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How to fold an origami deer

Fold a square in half, crease the leg lines and reverse-fold the neck back. Cut and slim the legs, lift the neck and crimp the head, then cut a pair of branching antlers and a white tail.

You need: A 15 cm square, tan on one side, and a scrap of the same paper; a 6 x 4.6 cm dark brown piece; scissors and glue. Hard, 25 steps, about 35 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 deer's back.
  2. Crease the legs. Fold the left end over on an upright crease 1.4 cm from the left edge, and the right end behind on one 7.7 cm from the right edge.
  3. Open them. Unfold both ends again. The two creases mark the inside edges of the legs.
  4. Neck back. Outside-reverse-fold the right end back over the body 6.4 cm from the right edge: the front layer folds over the front, the back layer behind.
  5. Cut the strips. Cut up the neck fold, leaving 1.6 cm at the top. Trim the flap to a strip, 1.3 cm deep at its tip.
  6. Shape the nose. Snip the bottom corner off the neck strip's tip: from 6 mm below the top fold on the tip, to the bottom edge 1.4 cm in.
  7. Cut the legs. Cut up both leg creases to 3 cm below the top fold. Cut the belly between them in a shallow curve, 3.5 cm below the fold in the middle.
  8. Round the rump. Round off the top corner of the back end with two short cuts, through both layers, starting 1.3 cm down the back edge.
  9. Slim the legs. Trim each leg narrower toward the hoof: slant the back and chest edges in 5 mm at the bottom and the inside edges 4 mm.
  10. Lift the neck. Outside-reverse-fold the neck strip on a crease from its bottom corner, so it swings up in front of the chest.
  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 1.9 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 points forward and down. Glue the two head layers together.
  14. Antlers: new sheet. Set the deer aside. Take the dark brown piece, coloured side up, long side across.
  15. Fold in half. Fold the right edge over onto the left edge.
  16. In half again. Fold the right half over onto the left.
  17. And once more. Fold the right half over onto the left once more, so you have a narrow stack of eight layers.
  18. Cut a point. Cut the top of the stack to a sharp point, cutting 2.2 cm down each side through all the layers at once.
  19. Open one fold. Unfold the last fold.
  20. Open the next. Unfold the next fold too.
  21. Antlers: shape them. Cut the tine next to the fold away, down to 3.7 cm below the top. Then cut a slant from the outer top corner to 5 mm from the fold at the bottom.
  22. Antlers: open. Unfold the middle fold. Two antlers branch out from one stem, each with three sharp tines.
  23. Tail: new sheet. Set the antlers aside. Cut a strip of the tan paper 7 mm wide and 2.2 cm long, and lay it white side up.
  24. Tail: cut a point. Snip the top of the strip to a point, cutting in from both sides.
  25. Glue it together. Glue the deer over the bottom of the tail so the white tail sticks up at the back. Glue the antlers' stem behind the top of the head.

A fine stag!

Draw an eye and a black nose on each side, and colour the hooves dark. Stand it up with its legs a little apart.

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