How to fold an origami paddle steamer
Fold one long red sheet into a strip. Reverse-fold the back up and over into a deckhouse, crimp the middle up into a tall funnel, slant the bow and glue a big folded paddle wheel on.
You need: Red paper 45 × 8 cm, a 9 cm black square, glue and a white pen. Hard, 13 steps, about 30 minutes.
Steps
- Edges to the middle. Start white side up. Fold the top and bottom edges in to meet along the middle.
- Fold in half. Mountain-fold it in half along the middle, so the top half goes behind. Now it is a long thick strip, red on both sides.
- Stern. Outside-reverse-fold the long back end straight up, on a 45° crease from the bottom edge. This is the stern.
- Deckhouse. Fold the upright part forward on a slant, so it lies along the top of the hull. Now the back half is twice as tall: the deckhouse.
- Funnel up. Where the deckhouse ends, outside-reverse-fold the long front end straight up, on a 45° crease from the bottom edge.
- Funnel down. High up, fold the upright part straight back down over itself, square across. The fold at the top is the funnel's rim.
- Deck. At the deck, fold the end forward on a 45° crease, so it runs on along the hull. The funnel now stands up tall in the middle.
- Bow. Fold the bottom corner at the front behind on a long slant, so the bow points forward.
- Paddle wheel: new sheet. Set the boat aside. Take the black square, white side up.
- Paddle wheel: corners in. Fold all four corners in to meet in the middle.
- Paddle wheel: hub. Fold each point back out a little, so a white square shows in the middle.
- Paddle wheel: round it. Fold the four points of the square a little way behind, so the wheel looks round.
- Add the paddle wheel. Glue the boat on, with the wheel on its side in front of the funnel, half above the deck.
Full steam ahead!
Draw a row of white windows along the deckhouse. Chug it down the river!