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How to fold an origami cherry picker

Fold one long yellow sheet into a strip. Reverse-fold the front up as the cab and the back up into a long arm, bend the arm back at its elbow and hang the bucket from its tip. Add two folded wheels.

You need: Yellow paper 34 × 8 cm, two 4.5 cm black squares, glue and a black pen. Hard, 16 steps, about 35 minutes.

Steps

  1. Edges to the middle. Start white side up. Fold the top and bottom edges in to meet along the middle.
  2. Fold in half. Mountain-fold it in half along the middle, so the top half goes behind. Now it is a long thick strip, yellow on both sides.
  3. Cab. Outside-reverse-fold the short front end straight up, on a 45° crease from the bottom edge. It stands up as the cab.
  4. Windscreen. Fold the top front corner of the cab behind on a slant, for a sloping windscreen.
  5. Lower arm. Outside-reverse-fold the long back end up and forward, so it rises steeply over the truck towards the cab.
  6. Elbow. High above the cab, fold the arm back the other way on an upright crease, so the top half climbs up over the back of the truck.
  7. Bucket. Fold the tip of the arm straight down on a slant, so a short end hangs from the top. That's the bucket.
  8. Back wheel: new sheet. Set the truck aside. Take a black square, white side up.
  9. Back wheel: corners in. Fold all four corners in to meet in the middle.
  10. Back wheel: hub. Fold each point back out a little, so a small white square shows in the middle. That's the hub.
  11. Back wheel: round it. Fold the four points of the square a little way behind, so the wheel looks round.
  12. Front wheel: new sheet. Set the back wheel aside and take the other black square, white side up.
  13. Front wheel: corners in. Fold all four corners in to the middle.
  14. Front wheel: hub. Fold each point back out a little for the hub.
  15. Front wheel: round it. Fold the four points behind to round it off.
  16. Build the truck. Glue the wheels on, half showing below: one under the foot of the arm, one under the cab.

Up we go!

Draw a black window on the cab. Lift a paper worker up in the bucket to fix the street lamp!

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