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How to fold an origami seahorse

A long kite folded in half becomes a slim body. Cut it to taper into a tail, pull the head forward and curl the tail with outside reverse folds, then glue on a little fan fin.

You need: 1 square sheet (15 cm), orange on one side, a 5 cm square of pale yellow paper, scissors, a glue stick and a black pen. Hard, 14 steps, about 18 minutes.

Steps

  1. Crease the middle. Fold the left corner to the right corner, crease, and unfold.
  2. Make a long kite. Fold the two upper edges in to lie along the middle crease, making a long point at the top.
  3. Turn it over. Flip the kite over.
  4. Fold in half. Mountain-fold the left half behind along the crease, flaps inside. The fold on the left is the seahorse's front.
  5. Shape the body. Trim the right edge into a gently rounded back, then cut both edges in to the bottom point, so the body tapers into a long thin tail.
  6. Make the head. Outside-reverse-fold the top point forward and down, wrapping it round the body, on a crease from 3.5 cm down the front, slanting down toward the back.
  7. Snip the snout. Snip off the very tip of the snout, straight across, so it ends in a little mouth.
  8. Curl the tail. Fold the bottom of the tail forward on a slanted crease 5 cm above its tip, so it points left under the belly.
  9. Curl it up. Fold the tail's end up on a slanted crease 2.6 cm from its tip, so it rises in front of the belly.
  10. Curl the tip. Fold the very tip over to the right on a slanted crease 1.3 cm from its end, so the tail rolls into a spiral.
  11. Fin: a small square. Set the seahorse aside. Take the small pale square, white side up, turned like a diamond.
  12. Fin: fold in half. Fold the left corner over to the right corner.
  13. Fin: round it. Round off the pointed corner into a fan shape.
  14. Glue on the fin. Glue the fin behind the seahorse's back, halfway down, with its round edge sticking out to the right.

Giddy-up, seahorse!

Draw a dot eye, a few lines on the fin and little curved rings down the belly. Tape it to a blue card sea or stand it in some paper seaweed.

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