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How to fold an origami dolphin

A long diamond folded in half makes the slim body. Snip the tail into two flukes, then slip in a little fin folded from a small square.

You need: 1 square sheet 15 cm wide and 1 square 7 cm wide in the same colour, small scissors and a glue stick. Medium, 13 steps, about 8 minutes.

Steps

  1. Fin: fold in half. Start with the small square for the fin, white side up. Fold the bottom corner up to the top corner.
  2. Fin: in half again. Fold the right corner over to the left corner. That little triangle is the fin.
  3. Body: new sheet. Set the fin aside. Take the big square, white side up, turned like a diamond.
  4. Body: crease. Fold the left corner to the right corner, crease, and unfold.
  5. Body: make a kite. Fold the two lower edges in to lie along the centre crease.
  6. Body: long diamond. Fold the two upper edges in to the centre crease too, making a long diamond with a point at each end.
  7. Body: fold in half. Fold the left half behind the right half.
  8. Body: lay it down. Turn it so the long fold is at the bottom. The left point is the beak.
  9. Body: beak over. Fold the beak over onto the body, toward you, on a crease that starts on the bottom fold about 3.5 cm from the tip and stands almost straight up.
  10. Body: beak out. Fold it back out on a crease from the same spot, leaning a little more to the right, so the beak tips up and a forehead bumps out above it.
  11. Body: snip the tail. Cut along the bottom fold from the right point, about 5 cm in, so the tail splits into a front and a back layer.
  12. Body: flukes. Fold the front layer of the tail up at a slant from the end of the cut. Fold the back layer up behind just a little, so the flukes open into a V.
  13. Glue in the fin. Slip one short edge of the fin between the two layers of the back, just behind the hump, long slanted edge facing the beak, point leaning back. Glue it.

Click click!

Draw an eye and a long, happy smile along the beak.

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