Tangrami Instructions - 3D Origami Swan Fold
- Instructions for 3D Origami Swan
- Preparation: Cut paper
- Folding origami elements
- assembly
- Base
- chest
- tail
- neck
- Instructional Video
To make a noble origami swan is not really difficult. It can be folded in a few minutes from a sheet of paper. But if you want something more complex and want to impress, you should get to know Tangrami. This art means putting small pieces of paper together into one big object. In this Tangrami guide we show you how to fold a 3D Origami Swan. You should bring some patience, but it's worth it.
Origami, the Japanese folding art, has many facets. This includes Tangrami, which is to be understood as a modular origami. This is characterized by the fact that origami folded paper elements are put together to form a great work of art. Only after folding many, small, square pieces of paper into small triangles can the object be assembled. This means you should allow a little more time for such a decorative origami swan.
For an origami swan of this size you need:
- 6 sheets of white paper in A4 format
- small orange sheet of paper
- Cutter knife or scissors
- bonefolder
Instructions for 3D Origami Swan
Preparation: Cut paper
The swan consists of 185 small paper elements, 184 white elements and an orange element. To get these, the six sheets of paper need to be cut first. That can be very tedious, but with this tip, it succeeds relatively quickly.
Always fold each sheet of paper in half and then cut it apart at the fold line with a cutter or scissors. You then do this a total of five times per A4 sheet, always folding and cutting in alternation. At the end you will receive small pieces of paper with a size of about 5.4 cm x 3.7 cm.
Important: The small paper items should all be the same size, so you can also cut them out of a sheet of A3 size or smaller. Just make sure that the little notes are rectangular and not square. The bigger the slip, the bigger the swan.
Folding origami elements
Now take each of the 184 small pieces of paper and fold them as follows:
Step 1: The paper lies in front of you on the table. Now fold the lower half centered upwards.
Step 2: Turn the paper 90 ° and then fold this lower half in the middle.
Step 3: Open the fold from step 2 again. Then place the paper with the fold closed up in front of you.
Step 4: Then fold the right corner to the left and down so that the right outer edge runs along the center line. Repeat this mirrored with the left corner.
Step 5: Apply the paper to the back. Then hit the right and left lower corners upwards. The respective outer edges also run along the horizontal line.
Step 6: Then flip the area with the corners you have cut in from the previous step upwards. The result is now a triangle.
Step 7: Finally, fold this triangle in the middle once. Ready is the first Tangrami element.
Now you have to repeat these steps a full 183 times. Best you integrate the entire family on a rainy Sunday in the folding work. This is how the 3D swan becomes a family project.
In order to prepare the individual Tangram elements for assembly well, the elements should be put together several times. Insert one element with the tips into the tabs of another part. Form a long chain in this way, which you finally push together tightly.
As a result, the individual tabs are pushed apart and the assembly is then easier. The picture shows the difference:
assembly
Base
The basic structure of the Tangrami Schwane consists of six rows of 15 elements each. For starters, insert one tip of one part into the other lug of a second element. A third element is then placed on the other tip. The construction of Tangram objects is therefore always offset.
Now put 15 elements on 15 more elements and the first two rows are complete. The circle is closed with the last element.
Tip: If you push the stacked elements together with your fingers, you have more control and the construct can not easily fall apart (see above right).
Proceed in the same way with the next two rows. When assembling always make sure that all elements are offset and aligned in the same orientation.
Then comes the tricky part. If all four rows are attached and the circle is closed, push the structure upwards. To do this, rotate the construct so that the floor faces you and the tips are now pressed down.
Press until the first row down flat on the table forms a closed bottom. The tips of the fourth row no longer point to the side, but to the top. By bending the elements are very pulled apart - so be extra careful, otherwise everything falls apart.
Now there are two more rows with 15 elements each. The base of the swan now consists of six rows, of which the first below flat forms the floor and only one piece can be seen.
chest
The chest of the swan consists of six elements. Just pick a place for it. Insert 3 elements at the beginning. Then, skip the first tip of these three elements and place two elements on it. One last part is now in the middle.
tail
The swan tail consists of 10 rows, but not completely in a circle around. Start with row 1 as follows: release a slot next to the chest, and then place the first item. From then on you have to put in 10 parts. If you have done everything right, there should be a free space after the ten elements on the other side of the chest.
Now add one less element per turn, that is, nine, eight, seven, six, and so on, until finally only one element is attached. At the beginning of each round, release the first tip - the tail is pointed towards the last element in row 10.
The individual elements make the framework stable, but also malleable. Give the Tangrami Swan a nice, curved shape with your fingers by bending and moving the elements in the desired direction.
Now it goes on as follows. Now fill the two gaps left and right of the chest with one element each.
The Tangrami swan is almost done now. The tail now needs a nice outer edge, which you can also make with differently colored paper. Place the first element of this end edge on the second tip (here the left tip of the picture) of the currently installed space filler. Now the next element is placed on the left top of the element just attached and the next one out of the line underneath. So the tail builds even further outward. Place 12 elements to the tip of the tail.
1 of 3
Repeat the process afterwards on the other, right side. The tip of the tail gets at the end still a connecting element.
neck
Now the swan needs only one more neck. Put about ten elements together to form a chain. Bring the parts into a curved shape. Then the neck is placed directly in the middle of the chest. Fold a beak with an orange paper and finish the head of the swan by simply putting this piece on your neck - that's it!
