.
folded edges similarly. half.
81
30. Make five creases halfway 31. Make five creases halfway 32. Make five creases halfway
between existing lines. between existing lines. between existing lines.
30-32
≈1/10
33. Repeat steps 30 to 32 on the top 34. Begin to collapse the paper using 35. Rotate the paper until the dotted
half. creases from steps 18 and 20. This is a line is horizontal.
bit like a preliminary fold, but the
centre of the paper won't be flat until
step 38.
36
38
36. Fold the indicated point upwards 37. Note the edges at the bottom are 38. Fold the near flap down to
and swing the raw corner to the left all aligned. Flatten the top of the transfer the crease to all layers of the
using existing creases to lie directly paper, forming a new horizontal flap and unfold. Repeat behind.
on two other points. Repeat behind. gusset valley fold, and two new
mountain folds.
39 40
39. Fold the near flap down to the 40. Fold the near flap down. Repeat 41. Fold the two top corners to the
crease you just made and unfold. behind. horizontal crease together and unfold.
Repeat behind.
82
44
42
42. Fold to the crease you just made. 43. Fold the two top corners to the 44. Fold the flap up. Repeat behind.
Repeat behind. horizontal crease and unfold.
46
45. Open-sink in and out using 46. Open-sink in and out using 47. Open-sink in and out using
existing creases. This will take a little existing creases. Repeat behind. existing creases.
time.
48
48. Pivot the front two flaps 49. Open the flap; spread-sink three
anticlockwise. Repeat behind. corners – the paper below this won't
lie flat until step 60.
50
50. Bring the point under the hood to 51. Repeat step 50 with the next 52. Fold one corner down.
the front. You may need to partially point.
unfold the paper to achieve this.
83
53. Turn the paper over. 54. Turn the paper over. 55. Untuck some paper on each side.
56. Fold the corner up. 57. Turn the paper over. 58. Close the thin flap. The paper still
won't lie flat.
59. Outside-reverse-fold the head so 60. Closed-sink the corner. 61. Pull the inner point down.
that the point untucked in step 51
pivots to the right. Adjust the layers so
the paper lies flat.
49-62
62
49-62
62. Crimp the edge to suggest an eye. 63. Repeat steps 49 to 62 on two
Repeat behind. more points.
84
1/2
64. Rotate the model ½ a turn.
65. Crimp the three snakes, so that each is approximately circular and bites its
own tail. Use the creases which are spread uniformly along (most of) their
lengths as a guide.
66. Rearrange the layers so that each

snake alternatives between going over
and under another snake.
85
OUROBORROMEAN RINGS
The Borromean Rings is a set of three loops (in three-dimensions), any two of which are not linked, but as a
triple are inseparable. This already seems like a basis for a unique model, but to add some character, each
ring in this model is an Ouroboros – a snake eating its own tail. So the model is the Ouroborromean Rings,
which is admittedly a bit of a mouthful (no pun intended). I certainly haven't seen this subject represented
with origami before, though that isn’t to say it doesn’t exist somewhere out there.
Left: The Borromean Rings. Right: An Ouroboros.
From stick figure to circles

From the perspective of circle packing, the subject usually defines the number of circles and rivers and
corresponding flap length implicitly via the stick figure. For example, if the subject is a unicorn, then the
model will almost always have a river for a neck, with two subflaps for a head and a horn, four flaps for legs,
a flap for a tail, and a river for the torso. There may be some wiggle room in flap length to allow for artistic
interpretation, and other features might be added or removed: "Do we want a mane? A longer tail? A lying
down unicorn that doesn't need separate flaps for legs?" But on the whole, origami unicorns use the same
size set of underlying flaps. As a result, most crease patterns for unicorns will be, relatively speaking, very
structurally similar.
Foreleg Hind leg

Head Horn
Torso Tail
Neck Foreleg Hind leg
Left: Stick figure for a unicorn. Right: The set of circles and rivers needed for circle packing, which is
determined by the stick figure.
Cyclic stick figures

Not so with the Ouroborromean Rings, or indeed any subject whose stick figure contains a closed loop (a
cycle).
We'll have to cut the stick figure in various places until we have a tree – a stick figure with no cycles. Our
stick figure needs to be topologically the same as our starting sheet of paper, which will of course not have
any holes in it! As can be seen in the next image, there are seven holes in the stick figure, and one cut
removes one hole, so we'll need a total of seven cuts at strategic points.
86
Hole
Hole
Hole Hole
Hole
Hole
Hole
Hole Hole
Hole Hole
Hole
Left: The stick figure contains cycles, and therefore holes – so is not suitable for direct circle
packing analysis. Right: Each cut removes precisely one hole, provided the stick figure is still
We can choose the three locations where a snake's head links up to its tail – these are natural points to cut
the stick figure. This will result in loose ends of paper from which we can easily make details on the head of
each snake. These will be three of the seven total cuts needed.
We could have a cut exactly at one of the crossings where two rings intersect, but this would somewhat
defeat the effect of interlocking rings and would mean a snake is actually eating the body of another snake as
well as its own tail, so we'll discount this option. Therefore, we'll make one cut for each ring at some point
along the continuum between overlaps. Let's call these break points.
Two examples of three different break points. Each set of three break points will lead to a different
set of possible trees.
Secondly, consider what happens at the six places where the rings overlap. Depending how we cut the stick
figure, each overlap can be categorised into one of the following:
● 4-crossing: all four emanating curves are connected, i.e. no cuts at this location.
● 3,1-crossing: three of the curves are connected, but one has separated the final curve.
● 2,2-crossing: two overlapping curves – one cut has separated the overlaps into two sections.
● 2,1,1-crossing: two cuts have separated the overlap.
● 1,1,1,1-crossing: all four curves are separated – there have been three cuts.
From left to right: 4-crossing, 3,1-crossing, 2,2-crossing, 2,1,1-crossing, 1,1,1,1-crossing.
87
We still need four cuts, which restricts which combinations of crossings are possible. For example, we cannot
have all 4-crossings, because then we haven't made any further cuts. But even if we have seven cuts in total
this still isn't sufficient to ensure a valid tree, since we have to make sure the cuts don't separate the paper
into multiple parts.
Two examples of invalid stick figures.

Left: All 4-crossings, which still leaves 4 holes.
Right: This combination with 7 cuts is unsuitable, because it splits the stick figure into three pieces.
Cuts aside, other factors to consider are the relative sizes of the loops, and how close together the loops are. I
find that the most visually desirable option is to have roughly equal distances between overlaps, a condition
which determines these lengths.
Left: Different relative loop sizes. Centre: Asymmetric relative loop locations. Right: The traditional
version of the Borromean Rings will likely be the easiest to design for due to the symmetry.
Choosing trees
With the considerations above, we are granted tremendous flexibility that we don't normally have in origami
design. As we have seen, we aren't just using the tree to arrange a fixed number of appropriately sized
circles and rivers – we have to first work out which tree we even need!
With any given tree there is an optimum arrangement which, by definition, provides maximal efficiency.
Each other arrangement can be assigned an efficiency value relative to the optimal arrangement. With a
completely different tree, there will be a different optimal arrangement, so comparing efficiencies of two
arrangements from distinct subjects doesn't give any meaningful information about the flap sizes involved.
But here, where the same subject can have entirely different trees, we can usefully compare efficiencies.
What this means is that we can optimise for efficiency, by considering all possible arrangements not just for
one tree but by considering all viable trees. Theoretically, this extra freedom means we would expect there
to be a design which uses the paper better than most other subjects on average – a sort of meta efficiency of
the subject itself.
In general, this meta efficiency will appear when designing with any cyclic stick figure where we have
multiple options of how to cut this stick figure into a tree.
88
In practice, we simply can't compute all the possible combinations, not to mention we still have the other
usual factors to consider, such as ease of folding and relative thicknesses of different parts of the paper.
When there are so many options, it's helpful to apply a few rules of thumb to narrow down our search for a
set of circles and rivers. Generally, given the same total flap length in each case, two small circles pack more
tightly into a square than one large circle, because they have a smaller total area. This means we should aim
to minimise the length of the longest flaps, which is done by breaking the outer loops approximately at their
midpoints. Enforcing symmetry of some kind is another good approach because it drastically lowers the
number of combinations to consider.
Left: The area of paper used by one large flap is up to twice that of the area of two smaller circles
with the same total flap length.
Right: This suggests we should minimise the length of the longest flap(s), which is achieved by
having break points for the snake's head and tail halfway along each outer loop.
Below are just two of the possible trees that work here. The upper tree is the one I settled on for the
diagrammed model. This option prioritises easy reference points and a relatively small number of steps,
instead of efficiency. I'll leave you to have a go at arranging the lower configuration, or indeed finding a
totally different tree if you would like to make your own version of this model.
Head C Tail C
Tail A Tail B
Head C Tail C
Tail B Tail A
Head B Head A
Head A Head B
Head C Tail C
Head C Tail C
Tail B
Tail A
Tail B Tail A
Head B Head A
Head B Head A
Two possible choices for trees and the corresponding circles and rivers.
Above: there are two 4-crossings and four 2,2-crossings.
Below: four 4-crossings, a 3,1-crossing and a 1,1,1,1-crossing. This leads to many more flaps.
89
CHIMERA
Paper preferences:
• Duo
• Shapeable
• Tearproof
• Thin
Recommended paper:
• Double tissue
Lion's head
In modern usage, the word chimera refers to any mythical Mane

