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Paper Play

Animals

Crab

A traditional crab folded from the frog base. Its four legs are made with folds alone, no scissors.

  • DifficultyChallenging
  • PaperSquare, 15 × 15 cm
  • Steps21
  • About30 min

Why this level: Four squash folds and four petal folds, then edges tucked between layers and several inside reverse folds.

You need: 1 sheet of origami paper, A pen for the eyes

Preview Preview: checked on screen; real-paper verification is in progress.

Start folding

Story

Crabs have been folded from paper for a long time. Tokyo kindergarten material from 1878 shows a crab that seems to have been made from a frog base with cuts, and in 1900 a French children’s magazine showed another cut crab as one of a series of Japanese folds. The crab on this site needs no scissors: its legs are made with folds alone. The Japanese site Origami Club lists it as traditional, but nobody knows who first folded it this way.

Did you know? The crab in the 1878 picture has ten legs and split claws — an origami historian thinks the illustrator simply made a mistake.

Learn more (external sources)

Steps at a glance

  1. 1. Fold in half and unfold

    White side up. Fold the bottom edge to the top edge and unfold, then fold the left edge to the right edge and unfold.

  2. 2. Turn over

    Turn over so the coloured side is up.

  3. 3. Fold both diagonals

    Fold one corner to the opposite corner to make a triangle, then unfold. Repeat on the other diagonal.

  4. 4. Collapse into a square base

    Turn the paper so a corner points down. Using the creases, bring the top, left and right corners down to the bottom corner and flatten.

  5. 5. Squash the right flap

    Lift the top right flap upright, open its two layers and press it flat so its folded edge lies on the centre line. A coloured triangle shows above a white one.

  6. 6. Turn over and squash

    Turn the model over. Squash the top right flap the same way.

  7. 7. Turn a layer, then squash

    Turn the top right layer over to the left like a page. Squash the flap that is now on the right.

  8. 8. Squash the last flap

    Turn over, turn one layer from right to left and squash the last flap. Every side now shows a coloured triangle above a white one.

  9. 9. Crease for the petal fold

    Fold the two lower edges of the top layer to the centre line and unfold. Then fold the whole top down along the line joining the ends of those creases, and unfold.

  10. 10. Petal fold

    Lift the coloured layer below the horizontal crease upwards. Its sides swing in to the centre line, and the lower edges of the white layer underneath fold in along the creases. Flatten: a small diamond appears.

  11. 11. Turn over; petal fold

    Turn over. Crease the two lower edges on this side too, then petal fold the same way.

  12. 12. Turn two layers; petal fold

    Turn two layers from right to left to show a side that is not folded yet. Crease it and petal fold.

  13. 13. Petal fold the last side

    Turn over, turn two layers from right to left and petal fold the last side. This is the frog base.

  14. 14. Narrow the bottom

    Fold the two lower edges of the top layer to the center line. The creases start at the bottom point.

  15. 15. Turn over; narrow

    Turn over. Fold the two lower edges to the center line on this side too. Unfolded layers still stick out at both sides.

  16. 16. Fold the left side inside

    Open the two layers sticking out on the left: lift the front half, together with the first layer that sticks out, on the center line. Fold that layer’s outer edge inward along the line of the last fold, then fold the outer edge of the layer still lying down inward too. Lay the lifted layers back down.

  17. 17. Fold the right side inside too

    Do the same on the right: lift the front half with the first layer, fold the outer edges of the two layers inward, and lay them back down. The bottom is now four thin legs.

  18. 18. Make the upper legs

    Inside reverse fold the two front legs up and out at an angle: push each one up between its own layers.

  19. 19. Make the lower legs

    Inside reverse fold the other two legs out to the sides, a little lower than the upper legs.

  20. 20. Bend the legs

    Inside reverse fold all four legs again about halfway along, so the ends point down.

  21. 21. Fold the head behind — done

    Fold the top point behind, a little above the widest part, to make a flat head. Draw eyes at the two top corners and your crab is done!

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