How to fold an origami penny-farthing
Fold a long red strip very thin and bend it three times into a curved backbone and a fork. Fold a giant black wheel and a tiny one, and glue the frame over them.
You need: Red paper 28 × 3 cm, a 15 cm and a 4 cm black square, glue. Hard, 14 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 thin strip, red on both sides: the frame.
- Backbone. Near the left end, outside-reverse-fold the long part up on a slant, so it climbs steeply to the right. A short stub stays flat at the bottom.
- Lean over. High up, outside-reverse-fold the strip over a little to the right, so it leans over like the top of a curve.
- Fork. Fold the rest of the strip straight down on a slant, both layers together. It's the fork that holds the big wheel.
- Big wheel: new sheet. Set the frame aside. Take the big black square, white side up.
- Big wheel: corners in. Fold all four corners in to meet in the middle.
- Big wheel: hub. Fold each point back out a little way, so a white square shows in the middle. That's the hub.
- Big wheel: round it. Fold the four points of the square a little way behind, so the wheel looks round.
- Small wheel: new sheet. Set the big wheel aside and take the tiny black square, white side up.
- Small wheel: corners in. Fold all four corners in to the middle.
- Small wheel: hub. Fold each point back out a little for the hub.
- Small wheel: round it. Fold the four points behind to round it off.
- Build the bicycle. Glue the big wheel next to the tiny one. Glue the frame on top: the stub on the tiny hub, the end of the fork on the big hub.
Wobble off!
Hold it up by the frame and roll it along the table on its giant wheel.