being which is a fusion of several different animal parts, but the
model presented here is a classical chimera – specifically the
blending of a lion, a goat and a snake. This design is a true Foreleg
hybrid of origami techniques, borrowing structures from
traditional bases for the snake and hind legs, grafting for the
goat's head, box pleating for the forelegs and a non-axial
Torso
structure for the lion's head.
Hind leg
It should be assumed that even when it isn't explicitly stated, it
may be easier to rearrange flaps when performing any of the Goat's head
sinks. Make sure that you revert the flaps to the intended
position if you do move them around. Snake's head
Start mane colour side up.
1. Fold and unfold the diagonals. 2. Turn the paper over. 3. Fold opposite raw edges together
and unfold.
90
4. Fold the raw edge to the crease you 5. Make a fold-line which connects the 6. Fold the raw edge to the
just made and unfold. intersections shown and unfold. intersection shown and unfold.
7. Fold the raw edges to the crease 8. Fold the raw edge to a crease you 9. Fold the raw edges to the crease
you just made and unfold. just made and unfold. you just made and unfold.
6-9
1/4
10. Rotate the paper ¼ of a turn. 11. Repeat steps 6 to 9. 12. Turn the paper over.
13. Fold the raw corners to the 14. Fold the raw corners to the 15. Collapse using existing creases (to
intersections shown and unfold. intersections shown and unfold. make a Waterbomb base).
91
16. Bring the circled point upwards, 17. Flatten the paper by swinging the 18. Fold the top edge down.
the paper won't lie flat until step 18. paper at the front to the right.
16-17
19. Turn the paper over. 20. Repeat steps 16 and 17. 21. Fold the near flap up as far as it
will go.
1/4
22. Fold the flap on the left to the 23. Rotate the paper ¼ of a turn. 24. Mixed-reverse-fold the top right
right. corner using existing creases.
25. Swivel-fold using existing creases. 26. Fold and unfold. 27. Fold and unfold.
28. Open-sink in and out using 29. Fold the nearest flap in half – only 30. Fold the edge to the right.
creases from steps 26 and 27. fold one edge, and spread-sink the
corner at the top symmetrically.
92
29-31
31. Closed-sink the edge. 32. Repeat steps 29 to 31 on the next 33. Fold the connected layers to the
edge. left.
34. Fold an angle bisector and unfold. 35. Open-sink using the creases you 36. Fold the flap in half and unfold.
just made.
37. Closed-sink the flap using creases 38. Fold the small corner on the right 39. Reverse-fold the small corner.
you just made. up to the central crease and unfold.
40. Fold the connected layers back to 41. Box-stretch the flap upwards. The 42. Check your model is correct. Fold
the right. stretch is on the nearest three wider the flap down.
flaps; starting with existing creases on
the near side and ending at the far
part of the reverse fold from step 39.
43. Fold the raw edge down. 44. Turn the paper over. 45. Fold one flap to the right.
93
46. Fold the connected flaps up. 47. Mixed-reverse-fold the top right 48. Fold one large flap to the left.
corner using existing creases.
26-42
49. Swivel-fold the central corner up. 50. Repeat steps 26 to 42 on the left, 51. Swivel-fold the flap down,
flipping left and right. bringing the raw corner to the right.
52. Fold the flap in half and unfold. 53. Fold the flap in quarters and 54. Open-sink in and out using the
unfold. creases from steps 52 and 53.
55. Fold angle bisectors and unfold. 56. Sink using creases you just made 57. Fold the connected flaps to the
(closed-sink if you are able). left.
58. Fold an angle bisector and unfold. 59. Squash-fold the large flap. 60. Collapse the paper using mostly
existing creases; bring the circled
point upwards and swing the raw
corner to the right.
94
61. Fold a horizontal line and unfold. 62. Fold to the crease you just made. 63. Fold and unfold.
64. Reverse-fold under the horizontal 65. Reverse-fold the inner corner to 66. Fold the vertical edge in half and
folded edge. the left. unfold.
67. Open the flap and squash-fold 68. Fold angle bisectors and unfold. 69. Petal-fold the front flap up.
using the vertical crease you just Don't fold the nearest narrow flap, but
made. Flatten the layers evenly at the only on the triangles behind it.
top.
70. Fold each flap in half and unfold. 71. Fold and unfold each flap into 72. Sink in and out using creases from
quarters (in only the first two layers steps 70 and 71.
of paper).
73. Fold and unfold through the 74. Fold and unfold 75. Reverse-fold using
intersection shown. two diagonal along the creases you just made.
raw edges.
95
76. Fold the near corner 77. Swivel-fold the corner 78. Untuck the corner from 79. Squash-fold the raw
down. to the right. underneath the folded edge. corner to the centre line.
80. Reverse-fold the 81. Fold three corners up. 82. Fold the thin flap down.
corners in a little.
83. Fold two flaps down. 84. Fold the corner to the left. 85. Fold the connected flaps upwards.
86. Fold the flap in half. 87. Fold the flap down. 88. Fold the flaps in half and unfold.
52-56
89. Closed-sink using the creases you 90. Turn the paper over. 91. Repeats steps 52 to 56, flipping
just made. left and right.
96
92. Fold the connected flaps to the 93. Squash-fold the large flap. 94. Petal-fold the raw corner to the
left. top.
95. Fold and unfold the flap using the 96. Fold the flap using the references 97. Untuck the raw edge.
references shown. shown (but don't unfold).
97-99
98. Fold the edge to the 99. Closed-sink using the 100. Swivel-fold the point 101. Repeat steps 97 to 99,
centre and unfold. creases you just made. to the right. flipping left and right.
102. Fold two flaps down. 103. Fold the corner to the centre and 104. Spread-sink using the creases
97
105. Mountain-fold the furthest flap 106. Open-sink using the creases you 107. Fold the diagonal of square,
behind and unfold. just made. The location of the folds which will cause the nearest point at
isn't crucial, but don't trap any layers. the bottom to fold to the top.
108. Spread-sink the corner 109. Pinch mountain folds between 110. In the near layer only, pinch
symmetrically. the intersections shown and unfold. mountain folds between the
111. Crimp the near layer using the 112. Preliminary-fold using the 113. Fold the near flap down as far is
references shown. The paper won't lie creases made in step 109. it will go without stretching any
flat until step 113. edges.
114. Reverse-fold the edges in. 115. Fold and unfold.
98
116. Fold an angle bisector and 117. Fold the raw corner to the 118. Fold a vertical line through the
unfold. intersection shown. intersection shown and unfold.
119. Fold an angle bisector and 120. Reverse-fold using the creases 121. Fold the raw corner down.
122. Bring one raw edge to the front. 123. Unsink the point under the hood. 124. Fold the rhombus in half.
125. Fold the edge shown to the 126. Crimp using existing creases. 127. Swivel-fold using the references
centre line and unfold. Note the circled point for step 127. shown. The exact location of folds
isn't critical here, provided that you
sharpen the circled corner in step 126
(see next image).
99
128. Mountain-fold the corner behind. 129. Spread the pleated layers evenly, 130. Wrap the raw edge around to the
by fanning the layers about the circled back. Be careful not to rip the paper
pivot point. The paper doesn't have to here.
lie completely flat from this step
onwards.
127-131
131. Fold the layers to the left. 132. Repeat steps 127 to 131, flipping 133. Fold three
left and right. connected flaps up.
134. Valley-fold the top flaps and 135. Fold and unfold. 136. Closed-sink four edges.
reverse-fold the bottom flaps
outwards, spreading the layers
symmetrically.
100
137. Turn the paper over. 138. Fold diagonally. The paper won't 139. Fold the corner to the centre and
lie flat until step 142. unfold.
140. Open-sink using the creases you 141. Fold the paper back up to lie flat 142. Pull one layer down and spread
just made. again. the paper symmetrically.
143. Fold the sides of the polygon in.
144. Rabbit-ear the thick flap to the 145. Mountain-fold the left half
left. behind the right half.
1/4
146. Rotate the paper ¼ of a turn 147. Outside-reverse-fold the snake. 148. Reverse-fold the hind legs
clockwise. backwards.
101
149. Crimp the hind legs. 150. Fold and unfold.
152
151. Reverse-fold in and out. 152. Pleat the corner back and forth. 153. Reverse-fold the tip inside.
Repeat behind.
154. Collapse by squashing the top 155. Crimp the front of the head using 156. Pinch the ears.
and opening out where shown. an existing valley crease.
157. Fold the corner over so that it

sticks out beyond the right edge,
leaving a gap where indicated.
102
158. Reverse-fold four 159. Fold the corner 160. Crimp the foot to lie 161. Pinch to fold the front
edges in line with the underneath. flat. half of the leg behind.
previous fold.
157-161
157-161
157-161 162. Repeat steps 157 to 163. Crimp the goat head 164. Crimp the point to
161 on the other three feet. upwards. make a beard.
165. Twist the horns. 166. Bend the snake and 167. Reverse-fold the small
flatten its head. corners in and out.
168. Fold the small edges 169. Open the mouth.

across to make eyes.
103
CHIMERA
Which method where?
We've seen that the pros and cons of each design geometry implicitly determine the sorts of features for
which it is most appropriate. If a subject has multiple features which happen to all lend themselves to the
same design geometry, then the designer is fortunate, and that single design geometry will be very effective.
This applies more widely than just for the design geometry, but to design methods and techniques more
generally. For example, if the designer has a subject in mind whose features can all be made easily with a
traditional origami base, then there's no need to add any more complexity. The Loch Ness Monster is an
example of this.
Left; The Loch Ness Monster has four sections protruding out of the water. Right: The traditional
Bird Base has four long flaps in just the right locations for this, so doesn't need any further
adjustments, like grafts, or point splits.
At other times, subjects can have dramatically different features. Consider a model of an armoured horse
pulling a cart. The armour could require patterning techniques, a horse would usually be most effective with
22.5° geometry, and the parallel lines of an inorganic construction like a cart is most sensible with box
pleating. In this sort of scenario, there are three main approaches the designer can take:
● Reassess which features of the subject should be included, and avoid features which normally use
different methods from the rest of the subject.
● Compromise the tried-and-tested standards in at least one area of the model.
● Hybridise different techniques into one design.
The Chimera: A hybrid design

