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How to fold an origami bull

Fold a square in half, crease the legs and reverse-fold both ends back. Cut sturdy legs, drop the tail, lift a thick neck into a hump, hang the head low and add horns.

You need: A 15 cm square, dark brown on one side, and a 4.4 × 1.8 cm strip of cream paper; scissors, a ruler and glue. Hard, 18 steps, about 30 minutes.

Steps

  1. Fold in half. White side up, fold the top edge down to the bottom edge. The fold at the top is the bull's back.
  2. Crease the legs. Fold the left end over on an upright crease 3.9 cm from the left edge, and the right end behind on one 6.8 cm from the right edge.
  3. Open them. Unfold both ends again. The two creases mark the inside edges of the legs.
  4. Ends back. Outside-reverse-fold the right end back over the body 5 cm from the right edge, and the left end 2.2 cm from the left edge.
  5. Cut the strips. Cut along both end folds, keeping 2.6 cm at the top right and 5 mm at the left, 1.1 cm down. Trim the flaps to strips, the right one 2 cm deep at its tip.
  6. Shape the nose. Snip the bottom corner off the neck strip's tip: from 1.7 cm below the top fold on the tip, to the bottom edge 6 mm in.
  7. Cut the legs. Cut up both leg creases to 4.2 cm below the top fold. Cut the belly between them in a shallow curve, 4.8 cm below the fold in the middle.
  8. Slim the legs. Trim each leg narrower toward the hoof: slant the back and chest edges in 3.5 mm at the bottom, the inside edges 2 mm. Slope the back down to 1.1 cm at the rump.
  9. Tail down. Outside-reverse-fold the thin tail strip down on a crease from its top corner, so it hangs down behind the hind legs.
  10. Hump the neck. Outside-reverse-fold the thick neck strip up on a crease from its bottom corner, only a little, so it rises forward over the shoulders.
  11. Snip the neck. Cut along the back fold of the neck from its base right up to the tip, so the two layers of the neck come apart.
  12. Head back. Fold the top of each neck layer down over the neck, on a crease from its back edge 1.6 cm up, slanting down to the front edge.
  13. Head out. Fold the head back out on a crease from the same corner, so it hangs low, nose down. Glue the two head layers together.
  14. Horns: new sheet. Set the bull aside. Cut a cream strip 4.4 cm long and 1.8 cm tall, and lay it cream side up.
  15. Horns: fold in half. Fold the left edge over onto the right edge, so you cut both horns at once.
  16. Horns: cut a horn. From the bottom of the fold, cut a curve bulging down and out to the top right corner. Then cut straight back to the fold, 1 mm above the middle.
  17. Horns: open. Unfold it: a pair of horns curving up from the middle.
  18. Glue on the horns. Glue the middle of the horns behind the top of the head, so one horn curves up in front and one behind.

Snort!

Draw a white eye and a white ring through the nose with a gel pen, and colour the hooves black. Stand it square on all four legs.

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