How to fold an origami spiral narwhal
A kite becomes a whale body. Swivel the flap tips into forked flukes, round the head and pleat a flipper, then fold a thin ivory tusk and glue it on.
You need: A 15 cm square, grey-blue on one side and white on the other, a 10.5 × 1.5 cm ivory strip, glue and a black pen. Hard, 14 steps, about 30 minutes.
Steps
- Fold in half. White side up, turned like a diamond. Fold the left corner over onto the right corner.
- Open it. Open it out again. The crease down the middle guides the next folds.
- Make a kite. Fold the two lower edges in to lie along the middle crease.
- Fold down the head. Fold the white top triangle behind, on the line between the two side corners.
- Slit the tail. Cut up the middle crease from the bottom point, 4.5 cm long, through all the layers.
- Flukes: tips up. Fold each half of the tail point up, on a line across the top of the slit.
- Flukes: tips out. Fold each half back down on a slant from the top of the slit, so it leans out to the side. The two points make the flukes.
- Round the head. Fold the two top corners a little behind, so the head is round.
- Lay it down. Turn it so the head points left.
- Tusk: new sheet. Set the body aside. Take the ivory strip, long edges at the top and bottom.
- Tusk: taper the top. Fold the top edge down on a slant, deep at the left end and shallow at the right, so the strip narrows to the left.
- Tusk: taper the bottom. Fold the bottom edge up the same way, over the first flap.
- Tusk: tilt it. Tilt the spike so its point rises a little.
- Glue on the tusk. Glue the body over the wide end of the tusk, so the spike sticks straight out of the front of the head.
Unicorn of the sea!
Draw a spiral line twisting along the tusk, a small eye near the head and a few dark spots along the back.