Fittingly, the Chimera is an example of a subject where it's most appropriate to hybridise different methods.
Let's list the essential features to discover why:
● Lion's head: Very specific shapes, especially those with small details, are most easily folded at the
end of a model's folding sequence by shaping a large flap. This artistic shaping is very freeform and
so the flap shouldn't be constrained by particular angles.
● Mane: For anything more than a basic flat shape, patterning or pleats are most suitable.
● Torso and legs: For a wide river between thin flaps, 22.5° geometry or circle packing is usually best.
● Claws: Either standalone grafts or integrated pleats allow for many similar small points.
● Goat's head: A variety of small points are most easily accommodated with box pleating.
● Snake: A long flap with small points on the end can be done well with the sort of point split typically
seen as a small enhancement to a traditional base.
104
Our first instinct should be to find some common ground amongst this medley of methods. For the mane,
goat's head, and claws, box pleating seems appropriate. The torso and legs will be the bridge between these
features, so it will be tricky to have an entirely separate design geometry for the torso. So although it
wouldn't have been our first choice, we should use box pleating here. But in order to make sure the body has
sufficient thickness we'll need a fairly coarse grid.
If we can use box pleating for so much of the model, we might be tempted to just use box pleating for the
lion's head and the snake too. This would be doable, but it could be problematic to restrict the flap too much
at this stage, particularly for the head. A better approach is to roughly arrange flaps using the circle method
and see whether we can spot a way to have a bit more freedom, perhaps by using a simpler flap from a
traditional base. We might observe that the lion's head and the snake are at opposite ends of the model, so
we should be able to employ some symmetry here: if we can find a way to incorporate a traditional base at
one end of the design, then we should be able to apply the same method on the other end too, so we only
have to figure out how to do this once.
So we define our flaps using the circle method and since we want a symmetric Chimera, we only need to
design one half of the model (making sure that the features that only appear once lie on the line of
symmetry, and features that will need duplicating are not on the line of symmetry). Although there will be
some changes later to account for more details, for now the flaps we need are:
● A circle for the lion's head.
● Two stadia for the legs with claws (a stadium is the name for the compound shape formed by adding
two semicircles to opposite ends of a rectangle, as shown below).
● A large circle for the goat's head and neck (it needs to be large so that there is enough paper for
subfeatures like horns).
● A circle for the snake.
● A circle for the mane.
When arranging these flaps, we'll also need to leave spaces between the forelegs, goat's head, and hind legs
as a placeholder for the torso's river(s). The exact location of rivers can normally be dealt with later in the
design process because they slot in around flaps.
Lion's head Mane
Goat's head Foreleg
Snake Hind leg
Left: Stick figure and shapes representing features (including symmetry line) for the right half of
the Chimera. Right: Two possible arrangements.
Both the diagonal symmetry and book symmetry arrangements above have almost identical efficiencies, and
would result in a suitable model. But with diagonal symmetry, the lion's head and the snake are at raw
corners of the square – they will be less constrained by the design geometry used for the other features
when compared with the book symmetry arrangement, where the lion's head and the snake will be
surrounded on more sides. So diagonal symmetry is the preferred choice here. Additionally, we want the
box-pleated features to be aligned to a grid, but with the book symmetry arrangement the mane and foreleg
touch at a diagonal tangent, which could add an extra level of difficulty later on.
105
So we'll settle on a diagonally-symmetric design. And since we are confident we will be using box pleating
for the middle part of the model, let's superimpose a grid.
Left: A superimposed grid on the diagonal arrangement. For simplicity, a 16×16 grid is used –
powers of 2 are the easiest to fold. Right: The grid only covers the region where it is needed.
With a placeholder grid in place, we can turn our attention to the lion's head and snake again. Looking at this
remaining paper at the top and bottom corners, these squares are the same shape and orientation as the
flaps used in the traditional Waterbomb Base. In fact, this motivates seeing the same arrangement from the
perspective of a grafted Waterbomb Base (see page 150 for more on grafting) – extra paper in the centre of
the paper will conveniently be at the right place for features on the goat's head.
Left: Crease pattern and folded Waterbomb Base. Centre: Crease pattern and folded grafted
Waterbomb base. Right: The circle arrangement for the Chimera overlaid on the crease pattern for
the grafted Waterbomb Base.
If we fold the crease pattern above, we find that the flaps in the centre are suitable for forming the goat's face
and horns, but they end up too big relative to the rest of the model. Meanwhile, the raw corner for the lion's
head isn't big enough. The easiest fix for this is to consider other grid sizes. We'll start with those which are
easiest to fold, continuing until we hit on one which is close enough: with only a little experimentation, we
find that a 20×20 grid works well to solve both of these problems.
106
The crease pattern for a grafted Waterbomb Base, using on a 20×20 grid with some circle locations
adjusted to align with the grid.
The structure of the model is now (mostly) in place: the exact location of rivers for things like the length of
the torso can still vary slightly. We just need to work on the more artistic element of making each flap
resemble the intended feature. The key reason for why we can change focus from technical planning to
artistic creativity is that the square is now separated into distinct regions, so we can experiment with each
flap independently from the others.
In the absence of any other decision-making factor, we ought to consider ease of folding, which strongly
pushes us towards using traditional, familiar structures. Notice how the small square at the bottom of the
sheet below is a modification of the bird base. Using a traditional base for the snake was the plan all along of
course. There is still a lot of variation in exactly how we fold features such as the lion's head; I recommend
trying your own folding sequence to see what you come up with.
Lion's head
Mane
Foreleg
Torso
Hind leg
Goat's head
Snake's head
The final crease pattern and folded model of the Chimera.
107
FAIRY Folded and photographed by Boice Wong
Paper requirements:
• Duo
• Shapeable
• Tearproof
Recommended paper:
• Double tissue
Head
Upper
wing
Lower
wing
Fingers
Arm
The Fairy uses multi sinks to narrow several flaps. The crease
pattern on the right only shows the sinks along the arms because Dress
these are the only necessary structural sinks – the ones required
to create distinct flaps for the fingers. But just as important are
the sinks along the dress. These create pleats which are used to Leg
make the skirt, and it becomes very obvious if these are not
parallel, so take care to be accurate when folding them.
Depending on your preferred folding style, you may wish to precrease all the folds for the sinks before the
collapse in step 17. You can use the crease pattern above to figure out the location and orientation of these.
Start skin colour side up.
1. Fold and unfold the diagonals. 2. Fold the raw corner to the centre 3. Make a fold-line connecting the
and unfold. indicated intersections, only folding
firmly where shown, then unfold.
108
4. Fold the raw edges to the centre, 5. Fold the raw corner up using a 6. Fold the raw corner down to the
then unfold. horizontal fold-line which goes intersection shown, then unfold.
through the circled point, then unfold.
7. Turn the paper over. 8. Fold the crease you just made to the 9. Fold and unfold vertical lines
diagonal and unfold. through the intersections shown.
10. Fold and unfold the perimeter of a 11. Fold and unfold using the 12. Turn the paper over.
square through the intersections intersections shown.
shown.
109
13. Fold the raw edges to the creases 14. Fold the raw edges to the creases 15. Fold angle bisectors and unfold.
as shown and unfold. as shown and unfold. Ensure the fold-lines go through the
intersections shown.
16. Fold angle bisectors and unfold. 17. Preliminary-fold using existing 18. Fold one flap to the left.
Ensure the fold-lines go through the creases.
intersections shown.
19. Fold and unfold through all layers. 20. Fold and unfold through all layers.
110
21. Open sink using the creases you 22. Fold two flaps down, and spread- 23. Unsink the corner. You may need
just made. sink the top right corner. to partially unfold the paper to
achieve this.
24. Fold and unfold. 25. Spread-sink the corner using 26. Fold the flap to the right, while
creases you just made. collapsing a small Waterbomb Base.
27. Fold and unfold the near flap. 28. Spread-sink the flap 29. Fold the flap to the left.
symmetrically.
30. Fold the flaps up. 31. Turn the paper over. 32. Fold one large flap to the left.
111
27-28
33. Fold one flap down. 34. Repeat steps 27 and 28 on the top 35. Fold the corners to the centre and
flap. unfold.
36. Open-sink using the creases you 37. Open out the paper in the centre 38. Fold the corners behind, into the
just made. symmetrically. nearest pocket.
39. Fold the layers up, making a 40. Fold and unfold. 41. Open sink using the creases you
preliminary fold in the centre. just made.
42. Reverse-fold two corners using 43. Fold the edge to the vertical
existing creases. crease.
112
44. Swivel-fold using existing creases. 45. Reverse-fold using existing 46. Fold the top corner to the
creases. horizontal crease and unfold.
47. Open-sink using the creases you 48. Simultaneously outside-reverse- 49. Fold the flap to the left.
just made. fold and swivel-fold using existing
creases.
50. Untuck the paper. 51. Fold the flap up. 52. Fold the corner down to lie on the
crease and unfold.
113
43-54
53. Reverse-fold using the crease you 54. Fold the corner underneath 55. Repeat steps 43 to 54 behind.
just made,
56. Fold a flap to the left. 57. Fold the flap up. 58. Rabbit-ear the flap.
59. Untuck the raw edge. 60. Reverse-fold using existing 61. Fold an angle bisector and unfold.
creases.
114
59-61
62. Fold one flap to the left. 63. Repeat steps 59 to 61. 64. Spread-sink the corner.
65. Simultaneously rabbit- 66. Fold the edge down to 67. Open-sink the edge
ear the triangle and fold the match the layers behind, using creases you just made.
flap back up to the left. then unfold.
68. Outside-reverse-fold. 69. Fold and unfold. 70. Fold and unfold. 71. Fold the angle bisector.
72. Swivel-fold the 73. Swivel-fold a small 74. Bring some paper to the 75. Closed-sink a very small
mountain fold shown to the amount of paper to the left. front to release the top corner.
horizontal crease. layer. You may need to
partially unfold the paper to
do this.
115
76. Fold one flap up. 77. Fold the corner down. 78. Fold an angle bisector. 79. Fold one flap to the
right.
73-78
80. Swivel-fold the 81. Repeat steps 73 to 78 82. Fold the connected 83. Fold one more flap
mountain fold to the symmetrically. layers down. down, spreading the
horizontal crease. adjoining paper.
84. Fold the flap to the 85. Fold down, opening out 86. Fold two flaps to the 87. Fold two sets of flaps
right. the layers evenly. left. upwards.
88. Fold two flaps to the right. 89. Mixed-reverse-fold using existing
creases.
116
91
92
91. Reverse-fold the near raw edge in. 92. Fold the corner to the right.
90. Reverse-fold two flaps. Repeat behind. Repeat behind.
93. Squash-fold the right raw corner. 94. Fold the raw corner to the bottom and unfold.
95. Fold the raw corner to the centre 96. Fold the creases together and 97. Refold the crease made in step 94.
and unfold. unfold.
98. Pleat the top creases to the edge. 99. Treat the raw corner as though it is attached to the layer behind from now
on. Swivel-fold the raw edge so that it becomes horizontal.
117
99
100. Repeat step 99 on the left. 101. Fold the corner to the right.
102. Fold and unfold. 103. Fold and unfold. 104. Fold one flap up.
105. Fold and unfold. 106. Fold and unfold. 107. Fold and unfold.
108. Fold and unfold an angle 109. Squash-fold using the creases 110. Fold and unfold angle bisectors.
bisector. you just made.
118
102-112
111. Reverse-fold using the creases 112. Fold the flap up. 113. Repeat steps 102 to 112 behind.
you just made.
114
114. Fold and unfold to create creases 115. Fold and unfold. 116. Fold and unfold.
in the new narrow layers. Repeat
behind.
117. Fold and unfold. 118. Fold and unfold (through the 119. Fold and unfold (through the
fourth crease from the bottom edge). fifth crease from the bottom edge).
122
120
120. Fold and unfold. Repeat behind. 121. Open sink in and out. Note that 122. Open-sink the corner. Repeat
some horizontal creases are not used. behind.
119
123. Open-sink the folded edge. 124. Fold the flap down. 125. Unfold the flap.
126. Sink in and out. 127. Swivel-fold the raw edge so that it becomes horizontal.
128. Pleat the corner underneath the 129. Swivel-fold the hidden raw edge
raw edge. to lie vertical while tucking some of
the diagonal raw edge behind.
130. Reverse-fold the corner 131. Reverse-fold in and out using

