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How to fold an origami strutting turkey

Fold a white band round a copper fan and pleat it into ridged feathers. Add a plump brown body and a red neck with a reverse-folded head and a dangling snood.

You need: An 18 × 9 cm copper rectangle for the tail, a 9 cm brown square, a 7 cm red square, glue and a black pen. Hard, 19 steps, about 35 minutes.

Steps

  1. Tail: round the top. Copper side up, long edge at the bottom. Fold both top corners down in front, on lines that make the top of the tail nearly round.
  2. Tail: white tips. Fold the top edge down 1 cm, showing a white band.
  3. Tail: band the sides. Fold the two slanted top edges in by 1 cm too, over the corner flaps, so the white band runs all round the rim.
  4. Tail: pleat 1. Valley-fold each side over on a line from the bottom middle point, as shown. The outer parts flip over towards the middle.
  5. Tail: pleat 1 back. Fold each flap back out on a line a little nearer the middle, leaving a narrow pleat along each fold.
  6. Tail: pleat 2. Valley-fold each side over again on the next lines from the bottom middle point, folding all the layers together.
  7. Tail: pleat 2 back. Fold each flap back out on a line a little nearer the middle, leaving a narrow pleat along each fold.
  8. Tail: pleat 3. Valley-fold each side over again on the next lines from the bottom middle point, folding all the layers together.
  9. Tail: pleat 3 back. Fold each flap back out on a line a little nearer the middle. The last pleats stand as ridges and the tail is now a narrower fan.
  10. Head: new sheet. Set the tail aside. Take the red square, white side up, turned like a diamond.
  11. Head: make a kite. Fold the two upper edges in to lie along the up-and-down middle line, making a long point at the top.
  12. Head: fold in half. Fold the right half over onto the left half, so it is all red. The fold on the right is the front of the neck.
  13. Head: the beak. Outside-reverse-fold the top point forward, on a crease 2.5 cm below its tip, so the head and beak point ahead.
  14. Head: the snood. Valley-fold the front 1.3 cm of the head down on a slant, both layers together, so it dangles like a turkey's snood.
  15. Body: new sheet. Set the head aside. Take the brown square, white side up, turned like a diamond.
  16. Body: fold in half. Fold the bottom corner up to the top corner, making a triangle.
  17. Body: flat back. Fold the top point behind, 2 cm down from it, so the back is flat.
  18. Body: round it. Fold all four corners a little behind, so the breast and the rump are round.
  19. Glue it together. Glue the tail behind the body, its pleated corner hidden low. Glue the neck behind the front of the body, so the head stands above it.

Gobble gobble!

Draw a dot eye on the red head. Fluff the tail feathers apart a little so the ridges catch the light.

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