How to Make an Origami Crane

It’s amazing what you can do with a square piece of paper. The Japanese art of origami is a technique of folding paper into different shapes, the crane being perhaps the most iconic. Whether done to amuse a child, give as a gift, or used as decoration, the simple paper crane is always appreciated.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• One perfectly square piece of paper

1. Fold the paper in half so that it forms a rectangle with the crease at the top. Fold the rectangle in half length-wise to make another crease, and then undo this fold. The crease that you just made will be used as a measure in the next step.

2. Fold the top right-hand corner of the length-wise rectangle until the corner touches the bottom of the paper and lines up with the crease that you just made down the middle of the rectangle. Turn over the rectangle and repeat, to form a triangle.

3. Grasp the middle bottom of the triangle and gently open into a cone. Keep pulling gently until your cone slides easily into a square with a diagonal crease running from the top left-hand corner to the bottom right-hand corner. Fold the top right-hand corner and the bottom left-hand corner into the middle of the square to meet the crease, and then undo these two folds. They will have left two more creases which will help guide you in subsequent steps.

4. Tilt your square slightly to the right so that it becomes a diamond with the top left-hand corner becoming the top of the diamond. Grasp the top flap of the diamond’s bottom corner and fold up. You should now have a tall diamond in the foreground with the larger, shorter diamond in the background. Turn the shape over to repeat on the other side.

5. Fold the top right-hand corner and the bottom left-hand corner into the middle of the square to meet the crease, and then undo these two folds. Grasp the top flap of the diamond’s bottom corner and fold up. You should now have a tall, thin diamond shape.

6. Grasp the top flap of the left and right corners of your diamond and fold into the center crease. Flip the shape over and fold the remaining right and left flaps into the center crease as well. You should now have a tall diamond shape with two ‘legs’ at the bottom.

7. Holding the diamond shape upright, grasp one of the ‘legs’ and fold it up and onto itself so that the bottom of the leg is now pointing upwards and at an angle. Repeat with the other leg.

8. Choose one of the upright legs to be the crane’s head, and bend the end of the leg into itself so that it is now pointing down. The shape will have four bottom paper points, spread these out a bit so that it can stand on its own, and fold over its wings.

Tips & Warnings

• Your square piece of paper should not be smaller than 5 inches by 5 inches, or it will become too difficult to fold.