underneath, using an existing crease. existing creases.
120
124-132
132. Fold the corner behind as far as 133. Repeat steps 124 to 132 behind.
it will go.
134. Fold one flap down. 135. Open-sink in and out using 136. Reverse-fold the inner edge
existing creases. down.
137. Fold angle bisectors and unfold. 138. Fold an angle bisector and 139. Reverse-fold in and out using
unfold. creases from steps 137 and 138.
140. Fold a hidden flap down, tucking 141. Reverse-fold using existing
it between the layers shown. creases.
134-143
142. Fold a corner down, so that the 143. Fold one flap up. 144. Repeat steps 134 to 143 behind.
fold-line matches the flap behind it.
121
146
145. Wrap the layers on the right around the paper on the left using existing 146. Inside-reverse-fold one flap,
creases. Lock layers which were locked from step 128; keep the others open. releasing the pleats at the raw corner.
You will almost certainly wish to unfold some of the paper to achieve this. Repeat behind.
147. Fold one set of connected flaps 148. Fold two corners up to the
down. intersection shown.
149. Fold and unfold two angle 150. Spread-sink the corner using 151. Rabbit-ear the corners. There are
bisectors existing creases, spreading the layers no exact references.
symmetrically about the diagonal.
152
152. Fold a small amount of paper 153. Fold the corner over.
behind. Repeat behind.
122
154. Fold the corner over. 155. Fold the corner over. 156. Fold the corner over one final
time.
157. Fold four edges down, and swivel-fold the

layers symmetrically to flatten the head to the left.
158. Turn the paper over. 159. Spread the layers symmetrically. You will need
to adjust some paper where the legs meet the skirt
on the left to flatten the paper.
160. Squash-fold two connected large flaps to 161. Fold a flap to the left, releasing any locked layers.
reveal the crease between the points.
123
162. Make a small preliminary fold, revealing the octagon. 163. Squash-fold four points to form wings.
164. Turn the paper over at an angle. 165. Fold and unfold the arm firmly. 166. Mixed-reverse-fold using the
creases you just made.
167. Steps 167 to 177 do not show 168. Fold the corner over.
the far layers. Fold the edge up.
169. Fold the edge down. 170. Fold through all layers and 171. Fold through all layers and
unfold. unfold.
124
172. Reverse-fold four corners. 173. Reverse-fold the near corner as 174. Reverse-fold the corner.
far as it will go.
175. Reverse-fold three corners. 176. Reverse-fold three corners. 177. Narrow the arm, and spread the
fingers and thumb.
165-177
178. Repeat steps 165 to 177 on the right. 179. Shape the head, by pinching
mountain folds at the shoulders, and
thinning the neck.
180. Fold the front layers of the clothes so

that they overlap, and shape the model.
125
GOBLIN Folded and photographed by Sampreet Manna
Paper preferences:
• Duo
• Shapeable
• Tearproof
Recommended paper:
• Double tissue
Arm Head Neck

Fingers
There's plenty of potential for experimenting with this design – all of
the key features are at the edge of the paper, and the heights of the
strips of paper at the top and bottom of the crease pattern (used to
add fingers and toes) can be adjusted to an arbitrary size meaning Torso
you could easily perform a border graft to add more details (see
page 151).
You might like to try adding more fingers or toes, making a weapon
in one of the arms, or putting more details on the helmet. Toes
Leg Loincloth
Start skin colour side down.
1. Fold the vertical central line and 2. Fold the vertical raw edges to the 3. Fold and unfold two angle
unfold. crease and unfold. bisectors.
126
4. Fold and unfold the diagonals. 5. Fold the top raw edge to the 6. Fold and unfold the bottom raw
diagonals and unfold, only marking edge to the diagonals and unfold.
firmly in the regions shown.
7. Fold and unfold the raw edges to 8. Turn the paper over. 9. Fold the top and bottom raw edges
the diagonals as shown. to the intersections shown and unfold.
10. Fold and unfold the left and right 11. Fold and unfold the left and right 12. Fold the top and bottom raw
raw edges to the uppermost crease raw edges to the crease shown. edges to the creases made in step 9
you just made. and unfold.
127
13. Fold the top raw corners to the 14. Fold and unfold vertical lines 15. Fold and unfold the raw edges to
intersections shown and unfold. through the intersections shown. the horizontal crease shown.
Ensure the fold-lines go through the
indicated point.
16. Fold the bottom raw edge up 17. Pleat the existing mountain fold to 18. Fold the raw edge to the bottom
using an existing crease. the bottom to create a new valley fold. and unfold.
19. Turn the paper over. 20. Fold the top and bottom edges to 21. Fold and unfold two diagonals
the nearest horizontal creases through the point shown.
respectively and unfold.
22. Fold and unfold the indicated 23. Fold and unfold angle bisectors. 24. Collapse the paper using the
intersections together. creases shown.
128
25. Turn the paper over. 26. Fold and unfold an angle bisector 27. Squash-fold the right-hand flap.
on the right-hand near flap.
28. Bring the indicated intersection 29. Squash-fold the flap. 30. Petal-fold the corner upwards.
upwards, and collapse using existing
creases, swinging the flap to the right.
31. Pull out some of the white paper. 32. Fold the near flap in half and 33. Open-sink the corner using
unfold. creases you just made.
32-33
34. Fold the two nearest flaps (the 35. Repeat steps 32 and 33. 36. Fold two flaps to the left.
raw edge, and a thin rectangle) to the
right.
37. Fold the flap down. 38. Fold the corner down. 39. Fold the connected flaps to the
right.
129
26-39
40. Repeat steps 26 to 39 on the left. 41. Fold the near flap upwards. 42. Carefully unwrap the pleat to
reveal more of the white paper.
43. Fold the near flap down. 44. Petal-fold the raw edge down 45. Fold the raw edge behind, turning
using the hidden reference point – see the horizontal valley fold you just
the next diagram. made into a mountain fold.
46. Fold the near flap upwards. 47. Fold the connect flaps to the left. 48. Fold and unfold an angle bisector.
47-50
49. Spread-sink using the creases you 50. Fold the connected flaps to the 51. Repeat steps 47 to 50 on the right.
just made. right.
52. Fold the white triangle down, 53. Unsink the corner. 54. Turn the paper over.
making a new valley fold.
130
55. Petal-fold using existing creases. 56. Fold one flap to the right. 57. Swivel-fold using existing creases,
to twist the near layer anticlockwise.
58. Fold the corner up. 59. Reverse-fold. 60. Reverse-fold.
61. Reverse-fold, tucking the thick 62. Rabbit-ear the green triangle, 63. Unfold the small triangle.
corner underneath the green triangle. while folding one flap to the left.
64. Reverse-fold the inner layer to the 65. Fold one flap to the left. 66. Pull out the raw edge as far as it
left. will go.
56-68
67. Fold the corner down and unfold. 68. Fold one flap to the left. 69. Repeat steps 56 to 68 on the right.
131
70. Fold the corner down. 71. Unsink the vertex. You 72. Fold the corners to the
will need to unfold the centre and unfold.
paper somewhat to achieve
this.
73. Open-sink using the 74. Fold and unfold. 75. Mountain-fold the 76. Fold the flap up.
creases you just made. corners behind.
77. Fold and unfold. 78. Double-petal-fold using 79. Carefully wrap the raw 80. Swivel-fold a corner on
some of the creases you just edge behind. each side, undoing some
made. folds made in step 78.
81. Fold the white rectangle 82. Fold one flap to the
down. right.
83. Swivel-fold the corner up, by folding

the raw edge to the centre.
132
84. Fold and unfold. 85. Open-sink using the creases you 86. Fold the flap up to the right.
just made.
87. Fold a narrow angle bisector. 88. Fold an angle bisector and unfold.
89. Reverse-fold using the creases you 90. Pull out some paper on the near 91. Swivel-fold a very small amount of
just made. layers to reveal a small white triangle. paper, so that the white region is a
rectangle.
92 93 94
92. Fold an angle bisector 93. Fold two more angle 94. Reverse-fold in and out. 95. Mountain-fold the edge
and unfold. Repeat behind. bisectors and unfold. Repeat Repeat behind. behind along the edge of the
behind. white rectangle.
133
96. Fold the edge over,
forming a small gusset.
97. Unfold step 96. 98. Open-sink, being careful not to lock any
layers. This means partially unfolding the paper
and extending the sunken region to include the
paper that was part of the small gusset.
99. Fold and unfold. 100. Closed-sink using the creases

you just made.
101. Fold the flap back down. 102. Fold one flap down. 103. Fold one flap to the left.
134
82-103
104. Repeat steps 82 to 103 on the 105. Fold the small white rectangular 106. Fold two points upwards.
right. flap up.
107. Turn the paper over. 108. Fold and unfold angle bisectors.
109. Open-sink using the creases you 110. Fold the near flap down. 111. Reverse-fold the corners down.
just made.
112. Reverse-fold the corners up so 113. Rabbit-ear the point (along with 114. Sink the corner slightly.
that they stick out above the coloured the flaps between the layers) so that it
horizontal folded edges. sticks out to form a nose.
135
115. Pleat the lower point to make the 116. Curl the chin outwards. 117. Make the white rectangle's
mouth. corners pointier to form helmet horns.
118. Swivel-fold the ears down. 119. Unfold the white triangle.
120. Fold the white flaps outwards 121. Reverse-fold the raw corners 122. Fold the white triangle down.
using the references shown. upwards. The crease exists on the rear side of
the white triangle.
123. Fold the white triangle upwards 124. Swivel-fold on each side. 125. Fold down using an existing
using an existing crease. crease.
136
126. Fold and unfold. 127. Open-sink the corner using the 128. Fold the flap in half.
129. Fold the flap down so that the 130. Turn the paper over. 131. Crimp the arms outwards.
belly overhangs the loincloth.
132. Swivel-fold on each side using 133. Reverse-fold the corners. 134. Closed-sink the edge using
the references shown. existing creases.
92-94 92-94
135. Repeat steps 92 to 94 on the 136. Narrow the arms and legs by 137. Turn the paper over.
legs. folding them in half.
138. Fold the body in half gently,

while bringing the head forwards to
make a neck. 139. Shape the limbs as desired.
137
LITTLE DRAGON
Paper preferences:
• Duo
• Textured
• Thin
• Shapeable
Recommended papers:
• Foil-backed paper
• Double tissue
Upper Jaw
Eye
Tongue
Horn
Neck Lower Jaw
Foreleg
Even though it appears to be visually overshadowed by
the Vicious Little Dragon (page 156), this is my personal
favourite of the models in this book. I find the folding
Wing sequence to be pleasant (if I'm quick I can complete it
within an hour), and the final model has a lot of character.
Torso Definitely give this model a go before attempting the

