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How to fold an origami anglerfish

A dark triangle folded behind into a lumpy body with a pleated tail. Fold a white strip small and snip it into a row of fangs, then add a yellow lure on a stalk.

You need: A 15 cm square of dark paper, a 1.5 × 7.5 cm white strip, a 6 cm yellow square, scissors, glue and a white pen. Hard, 20 steps, about 30 minutes.

Steps

  1. Fold in half. Dark side up, fold the bottom corner up behind to the top corner. The fold is the belly; the left point will be the jaw.
  2. Flatten the top. Fold the top point behind through both layers on a level crease 7 cm above the belly.
  3. Round the shoulders. Fold the two top corners behind on short slants, so the back is round and lumpy.
  4. Tail: fold behind. Fold the right point behind on an upright crease 4.6 cm from its tip.
  5. Tail: swing it out. Swing the hidden point back out behind: fold it on a steep slant from the bottom of the last fold, so a tail fan sticks up and back.
  6. The fangs. Set the body aside. Take the white strip, lying slanted along where the lower jaw will be.
  7. Fangs: fold in half. Fold the strip in half end to end.
  8. Fangs: and again. Fold it in half end to end again.
  9. Fangs: once more. And once more, to a small stack of 8 layers. Crease hard.
  10. Fangs: cut a point. Cut a tall point into the stack: from each bottom corner 8 mm up, cut in to the middle of the top edge.
  11. Fangs: unfold. Open the last fold.
  12. Fangs: unfold again. Open the next fold.
  13. Fangs: open it out. Open the last fold too. Now it's a long row of 8 sharp fangs.
  14. Fangs: bend the jaw. Fold the right 3 fangs up and back on a steep crease, so the row bends into a wide V: the lower and upper jaws.
  15. The lure. Set the fangs aside too. Take the yellow square, white side up, as a diamond with a corner pointing down right.
  16. Lure: make a kite. Fold the two edges next to the lower right corner in to the middle crease, making a kite.
  17. Lure: fold the bulb. Fold the wide corner over onto the tips of the kite's flaps, so the wide end is blunt and all yellow.
  18. Lure: thin the stalk. Fold the long edges in to the middle again from the narrow tip, so the tip becomes a thin stalk under a fat bulb.
  19. Lure: bend the stalk. Fold the bulb end forward and down on a slant 3 cm from the thin tip, so the stalk bends over like a fishing rod.
  20. Glue it together. Glue the lure's thin tip behind the top of the head, the bulb hanging in front of the face. Glue the fangs along the mouth, points inward.

Lights on, deep down!

Give it a tiny white eye above the fangs and a few white sparkles around the glowing bulb.

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