How to Make Origami Paper Birds

A walking crow and a simple swan completed.

Origami is a Japanese paper-folding art. Practitioners can make paper into sculptures of objects, people or animals, some of them even functional. You can buy origami paper for the purpose, which has colors and patterns printed on lightweight sheets. Any paper will do, though. Some origami figures even use dollar bills as their material. The two bird patterns here both take square paper.

Things You'll Need

• 1 square sheet card stock, construction paper or lightweight paper
• 1 square sheet lightweight paper

Instructions

Walking Crow

1. 

   Hold the paper so it looks like a diamond. Fold the paper down from the top to form a triangle. Unfold.

2. Turn the paper so that you see a square with a diagonal fold line running from the top-left corner to the bottom-right corner.

3. 

   Fold the right edge of the paper up and to the right so that the right edge of the paper meets the diagonal fold.

4. 

   Fold down the top of the paper so that the top edge meets the diagonal fold. Hold the figure so that the long triangle points left with a smaller triangle pointing right.

5. 

   Fold the smaller right-hand triangle--let's call it the tail flap from now on--over to the left so that its point lays along the center line.

6. 

   Fold the tail flap roughly in half to the right so that the tail flap's point sticks out beyond the main right edge of the figure.

7. 

   Fold the top half of the figure down over the bottom half. You should be looking at a long, left-pointing triangle---the main body---and the small triangle of the tail flap, which points right.

8. 

   Make a diagonal fold, bending all layers of paper toward yourself, about a third of the way from the top-left side of the main body, with the diagonal fold running toward the left. This means the start of the fold on the top of the figure is farther to the inside of the body than the end of the fold at the bottom of the figure.

9. 

   Bend the point of the figure away from you and toward you a couple times to give yourself a good crease, then return the point of the main body to its original position.

10. 

    Pinch the main body at the top just behind the start of the crease you just made, then push the point down. The point will fold down between the layers of the main body. You've just made the crow's nose.

11. "Walk" the crow by standing the bird on a flat surface so that the nose and left side both touch the table. Lightly tap the tail and the crow will move forward.

Easy Paper Swan

1. 

   Hold the paper so that it looks like a diamond. Fold the paper in half vertically to form a triangle. Unfold.

2. Turn the paper so that you see a square with a diagonal fold line running from the top-left corner to the bottom-right corner.

3. Fold the bottom edge of the paper up and to the right so that the bottom edge of the paper meets the diagonal fold.

4. 

   Fold the top of the paper down and toward the left so that the top edge meets the diagonal fold.

5. Turn the paper over and hold it so that the figure looks like a kite with a short triangle pointing up and a long triangle pointing down.

6. 

   Fold the right side in vertically so that the long right edge of the figure meets the center fold line. Do the same on the left side.

7. 

   Fold the bottom of the figure up so that the bottom point ends up positioned below the top point a bit, say, a quarter-inch to a half-inch down. This will be the neck and head.

8. 

   Fold the head down over on the neck so that the point is still centered on the vertical fold line. You can vary the size of the head. For now, try folding down enough of the paper point so that the head is about an inch long.

9. 

   Fold the figure in half along the vertical so that the right and left sides of the figure meet behind the head.

10. 

    Hold the body of the swan with one hand and use the other hand to pull the neck of the swan until it's at an angle you like. Crease the paper at the bottom of the neck.

11. 

    Move the swan's head into a position you like in the same way you positioned the neck.

Tips & Warnings

• Make sharp, exact creases so that your figures turn out well.

References

• Package Instructions, Origami Color Folding Paper; Designer Kunihiko Kasahara
• Origami for Beginners