Hind leg Vicious Little Dragon.
Tail
Start underbelly colour side up.
1. Fold and unfold the diagonals. 2. Turn the paper over. 3. Fold the raw edges to the vertical
crease and unfold.
138
4. Fold the raw edges to the horizontal 5. Fold the left and right raw edges to 6. Turn the paper over.
crease and unfold. the intersections shown and unfold.
7. Fold and unfold so that the fold-line 8. Fold and unfold the raw corners to 9. Fold and unfold the raw edges to
connects the intersections shown. the intersections shown. the creases you just made.
10. Fold and unfold the raw corner to 11. Fold and unfold the raw corners to 12. Turn the paper over.
the intersection shown and unfold. the intersections shown and unfold.
139
13. Fold the raw edges to the vertical 14. Fold the angle bisectors shown
creases and unfold. and unfold.
15. Fold the angle bisectors shown 16. Fold the angle bisectors shown 17. Fold the angle bisectors shown
and unfold. and unfold. and unfold.
18. Fold the horizontal lines shown 19. Fold the vertical lines shown and 20. Fold the left side over using an
and unfold. unfold. existing crease.
21. Swivel-fold the paper to the left 22. Swivel-fold the raw corner 23. Reverse-fold; the valley fold is an
using existing creases. upwards using existing creases. existing crease.
140
24. Swivel-fold the point 25. Fold the flap back up to 26. Fold the flap down. 27. Fold the flap to the
down. create a new crease then right.
fold it back down again.
22-26
28. Repeat steps 22 to 26 29. Swivel-fold using 30. Reverse-fold two edges together.
on the left. existing creases, by bringing
the mountain fold to the
left.
31. Swivel-fold using existing creases, 32. Swivel-fold using existing creases,
by bringing the mountain fold to the by bringing the raw edge to the top.
left.
33. Pull out the raw edge of 34. Fold and unfold an 35. Reverse-fold.
paper. angle bisector.
141
36. Reverse-fold using 37. Fold the raw edge as far 38. Fold the raw edge back
creases from step 34. as it will go so that it is down.
parallel to the left edge.
29-38
39. Fold the flap to the left. 40. Repeat steps 29 to 38 on the right. 41. Push the top edge in where
shown, and bring the indicated point
to the top. The paper won't lie flat
until step 43.
42. Push the bottom edges upwards, 43. Reverse-fold the raw corner.
and collapse the paper using existing
creases.
44. Fold and unfold a vertical line that 45. Fold one flap to the right.
goes through the intersection shown.
Fold through all layers.
142
46. Reverse-fold using existing 47. Reverse-fold using creases made
creases. in step 44.
48. Petal-fold the raw corner 49. Swivel-fold each side. 50. Fold one coloured triangle down
upwards. on each side.
51. Fold the triangular flap up.
52. Unfold the point, by bringing it 53. Fold the top edge down. 54. Make a narrow reverse fold.
upwards and to the right.
143
55. Fold the edge back up. 56. Fold the triangle in half. 57. Reverse-fold the edge to the right.
58. Swivel-fold the flap upwards as far 59. Pull the raw edge out. 60. Fold the raw edge so that it lies
as it will go using a horizontal valley parallel to the left edge and unfold.
fold.
51-60
61. Repeat steps 51 to 60 on the right. 62. Fold the lower section up – the
valley fold goes through the
intersection shown.
144
63. Make a valley fold which 64. Fold the lower section 65. Unfold steps 62 to 64. 66. Fold the raw edges so
connects the intersections up – the valley fold goes that they end up parallel to
shown. through the intersection the lower edges, using fold-
shown. lines that go through the
intersections shown, then
unfold.
67. Fold the corner back up, 68. Fold the corners in. 69. Fold the corners down. 70. Fold the raw corner
while simultaneously back down.
folding the raw edges out
using creases from steps 60
and 66.
72
71. Mountain-fold the model in half. 72. Pinch a small mountain fold 73. Crimp the paper using existing
perpendicular to the raw edge on the creases. Be careful not to tear the
top layer only. Repeat behind. paper at the pivot point indicated.
145
5/16
74
76
74. Pull the raw edge out 75. Rotate the paper until 76. Valley-fold the near flap
further: use the crease from the white edge is horizontal. to thin the rear leg. Repeat
step 72 and make a new behind.
valley fold that goes to the
tip of the tail. Repeat
behind.
79
77
78
77. Fold the small flap to the right. 78. Fold the small flap back to the left, 79. Reverse-fold a small corner.
Repeat behind. tucking it into the pocket. Repeat Repeat behind.
behind.
80. Crimp the points to form feet. 81. Closed-sink the edge to narrow
the tail.
146
82. Fold the crease shown to the 83. Fold the raw corner down so that
horizontal edge and unfold. the fold-line goes through the
intersections shown, then unfold.
84. Make a valley fold through the 85. Fold the flap to the right as far as
intersection shown so that the crease it will go.
you just made ends up horizontal,
then unfold.
86. Pleat the wing using the three 87. Fold the top edge over.
existing mountain folds.
147
88. Reverse fold four times to sharpen 89. Fold the edge down to sharpen the
the corners along the underside of the top corner of the wing.
wing.
82-89
90. Repeat steps 82 to 89 on the other

wing behind.
91
91. Pleat the point to the right. Repeat

behind.
92
92. Reverse-fold the edge. Repeat 93. Crimp the points to form feet. 94. Crimp the neck symmetrically.
behind.
148
95. Crimp the head down 96. Reverse-fold two of the points 97. Reverse-fold the middle point
symmetrically. down together. upwards to form a tongue.
98
98. Reverse-fold to narrow the 99. Reverse-fold the tips of the upper 100. Thin and shape the horns.
tongue. Repeat behind. and lower jaws.
101. Curl the tail.
149
VICIOUS LITTLE DRAGON
In this section we'll see how to upgrade the Little Dragon to a much more impressive (and more difficult)
dragon using grafting.
Grafting is a powerful and versatile origami technique. A prior understanding of grafting will be helpful here
You can find explanations in many places, including online or in books, such as A Complete Origami Nativity,
but I'll give a brief overview of the idea here in case you are new to the concept.
What is grafting?
Grafting is an origami design technique used to augment and enhance existing models, usually to add fine
details. The most useful sorts of modifications are those which allow us to add points and other details
without having to change the main design significantly. The more of the existing design that we can reuse,
the less time we have to spend redesigning, and we can cherry pick our favourite parts to keep.
Adding more paper for new features has traditionally been done by using multiple sheets of paper. By
contrast, grafting allows the designer to "add" paper to a design while still folding purely from a square
sheet.
How do you graft?

You can graft onto any design. Although it could be a base or an unfinished design, you will usually graft onto
a completed model. Grafting involves splitting paper along one or more lines or line segments (called graft
lines), moving the now separate pieces of paper apart, then filling in the gaps with more paper to reform a
square. This “added” paper can be used to make the extra features in the new model. This is usually a
theoretical process, but there's nothing to stop you actually cutting the paper and gluing in new strips.
An example of a graft. From left to right: 1) Two horizontal graft lines (two strip grafts). 2) The
three pieces are moved away from each other. 3) A circumscribed square which contains the three
pieces is added. 4) The circumscribed square is folded so that the three pieces are next to each
other again.
The graft lines can lie at any angle or location, and can even lie along the raw edge. A graft along a raw edge
is called a border graft, and other grafts are called strip grafts.
It's important that the paper in the gap(s) can be folded away so that the original pieces lie next to one
another as they did before "cutting", so that the original model can still be folded. If you slide two pieces too
far from each other in a direction parallel to the graft line, this won't always be possible. Actually folding the
pieces back together after grafting is sometimes quite tricky, and it isn't immediately obvious how you can
use the added paper, especially for paper being added onto flaps which aren't on the raw edge.
150
Usually grafts don't rotate the pieces, but only move them apart in a direction perpendicular to the graft line,
which results in adding rectangular strips. These are ideal for parallel pleats, which are easy to fold and
comprise the vast majority of grafts. I suspect the reason we rarely see any irregular grafts, such as those
that include a rotation, is because of the increased complexity required to both design and fold them.
Identifying a graft: Goblin

The Goblin is a simple example of grafting from this book – the crease pattern is below. If you look at the top
and bottom regions you'll notice some creases running horizontally parallel to the edge of the paper. This
can be an indicator of a border graft. Let's cut those parts off the paper and see what we get.
Head
Fingers OTE
This sort of structure is not
necessarily designed as a graft
but nonetheless, it's helpful to
be able to deconstruct a crease
pattern in this way. It makes
sense that we can view a
structure in multiple ways, in
order to help create a unified
theory of origami design,
Toes instead of having multiple
disparate techniques.
Loincloth
Left: Crease pattern for the Goblin. Centre: The top and bottom regions have been separated.
The large rectangle that comes from the centre of the paper has regions which should look familiar to
anyone who has examined the traditional bird base. This entire rectangle is actually suitable for folding a
basic Goblin without fingers, toes, eyes, helmet, or a loincloth. All these extra details must therefore be
contained within the cut-off strips, and have been grafted on to the more basic underlying form.
Observe that the graft line for the fingers and head passes directly through the tips of the flaps for the arms
and head, and likewise, the graft line for the toes passes directly through the tips of the leg flaps.
Notice too that the original base is a rectangle and not a square – all that matters (for origami purists) is that
the final shape after grafting is a square. We could therefore have added completely different sized strips, or
indeed other shapes entirely, provided we still get a square after grafting.
What's most important is that we can still fold the regions of paper that we originally started with, and that
we have more paper in useful locations for folding additional features.
Different grafts are possible – you might like to consider the results
of grafting paper onto different areas, such as above.
151
Grafting example: Little Dragon
We're aiming to add features to the Little Dragon, so we should consider what we would like to add. In
roughly priority order, the usual enhancements are: claws on the end of the legs, horns (or other details) on
the head, spikes, and scales. Scales can be very complicated, so to make things easier for ourselves, we will
omit them, but work on the others.
Let's start with the claws: we need to make a cut through the tip of the paper used for each leg. We should
always be simplifying the problem as much as possible, so let's restrict ourselves by only considering cuts at
certain angles. This is a sensible thing to do for a model with an angle-restrictive design geometry – the Little
Dragon is a 22.5° geometry model, so the graft will (hopefully) blend well with the existing design. Therefore
we'll limit our potential cuts around the foreleg and hind leg to those which align with existing creases: these
possible cuts are shown below.
Note that since this is a symmetrical model, we'll want to mirror whatever we do on one side on the other
side, so it's sufficient to consider only one half of the paper.
Foreleg
Hind leg
Left: Half of the crease pattern for the Little Dragon.

