How to fold an origami leaping dolphin
One square, no glue. Pleat the beak out of the head, fold a slim kite in half, snip and swing up a curved fin, lift and split the tail, then tip it up to leap.
You need: 1 square sheet (15 cm), blue-grey on one side and white on the other, scissors and a black pen. Hard, 14 steps, about 25 minutes.
Steps
- Crease the middle. White side up, fold the top corner down to the bottom corner, crease, and unfold.
- Fold in the head. Fold the right corner in to the middle of the paper.
- Pleat out the beak. Fold the tip of that flap back out to the right, 4 cm from the middle, so a small point sticks out past the edge: the beak.
- Make a kite. Fold the two left-hand edges in to the middle crease, so the left point is long and narrow.
- Turn it over. Turn the paper over. Now it is all grey, with the beak on the left.
- Fold in half. Fold the bottom half behind along the middle crease. The fold is the belly, the beak points left.
- Fold the back down. Fold the top of the back down behind through all layers on a level crease 4 cm above the belly.
- Snip the fin free. Snip along the new fold from the back tip of the hidden strip forward, about 3 cm.
- Swing up the fin. Fold the snipped end of the strip up behind on a slant from the end of the snip, so it stands above the back and leans back: the fin.
- Round the forehead. Fold the top front corner of the head behind on a slant, so the forehead slopes down to the beak.
- Lift the tail. Fold the tail up through all layers on a crease 7 cm from its tip, slanting up toward the tip, so the tail rises.
- Snip the tail. Snip 3 cm along the tail's folded edge from the tip, so its front and back layers come apart.
- Spread the flukes. Fold the front tip down and back from the end of the snip. The back tip stays up, so the tail spreads into two flukes.
- Leap!. Tip the dolphin nose-up so it leaps out of the water.
Splash!
Draw a small eye just above the beak and a smile along it.