How to fold an origami farmyard
A real project. Cut and pleat a red barn with a white-trimmed gambrel roof, add framed doors and a hay loft, then a picket fence, a tree, a pig, a sheep and a chick. Glue it all into one farmyard that stands up on the table.
You need: 9 pieces: 15 cm red square, then dark red, yellow, brown, green, pink and black pieces (sizes in steps). Scissors, glue, black pen, white gel pen.. Challenge, 47 steps, about 50 minutes.
Steps
- Barn: fold in half. Start with the barn: a 15 cm red square, red side up. Fold the left edge over onto the right edge.
- Barn: cut the gambrel roof. Cut through both layers: from 7 cm down the open side, up to 2.4 cm in and 3 cm down, then to the top edge 1.6 cm from the fold.
- Barn: open it. Open the barn out flat again. The roof bends twice on each side, steep at the bottom and gentle at the top: a gambrel roof.
- Barn: pleat the eaves. Fold the bottom edge up, creasing 8.5 cm below the top. The white side shows for now.
- Barn: fold it back down. Fold the flap back down along the middle line, 1 cm higher. The pleat leaves a ledge right under the roof.
- Barn: white corners. Fold each side edge of the walls in 5 mm, so a white strip runs up both corners.
- Barn: trim the roof. Fold 5 mm of the flat top and of both steep lower roof edges onto the front, for white trim.
- Barn: trim the top slopes. Fold 5 mm of the two gentle upper roof edges onto the front too. Now white trim runs all round the roof.
- Doors: new sheet. Set the barn aside. For the doors, take a 7 × 5.5 cm dark red piece, red side up, long side across.
- Doors: crease the middle. Fold it in half left to right and open it again. The crease is where the two doors meet.
- Doors: frame the top and bottom. Fold the top and bottom edges onto the front by 5 mm, for white trim.
- Doors: frame the sides. Fold the two side edges in by 5 mm as well. The doors now have a white frame all round.
- Hay loft: new sheet. Set the doors aside. For the hay loft, take a 3 × 6.5 cm yellow piece, white side up, standing tall.
- Hay loft: fold up. Fold the bottom edge up to 6 mm short of the top edge. The yellow is the hay; the white strip on top is the beam over the loft door.
- Hay loft: bevel the top. Fold the two top corners behind by 5 mm, so the loft's top slopes like the roof.
- Glue the doors and loft on. Glue the doors at the bottom middle of the barn, bottoms in line. Glue the hay loft in the middle of the roof, its top 2.4 cm below the ridge.
- Trunk: new sheet. Set the barn aside. For the tree trunk, take a 3 × 7 cm brown strip, white side up, standing tall.
- Trunk: sides to the middle. Fold both long edges in to meet along the middle. The trunk is brown all over.
- Treetop: new sheet. Set the trunk aside. For the treetop, take an 8 cm green square, green side up.
- Treetop: corners behind. Fold each corner behind, creasing from 2.3 cm along one edge to 2.3 cm along the other. You get an octagon.
- Treetop: round it. Fold all eight new corners behind, just 7 mm each, so the treetop is round and leafy.
- Pig: new sheet. Set the treetop aside. For the pig, take an 8 × 6.5 cm pink piece, white side up, long side across.
- Pig: fold in half. Fold the top edge down to the bottom edge. The fold on top is the pig's back.
- Pig: in half again. Fold the left edge over onto the right edge.
- Pig: snip the legs. Cut a slant off the bottom corner at the fold, from 1.4 cm up to 1.9 cm along. Snip the other bottom corner (1.6 cm up, 1.1 cm in) and top corner (1 cm) too.
- Pig: open it. Open the last fold. A gap in the middle of the belly leaves two pairs of legs, and the snipped ends make a snout and a round rump.
- Sheep: new sheet. Set the pig aside. For the sheep, take a 7.5 × 6 cm black piece, white side up, long side across.
- Sheep: fold up the legs. Fold the bottom edge up 1.5 cm. The black band will be the legs; the white is the woolly body.
- Sheep: fold in half. Fold the left edge over onto the right edge.
- Sheep: snip the legs. Cut a slant off the bottom corner at the fold, from the top of the black band to 2 cm along the bottom. Snip the tip off the other bottom corner.
- Sheep: open it. Open the last fold. Now the sheep has two pairs of thin black legs.
- Sheep: fold down the head. Fold the top right corner down onto the front, from 2.2 cm along the top to 2.6 cm down the side. The black triangle is the face.
- Sheep: round the back. Fold the top left corner behind, 1.2 cm each way, to round off the sheep's back.
- Chick: new sheet. Set the sheep aside. For the chick, take a 5 cm yellow square, white side up, turned like a diamond.
- Chick: corners to the middle. Fold all four corners in so their points meet in the middle.
- Chick: the beak. Fold just the tip of the bottom point back down, 5 mm. Its white side is a little beak in the middle.
- Chick: round it. Fold the four corners of the square behind, 9 mm each way, so the chick is a round fluffy ball.
- Fence: new sheet. Set the chick aside. Last, the fence: a 15 × 4.5 cm brown strip, brown side up, lying long.
- Fence: fold in half. Fold the left end over onto the right end.
- Fence: in half again. Fold the right end back over onto the left fold.
- Fence: and again. Fold it in half once more the same way, to a narrow stack about 1.9 cm wide. Crease hard.
- Fence: cut the pickets. Cut the top to a point, from 1.2 cm down each side. Then snip a thin sliver off each side, from there to 2.6 cm down.
- Fence: open it. Unfold the last fold.
- Fence: open again. Unfold the next fold.
- Fence: open flat. Unfold the first fold too. Eight pointed pickets stand in a row on a solid rail.
- Build the farmyard. Glue the barn over the fence's left end, the tree behind its right end, the chick by the doors, and the sheep and pig nose to nose. Bottoms all in line.
- Stand it up. Bend the fence gently towards you where it meets the barn, and stand the whole farmyard up on the table.
Welcome to the farm!
With a white gel pen, paint an X on each door. Draw hay in the loft, the pig's eye, ear, snout and curly tail, the sheep's wool and eye, and the chick's face.