Centre: The 8 cuts to be considered around the foreleg.
Right: The 8 cuts to be considered around the hind leg.
Of these options, there are a few that seem promising. Cuts which are parallel to the raw edges are
convenient, so one option that could be worth exploring is shown below. This configuration has the
advantage of adding extra paper at the head, wings, and tail, which can all be utilised. I haven't taken this any
further here, but I'll leave this as an option for the reader to investigate.
One possibility for grafting paper onto the Little Dragon.
152
Instead, we might make an observation about the 8 cuts around each of the points on the previous page. One
of the graft lines is actually the same in both images, so if we use this line, we can get away with only having
one graft line – the inserted strip of paper will be sufficient for both forelegs and hind legs. This means we
don't need to add as much paper, which means a more efficient model. Conveniently, this graft line also
passes through the tip of the tail, which can therefore be lengthened significantly.
Foreleg
Hind leg
Left: One cut goes through both the foreleg and hind leg. Right: Adding a gap between the pieces
and circumscribing a half square around them. But how wide should the gap be?
Let's go ahead with this one cut approach. The next thing to determine is how far apart to "move" the pieces.
Picking arbitrarily is rarely a good idea – the two best methodical approaches are to base the gap on an easy
to find reference (which makes folding easier), or to align with existing creases in other parts of the design.
Let's see if we can align with creases in the head, which is the other place we want to add new paper.
The head uses the structure of a traditional Frog Base, which has three points along the line of symmetry –
the upper jaw, lower jaws, and tongue – as well as two other large points for horns, and four smaller points,
two of which form the eyes. A clever trick we can employ is to replace this Frog Base with a more complex
traditional base, such as the Blintzed Frog Base, which converts the four shorter points into longer points
without having to modify the location of the main points at all. Blintzing in this manner will not only add
points, but reduces the flap lengths. This is actually an advantage here, because the head becomes
proportionally smaller, so the finished model will appear sleeker, provided we narrow parts such as the neck
and tail accordingly too.
Upper
Jaw
Eye
Horn
Tongue
Lower
Jaw
Left: Crease pattern for the Frog Base, and half a Frog Base in the Little Dragon.
Right: Crease pattern for the Blintzed Frog Base – can half a Blintzed Frog Base be used for a more
complex head?
Traditional bases are familiar structures with many points, and they can often be seen at the raw corners of
the paper in this sort of scenario. The lower paper which connects to the rest of the body needs some extra
thought, but this is significantly less effort than a whole redesign.
153
But how does this relate to the graft? The Blintzed Frog Base doesn't have the smaller flaps needed for the
eyes, but with just a bit more paper we could reuse the same pattern used for the Little Dragon's eye. Let's
consider the strip of paper which is added as a result of the graft. We want to make the width of the strip
match with some existing points, and there's a natural way of doing this by extending the pattern from the
Blintzed Frog Base into the grafted strip. This in turn will implicitly specify the width of the strip added for
the claws. As it happens, we actually get two new flaps on the face this way. We can use the smaller one for
the eye and the longer one for a brow to add more shape to the face.
It seems a shame to have a whole extra strip of paper which is only used for eyes. Fortuitously, we end up
having plenty of extra paper around the points for the upper and lower jaw which (with a bit of effort) can
be made into teeth and nostrils. These are unplanned bonuses, which help us use the paper more efficiently.
Eye
Brow
Tooth
Tooth
Left: Extending lines from the Blintzed Frog Base into the grafted strip to determine the graft width.
Right: Crease pattern for the finished head, including very small flaps for teeth.
With the strip width at the claws now derived, we just have to decide how exactly to use this extra paper.
Given the level of detail elsewhere, we want a reasonable number of points – and a traditional dragon is
most commonly seen with four claws on each foot, which requires pleating the strip into thirds.
These pleats terminate uniformly along the upper raw edges, meaning we can easily create a few extra
spikes along the neck for free too.
Upper Jaw
Eye
Tongue
Horn
Neck Lower Jaw

Foreleg
Wing
Torso
Hind leg
Tail
Crease pattern and finished model of the Little Dragon.
154
Altogether this gives the crease pattern below for a much more complex dragon than we initially started
with – christened the Vicious Little Dragon. As ever, although the design is now structurally completed, there
are many valid ways of actually folding it. One sequence is diagrammed overleaf, but if you're up to the
challenge, first try making this into a model without following the diagrams. This is no trivial task, and you
should give yourself a hearty pat on the back if you manage it!
Designing with grafting in mind

