All models

How to fold an origami dragon

A seven-part dragon: a long body with its neck and spiky tail made by outside reverse folds, scalloped bat wings, a crest of spikes, legs, a horned head with an open jaw and a two-colour flame.

You need: Green 15, 6 and 5 cm squares, a 10 cm purple square, an 8 x 4.4 cm yellow strip, 5 cm orange and 3 cm yellow squares. Scissors, glue.. Challenge, 47 steps, about 50 minutes.

Steps

  1. Body: crease the middle. Start with the body: a 15 cm green square, white side up, turned like a diamond. Fold the left corner to the right corner and open it again.
  2. Body: make a kite. Fold the two lower edges in so they meet along the middle crease.
  3. Body: narrow the top. Fold the two upper edges in to the middle too, so the paper is a long diamond, pointed at both ends.
  4. Body: slim the top. Fold the upper edges in to the middle once more, making the top point long and thin: the tail.
  5. Body: slim the bottom. Fold the lower edges in to the middle the same way, making the bottom point long and thin too: the neck.
  6. Body: fold in half. Fold it in half along the middle, folding the right half behind, so the flaps stay outside.
  7. Body: lay it down. Turn it so the fold is along the top: that is the dragon's back. The tail is on the left, the neck on the right.
  8. Body: pull up the neck. Outside-reverse-fold the right point up to stand as the neck, wrapping it round the body. The crease runs down and back from the back, 6.5 cm from the tip.
  9. Body: lift the tail. Outside-reverse-fold the left point up the same way, the crease starting on the back 5.5 cm from the tip, so the tail sweeps up behind.
  10. Body: flick the tail tip. Outside-reverse-fold the end of the tail back down, about 2 cm from its tip, so it flicks out in a spike.
  11. Wings: new sheet. Set the body aside. Take a 10 cm purple square, white side up, turned like a diamond.
  12. Wings: fold in half. Fold the bottom corner up to the top corner. Each layer is a wing, and the fold along the bottom will be glued into the dragon's back.
  13. Wings: fold a fan. Fold the top corner down on a crease from the right corner, so the right edge lies along the bottom fold.
  14. Wings: fold it again. Fold the top edge down to the bottom fold again, creasing from the right corner. Now all the layers make one thin point.
  15. Wings: snip the scallops. Cut off the pointed end on a slant: from the bottom fold 10 cm from the right corner up to the top edge 8.5 cm from it. Cut through every layer.
  16. Wings: open the fan. Unfold the last fold.
  17. Wings: open it out. Unfold the first fan fold too. The edge now dips in two scallops between three points, like a bat's wing, and the creases look like its fingers.
  18. Legs: new sheet. Set the wings aside. Take a 6 cm green square, white side up.
  19. Legs: fold in half. Fold the top edge down to the bottom edge. The fold on top will go up inside the dragon's tummy.
  20. Legs: in half again. Fold the right edge over to the left edge.
  21. Legs: cut the legs. Cut a slant off the bottom right corner: from 1.4 cm along the bottom to 2.4 cm up the fold. Trim the left edge too, from 1 cm below the top to 4 mm in at the bottom.
  22. Legs: open it. Unfold the last fold: a front leg and a back leg, with a V between them.
  23. Glue in the legs, add the wings. Open the belly a little and glue the legs' fold inside it, the V under the middle. Glue the wings' fold along the back, the fan's corner at the front.
  24. Crest: new sheet. Set the dragon aside. Cut an 8 x 4.4 cm strip of yellow paper and lay it white side up, long sides at the top and bottom.
  25. Crest: fold in half. Fold the top edge down to the bottom edge. The spikes will be cut along this fold.
  26. Crest: fold it small. Fold the right end over to the left end.
  27. Crest: smaller. Fold the right end over to the left end again.
  28. Crest: smallest. And once more, so it is 1 cm wide and sixteen layers thick. Press it flat.
  29. Crest: snip the spikes. Cut one slant through all the layers, from the top right corner down to the left edge 1.9 cm below the top.
  30. Crest: open it. Unfold the last fold.
  31. Crest: open again. Unfold the next fold.
  32. Crest: open it out. Unfold the first fold. Four spikes stand along the top!
  33. Head: new sheet. Set the crest aside. Take a 5 cm green square, white side up, turned like a diamond.
  34. Head: fold in half. Fold the right corner over to the left corner and crease it well: you will snip along this crease.
  35. Head: open it again. Unfold it back into a square.
  36. Head: make a kite. Fold the two lower edges in to the middle crease. The long bottom point is the snout.
  37. Head: turn it over. Turn it over, keeping the snout at the bottom. This smooth green side is the face.
  38. Head: snip horns and mouth. Snip down the middle crease from the top point to just past the side corners. Then snip up it from the snout, 1.8 cm.
  39. Head: fold out the horns. Fold the right top point out to the right, creasing from the end of the snip, so white shows. Fold the left one just a little to the left.
  40. Head: open the jaw. Fold the left half of the snout out to the left, creasing from the end of the mouth snip. The gap is the open mouth.
  41. Head: blunt the snout. Snip 5 mm off the tip of the snout, straight across, and 5 mm off the tip of the jaw, so the face is blunt like a dragon's.
  42. Flame: new sheet. Set the head aside. Take a 5 cm orange square, coloured side up, turned like a diamond.
  43. Flame: make a kite. Fold the two edges by the left corner behind, so they meet along the middle at the back.
  44. Flame: narrow the point. Fold the slanted edges by the point behind to the middle again, making it long and thin. The thin end goes in the mouth.
  45. Flame core: new sheet. Set the flame aside. Take a 3 cm yellow square, coloured side up, turned like a diamond.
  46. Flame core: make a kite. Fold the two edges by the left corner behind to the middle, like the flame.
  47. Glue on crest, head and fire. Slip the crest over the back and glue it, spikes up. Glue the head on the neck, the flame's thin point in the mouth and the yellow core on the flame.

Roar!

Draw an eye and a nostril on the head. Bend the wings up a little, stand the dragon on its legs and let it breathe fire!

What to fold next