How to fold an origami horseshoe crab
A kite narrowed into a long spike. Swing the narrow flaps back out as the sides of the shell, round the front into a horseshoe and pleat a hinge across the middle.
You need: 1 square sheet (15 cm), olive brown on one side and white on the other, and a black pen. Hard, 11 steps, about 20 minutes.
Steps
- Crease the middle. White side up, fold the left corner onto the right corner, crease, and unfold.
- Make a kite. Fold the two lower edges in to the middle crease, so the bottom point is long.
- Narrow it. Fold the new lower edges in to the middle again, making a long thin spike: the tail.
- Swing out the sides. Fold the top of each narrow flap back out, on a slant from where it meets the top edge to the middle 5.5 cm above the tail tip: the sides of the shell.
- Turn it over. Turn the crab over, so it is brown all over.
- Blunt the front. Fold the top corner behind on a level crease 3 cm below it.
- Round the front. Fold the two new corners behind on short slants, so the front of the shell is a round horseshoe.
- Hinge: fold up. Fold the whole tail end up behind on a level crease where the sides of the shell end.
- Hinge: fold back. Fold it back down behind on a crease 7 mm higher, so the shell overlaps the tail half with a little step: the hinge.
- Spike joint: fold up. Fold the spike up on a level crease 6 cm above its tip, where the tail half gets thin.
- Spike joint: back. Fold it back down on a crease 4 mm higher, so the spike hangs from the tail half by a little step.
Ancient crab!
Draw a curved ridge down each side of the shell, with a small eye on each ridge.