It would be a bit misleading to suggest that the Little Dragon was randomly chosen to use for this example.
In fact, whenever I design a graft onto one of my own models, I usually had the intention of doing so all
along. Practising grafting helps to identify the attributes which make a model a suitable candidate, which in
turn helps the designer to design with these attributes in mind from the beginning.
So how was this done with the Little Dragon? For one thing, the Little Dragon works well as a standalone
model (i.e. before grafting) because the level of detail is consistent across the model – see page 49. This is
important because the main flaps we need – the head, tail, wings, and legs – are already in place, but minor
details – like claws, spikes, teeth and more horns – are not. Grafting is generally an inefficient way of adding
large flaps, so is best reserved for smaller features. Conversely, we can make our graft more efficient by
cramming in as many small features as possible from one graft, so we want our existing model to be a blank
canvas where these finer features are not yet present.
It may seem rather convenient that there happens to be a straight line passing directly through the foreleg,
hind leg, and tip of the tail in the Little Dragon's crease pattern. This is because the original model was
designed so that these features were all aligned along this line. In other words, this line was a sensible option
for grafting because it had already been determined in advance. Forcing carefully-chosen features to all lie
along the same line allows a model to be easily adapted and is the most practical grafting advice I can give.
Designing this way lets the designer plan a very complex model in two stages, by separating the larger flaps
from the details. But while the Little Dragon is a stepping stone model ultimately intended to help produce
the Vicious Little Dragon, the latter model ends up so much more complex that personally I prefer folding
the Little Dragon. We do have a tendency of overcomplicating things, and perhaps this is a lesson that just
because we can make a model more detailed, it doesn't mean we should!
Face
Upper jaw
Horns
Tongue
Lower jaw
Neck
Foreleg
Wing
Torso
Hind leg
Tail
Crease Pattern and finished model of the Vicious Little Dragon.
155
VICIOUS LITTLE DRAGON
Paper preferences:
• Duo
• Shapeable
• Ultra thin
Recommended paper:
• Double tissue
Face
Before you begin this model, I cannot stress the importance of Upper jaw
sufficiently large, thin paper. Details such as the teeth simply Horns
Tongue
won't be manageable with usual paper.
Lower jaw
Neck
To prevent the diagrams becoming cluttered and even longer
Foreleg
(counting the repeated steps from the Little Dragon, this model
clocks in at a whopping 300 steps!), I haven't always shown
every precrease or explained the trickiest steps in as much Wing
detail as might be seen elsewhere. I am presuming that by
deciding to attempt this model, you are sufficiently experienced
with fine shaping to complete it on your own. Torso
Hind leg
Good luck!
Start underbelly colour side up. Tail
1. Fold and unfold the diagonals. 2. Fold the raw edges to the vertical 3. Turn the paper over.
crease and unfold.
156
4. Fold the raw edges to the horizontal 5. Fold the top and right raw corners 6. Fold the top raw corner to the
crease and unfold. together, marking firmly only where intersection shown and unfold.
shown, then unfold.
7. Fold the bottom raw corner to the 8. Fold the bottom raw corner to meet 9. Fold a vertical line that goes
crease you just made, marking firmly the intersection shown and unfold. through the intersection shown, then
only at the right raw edge and unfold. unfold.
10. Fold a vertical line that goes 11. Fold the right raw corner to the 12. Fold the right raw corner to the
through the intersection shown, then intersection shown, then unfold. intersection shown, then unfold.
unfold.
157
13. Fold and unfold two angle 14. Fold the raw edge to the 15. Fold the raw edge to the crease
bisectors, by bringing the bottom left intersection as shown (not to the you just made and unfold.
raw edge to the creases shown. crease made in step 6). The fold-line
should go through the circled point on
the left. Then unfold.
13-15
16. Repeat steps 13 to 15 on the right. 17. Fold the left raw corner to the 18. Make a fold-line which connects
circled intersection, marking firmly the intersections shown and unfold.
only where shown and unfold.
19. Fold the raw edges to the circled 20. Halve the distance between two 21. Some reference creases will no
intersection so that they end up creases on each side, then unfold. longer be shown. Turn the paper over.
vertical, then unfold. The fold-line will
be a third of the way between creases
made in step 13.
158
22. Fold and unfold through the 23. Fold and unfold two pairs of 24. Fold and unfold two pairs of
intersection shown. creases together. The fold-lines go creases together. The fold-lines go
through the intersections shown. through the intersections shown.
25. Fold and unfold five horizontal 26. Fold and unfold four vertical lines. 27. Fold and unfold four pairs of
lines that go through the intersections creases together.
shown.
28. Fold and unfold using the 29. Turn the paper over. 30. Fold two angle bisectors and
intersections shown. unfold.
159
31. Fold the top left raw edge over 32. Fold an angle bisector where 33. Fold and unfold several angle
using an existing crease. shown and unfold. bisectors around the indicated points.
34. Fold a line that goes through the 35. Fold and unfold several angle 36. Fold and unfold two more angle
indicated intersections and unfold. bisectors around the indicated point. bisectors around the indicated points.
31-37
37. Unfold the raw edge. 38. Fold and unfold several angle 39. Repeat steps 31 to 37 on the right.
bisectors around the indicated point.
40. Pinch and unfold mountain fold- 41. Fold and unfold fold-lines which
lines between the circled points. are parallel to the inner mountain
creases.
160
42. Fold and unfold two fold-lines 43. Pinch and unfold four mountain 44. Fold the innermost pair of pleats
which connect the intersections fold-lines using the intersections simultaneously, much like a rabbit
shown. shown. ear. Swing the excess paper at the
bottom to the right.
45. Fold the next pair of pleats much 46. Fold the final pair of pleats. 47. Fold and unfold through the
like step 44, wrapping the bottom raw intersections shown.
corner around the outside.
48. Preliminary-fold the top raw corner using existing creases. 49. Fold and unfold.
50. Fold and unfold angle bisectors. 51. Reverse-fold the edges using creases you just made.
161
Little Dragon:
20-33
52. Fold steps 20 to 33 of the Little 53. Fold one layer to the right. The
Dragon (page 140). paper won't lie flat until step 57.
54. Spread-sink the flap. 55. Fold two layers to the left to 56. Reverse-fold the edge upwards.
flatten the paper.
57. Open out a white triangle. 58. Fold angle bisectors through all
layers of the white triangle and
unfold.
59. Fold and unfold between the 60. Collapse the triangle using the 61. Reverse-fold the raw edge to the
intersections shown. creases shown. right.
162
62. Fold the corner up. 63. Fold the corner to the right to 64. Fold and unfold.
reveal a white triangle.
Little Dragon:
56-60
65. Perform steps 56 to 60 of the 66. Fold the flap down. 67. Unsink a corner to the left.
Little Dragon (page 144).
68. Fold the corner down. 69. Swivel-fold the pleated edges to 70. Fold and unfold, making sure to
lie along the left edge. fold firmly through the pleated layers.
71. Fold using a fold-line parallel to 72. Swivel-fold the corner upwards as 73. Note the location of the circled
the coloured edge. far as it will go. corner. Unfold steps 71 and 72.
163
74. The sequence in steps 74 to 78 is 75. Use the crease made in step 70 to
very tricky, so be patient! Carefully fold each pleat on top of itself. 76. Refold the pleats to flatten the
spread apart the pleats. The paper paper.
77. Fully-mixed-crimp the pleats so 78. Flatten the paper using the crease 79. Pull out some paper.
that the circled corner goes back to from step 71.
the location in step 73 – the paper
80. Make a small swivel-fold. 81. Pull out the raw edge.
83
83
82. Swivel-fold some paper 83. Reverse-fold the corner of the 84. Repeat step 83 on the other two
underneath. nearest pleat in and out to sharpen pleats.
the point on the left.
164
85. Mountain-fold the edge 86. Mountain-fold the edge
underneath. underneath using an existing crease.
87. Fold and unfold through two 88. Reverse-fold using the creases you
layers along the pleated edges. just made.
87-88
90
90
90
89. Repeat steps 87 and 88. 90. Swivel-fold one corner down. 91. Repeat step 90 three more times.
92. Perform simultaneous swivel folds 93. Fold the edge to the left.
to stretch the corner down.
165
94. Fold one layer down. 95. Fold the flaps to the left.
Little Dragon:
53-55
29-33
96. Perform steps 29 to 33 of the 97. Repeat steps 53 to 55 flipping, left 98. Reverse-fold the corner down.
Little Dragon (page 141), flipping left and right (page 162).
and right.
99. Unsink a hidden edge, while 100. Unfold the corner to the left. 101. Fold the flap up.
pulling a corner out to form a square.
57-93
102. Repeat steps 57 to 93, flipping 103. Fold the flaps down. 104. Turn the paper over.
left and right (page 162).
166
105. Open-sink in and out using 106. The sunken point is now at the 107. Open-sink diagonally.
existing creases. same height as the top edges. Turn the
paper over.
108. Fold one layer to the right so that 109. Open-sink using existing creases.
you can see the inner vertex. The
110. Spread-sink symmetrically. 111. Unsink the hidden corner. 112. Invert the circled vertex by
pushing it from the underside so that
it becomes convex.
113. Flatten the paper by swinging 114. Fold one layer to the right. 115. Swivel-fold the corner upwards.
the excess paper to the right.
167
116. Simultaneously pull the hidden 117. Swivel-fold to narrow the top 118. Open-sink the edge along an
edge down while sinking the corner corner. angle bisector.
on the left.
109-111
119. Open-sink the next edge (around 120. Bring the white layers to the 121. Repeat steps 109 to 111 on the
a ridge) along an angle bisector. front. right.
122. Fold one set of connected layers 123. Fold two corners down. The 124. Unsink a layer of paper to the
to the right. second flap is connected to an edge right.
that won't lie flat until step 125.
125. Fold one flap up. 126. Open-sink an edge along an 127. Fold one flap down.
angle bisector.
168
128. Fold one flap to the left. 129. Spread-sink the edge on the 130. Fold one layer to the left while
right. folding the top edge down.
129-130
131. Repeat steps 129 and 130. 132. Fold one layer to the left. 133. Fold the corner up.
134. Open-sink along angle bisectors 135. Fold two layers to the left. 136. Open-sink along angle bisectors
on the left and the right. on the left and the right.
137. Fold one layer to the right. 138. Fold the corner down. 139. Fold one narrow flap and the
large triangle to the left.
169
114-139
140. Repeat steps 114 to 139, flipping 141. Squash-fold the flap. 142. Bring the circled corner upwards
left and right (page 167). and collapse the corner to the right
using existing creases.
143. Squash-fold. 144. Petal-fold.
145. Pull out some of the raw edge 146. Fold the paper to the left. 147. Carefully pull out the raw edge.
from under the left side. The raw
corner may also come with it.
148. Fold one edge to the right. 149. If they aren't already, ensure the 150. Squash-fold.
layers appear as above. Fold and
unfold.
170
151. Reverse-fold. 152. Open-sink using creases made in 153. Fold two layers to the left.
step 149.
154. Open-sink the right edge along 155. Sink along an angle bisector. 156. Sink thrice more, along angle
an angle bisector. bisectors.
149-157
157. Fold four layers to the right. 158. Repeat steps 149 to 157 on the 159. Squash-fold.
left.
161
160. Turn the paper over. 161. Sink the vertical edge to the left 162. Like this. Repeat step 161 on the
bringing some of the vertical edge to right.
lie horizontally – the fold-lines go
through the circled intersection.
171
164
163. Fold one layer down as far as it 164. Unsink an edge to the left. 165. Repeat step 164 on the right.
will go. The paper won't lie flat until
step 167.
166. Push the edge upwards and 167. Fold the connected layers to the 168. Wrap the hidden edge around to
flatten the paper. right. The lower region of paper won't the front.
lie flat until step 170.
169. Fold the connected layers to the 170. Sink the left edge, undoing step 171. Reverse-fold the circled corner
left while bringing the circled corner 161. to the top.
upwards.
167-171
172. Repeat steps 167 to 171 on the 173. Fold and unfold. 174. Fold and unfold.
right.
172
175. Sink in and out on each side to 176. Reverse-fold an edge on each 177. Fold and unfold.
narrow the corners at the top. side.
178. Open-sink in and out using the 179. Fold the flap down. 180. Reverse-fold on each side.
181. Closed-sink the near corner. 182. Fold the flap back up. 183. Turn the paper over.
184. Fold the point down to the 185. Fold and unfold the edges onto
crease. themselves using the references
shown.
173
186. Fold and unfold angle bisectors. 187. Rabbit-ear the corner up. 188. Wrap one layer to the front.
189. Fold one edge to the right, 190. Fold another edge to the right, 191. Pull out some paper.
releasing a trapped edge. releasing a trapped edge.
192. Fold one final edge to the right, 193. Fold three edges back to the left. 194. Reverse-fold the point to the left.
releasing a trapped edge.
196
189-193
195. Repeat steps 189 to 193 on the 196. Pull out some paper. Repeat on 197. Fold and unfold.
right. the back of the flap.
174
198. Open-sink using the creases you 199. Reverse-fold and rearrange the 200. Swivel-fold the top left edge
just made. square you just sunk into a down to spread the region
preliminary base. underneath flat.
201. Swivel-fold the corner to the left 202. Fold and unfold an angle 203. Open-sink using the creases you
and spread the region underneath flat, bisector. just made.
as in step 200.
204. Undo the swivel folds in steps 205. Open-sink the edge down. 206. Spread-sink the edge.
200 and 201 to flatten the front layer.
200-206
207. Repeat steps 200 to 206 on the 208. Fold and unfold through all four 209. Closed-sink all four layers on
back of the flap. layers on each side. each side.
175
210. Closed-sink the further edges 211. Petal-fold the corner upwards.
along angle bisectors.
212. Fold the corners to the 213. Fold the corners to the creases
intersections shown and unfold. you just made and unfold.
214. Unfold step 211. 215. Reverse-fold using creases from 216. Petal-fold using the existing
step 213. creases.
217. Fold and unfold. 218. Fold and unfold an angle bisector
on each side.
176
219. Fold and unfold between the 220. Fold the corner down, while 221. Fold and unfold.
circled intersections. folding the raw edges to the sides.
222. Mountain-fold the raw corner 223. Reverse-fold the corners in.
underneath.
224. Fold the coloured corners 225. Swivel-fold the corner upwards.
outwards.
226. Bring the coloured triangle to the 227. Fold one layer to the right to 228. Fold some paper over the eye to
front. make a coloured square eye. make the brow.
177
225-228
229. Repeat steps 225 to 228 on the 230. Fold both of the wings upwards.
right.
231. Fold the whole lower section on 232. Rabbit-ear the flap down to the 233. Fold and unfold through all
top of the top section. right. layers
5/16
236
234. Mountain-fold the right half of 235. Rotate the paper 5/16 of a turn 236. Reverse-fold the white layer of
the paper behind the left half. anticlockwise. paper out. Repeat behind.
178
237
238 239
237. Fold a fold-line which connects 238. Fold the white flap to the right. 239. Fold and unfold. Repeat behind.
the intersections shown, then unfold. Repeat behind.
Repeat behind.
240. Crimp the right-hand section 241. Reverse-fold the edge so that it 242. Wrap one layer to the front.
about the circled point, using a new becomes vertical.
angle bisector.
243. Carefully pull the layers at the 244. Flatten the pleats. 245. Carefully wrap the raw edge
corner open and separate the pleats. around using mostly existing creases.
241-245
246. Repeat steps 241 to 245 behind. 247. Sink the edge inside. 248. Crimp, pivoting about the circled
point, so that the white region
becomes horizontal.
179
249. Unfold step 248. 250. Crimp again, but this time push the edges on the right
between the layers to stop the pleats being locked.
Little Dragon: 82-88

251 Little Dragon: 82-88
251. Pull up a little paper from behind the wing. 252. Perform steps 82 to 88 of the Little Dragon on the
Repeat behind. front and the back (page 147).
253
253
253. Reverse-fold the 254. Repeat step 253 on the

nearest corner in and out. other two pleats.
253-257
255. Fold all four points 256. Fold one point to the 257. Curl and spread the 258. Repeat steps 253 to
diagonally; up and to the right. claws. 257 behind.
left.
259. Fold all four corners diagonally;

up and to the left.
180
259-262
260. Fold three corners to 261. Curl and spread the 262. Fold part of the leg 263. Repeat steps 259 to
the left. claws. behind. 262 behind.
264. Swivel-fold the raw edge

upwards.
264 264 264
265. Repeat step 264 on the right, and twice behind. 266. Open-sink the corner to narrow the tail.
267. Crimp the neck upwards slightly, pivoting 268. Sink in the paper at the top of the crimp
about the circled point. you just made, in order to thin the neck.
269
269. Mountain-fold some paper underneath to

taper the neck. Repeat behind.
181
270. Crimp the lower jaw and tongue
down together.
271. Outside-reverse-fold the tongue 272. Mixed-reverse-fold the lower 273. Rabbit-ear two points on each
back and forth. jaw. jaw to make teeth.
274 275
274. Crimp the nearest point. Repeat 275. Swivel-fold some paper 276. Spread and curl the six horns.
behind. underneath to narrow the point.
Repeat behind.
277. Fold some of the paper of the

belly underneath and curl the tail.
182
OTHER BOOKS BY THE AUTHOR
The Four Seasons Easy Origami Series:
Suitable for those with no origami experience, available via https://pbsorigami.co.uk/
A Complete Origami Nativity

Published by SARL Passion Origami/ Nicolas TERRY, ISBN: 978-2-492572-13-5
“In short, a near essential book for folders who

have already learned the basics.”– Nick Robinson,
professional paper artist and author of over 100
books on origami.
This book has over 30 original designs so you can

create your own complete origami Nativity scene!
Along the way, discover advanced folding techniques,
such as smooth folding and wet folding, as well as
design principles so that you can learn to create your
own unique models.
For a full review and a list of recommended papers go

to https://pbsorigami.co.uk/books/a-complete-
origami-nativity/
"This book is incredible. It starts off with the basics and

builds up to some incredible Origami models…"
"I think this book is amazing… I'm not sure if I'll be able
to fold all the models in the book but I'll enjoy trying.!
Ebook – € 19.99 (EUR), hardcopy – € 29.95 (EUR), or both together – € 31.95 (EUR) at
www.origami-shop.com/complete-origami-nativity
183
CONTRIBUTORS
AMPREET MANNA
Sampreet Manna is a biotechnology-genetic engineering student, and still-life

photographer sketch artist. He became enthusiastic for origami at the age of 12,
and is now a self-taught origami designer and artist.
His specialty is to design animal figures, and his designs focus on circle packing,
22.5° geometry and box pleating. He likes to discover the mathematics behind
origami, and believes that origami has the power to change the future in terms
of applied science. His vision is to bring the vast possibilities and opportunities
of origami in front of India and the rest of the world.
Youtube: Sampreet Manna Origami
OICE WONG
Boice Wong is an Origami Designer, Competitor, and Community Leader.
Known by his online handle, Origami By Boice, he has accomplished feats in

humanoid origami design, won a silver medal from the Origami Olympiad,
and grown multiple communities of tens of thousands of folders. Boice
teaches complex origami on his YouTube channel and continually seeks to
reach folders across the world through his position at OrigamiUSA, discord
channel: Origami-dan, and various social media platforms.
Website: https://www.obb.design/
184
EE ARMSTRONG
Lee Armstrong is known for his expressive, three-dimensional models, which

explore curves and paper tension to create unique shapes and surfaces. His
sensitive folding style breathes character into deliberately simple figures and
captures the essence of animals, plants and even the elements. Lee's models are
always a delight to fold, and remind the folder that the joy of origami is not only
in a beautiful model, but also in the journey of sculpting the paper to get there.
Lee is a valued member of the British Origami Society (BOS) council and enjoys
reading poetry and protecting trees in his limited spare time.
Instagram: @lee_armstrong_ori
ARC KIRSCHENBAUM
Marc Kirschenbaum is a leading American origami artist who has been active
with the art form since the 1970s. He has developed hundreds of designs,
covering a wide range of subjects. These works have appeared in over fifty
books that he has either authored or contributed to.
Kirschenbaum’s pieces have been shown in major origami exhibitions

(including the American Museum of Natural History, The Smithsonian, Mingei
International Museum, and Hangar-7), small and sheik SoHo shows, and even a
private exhibition at the prestigious National Arts Club. He also gives back to
the origami community through his volunteer efforts at OrigamiUSA, a
premiere international origami organization, in both capacities as a Director
and Chair of the Publications Committee.
Website: https://sakuraorigami.com/
ETER BUCHAN-SYMONS THE AUTHOR
Peter Buchan-Symons started folding paper when he was six years old and
began designing original complex origami models shortly afterwards. Within a
few years he started teaching his models at national BOS conventions, and had
multiple television appearances.
Now doing origami full-time, Peter's primary concern is to make origami of all
difficulty levels more accessible. He has a growing selection of origami books at
a range of difficulty levels – see page 183.
Website: https://pbsorigami.co.uk/
185
LEGAL INFORMATION
Folding Fantasy: Volume 1 © Peter Buchan-Symons, 2022. All rights reserved.
Published by Origami Shop, presented by Nicolas Terry.
Edited by Natasha Symons. Photographs used with permission: Goblins (pages vi, 126, and front
cover) and Vampire (pages v, 36, and back cover) by Sampreet Manna, Fairy (pages vi and 108) by
Boice Wong. Cover design by Peter Buchan-Symons.
No part of this publication may be reproduced or used in any form, without prior written consent of
the author. This includes the distribution (whether as part of a sale or otherwise) of models and/or
diagrams appearing within this publication.
If you would like to teach an original model from this book, for example at your local origami group,
please contact me using the details below to request permission (and I will almost certainly say
"yes, that's ok"!):
Email: [email protected]
Instagram: @pbs_origami
Website: www.pbsorigami.co.uk
Use this QR code to go to

www.pbsorigami.co.uk for free
diagrams and other books!
Imprimé pour le compte de SARL Passion origami par E-business Digital Edition Services, 140 bis
rue de Rennes, 75006 Paris.
Imprimé en UE. Dépôt légal septembre 2022.
Conception et mise en page / Design and layout: Peter Buchan-Symons
OTE
If you become aware of any illegal
copies of either this publication or of
any other origami publication, please
contact the OAC group (Origami
Authors & Creators) on their website
http://digitalorigami.com/oac/.
186

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PETER BUCHAN-SYMONS

ERMINOLOGY Low Intermediate

EHIND THE DESIGN

OCH NESS MONSTER

EHIND THE DESIGN

EHIND THE DESIGN

ICIOUS LITTLE DRAGON

EHIND THE DESIGN THER BOOKS BY THE AUTHOR

-vi- EGAL INFORMATION

Crease – A line that has

These circles are at the core of

Mountain fold – A mountain fold is the opposite of a valley fold. It

Unfold – A symmetric white arrowhead shows an unfold. This will

Reverse fold/inside reverse fold – An inside reverse fold is used

Outside reverse fold – An outside reverse fold is the opposite of an

Swivel fold – An asymmetric squash fold is called a swivel fold.

Rabbit ear – A rabbit ear combines three valley folds and a

A diagram will usually have a symbol to show what is happening to

Preliminary fold – One of the standard origami bases is called the

Mixed reverse fold – Sometimes a reverse fold will involve multiple

Crimp – A crimp is a combination of two reverse folds performed at the

Double swivel fold – A double swivel fold combines

Open sink – The standard form of sink is the open sink

Closed sink – A closed sink is like an open sink, except it

Double sink – Successive sinks can be combined in one diagram (and

Unsink – Sometimes a point needs to be folded in a way that looks like

Box stretch/Elias stretch – A box stretch straightens the edge

Collapse – A collapse is the catch-all term for a

How do I make double tissue paper?

You will need:

3. Using a sharp pencil and a ruler,

4. Using a cutting tool, such as a craft 5. Unfold to get your square.

How big should my paper be?

If folded precisely, there are visible gaps above the heart

The extent to which this is a Dragon or a Dog is largely

Hind leg Tail

48. Rabbit-ear the raw corners to

Some common design geometries are:

Generalising design geometries

Modifying an existing design

Ear Eye Nose

Hind leg Tail

Although the Loch Ness Monster has a smaller number of steps

You have the option of making a more elegant, slender Nessie in a

Begin water colour side up.

44. Fold the top edge to the blue raw

59. Optionally, you may wish to fold the blue

Both sides of the paper end up visible in the Claw

46. Closed-sink. 47. Mountain-fold.

48. Crimp the corners. 49. Reverse-fold.

52. Fold and unfold. 53. Open-sink using creases made in

54. There are no references from this 55. Reverse-fold.

First time: 40cm/16''

Start skin colour side up.

50. Stretch the nearest pleat flat and

55. Reverse-fold the edge. 56. Fold and unfold an

62. Closed-sink the corner using

What difficulty level are we aiming for?

What are the non-essential features?

Left: Roll the paper to make a simple cylindrical cloak shape.

Neck and Body*

Fang Lips Fang

Crease pattern and folded model of the Vampire.

There is a lot of pre-creasing in this model – around a third of