Figurative single-sheet origami


Models of this type are also automatically listed in: figurative, single-sheet

Figurative models are those which represent some real-world object.

This page lists models of a single type. You might be interested in folding instructions instead.
Row Boat

Row Boat

This simple origami boat has oarlocks and what looks like initial fragments of oars inside the hull.

Traditional Boat from Cheese Tray Paper

Traditional Boat from Cheese Tray Paper

This little paper boat is folded from a sheet of paper used as a tray inside a sliced cheese package. The paper seems to be coated with plastic, which makes ...

Out of Darkness

Out of Darkness

The idea for this design had been in my head for several years before I finally folded it in August 2023. I’m not really happy about the execution, though.

Bull Head

Bull Head

A simple head of a bull, with color-change horns. Can be considered a variant of Buffalo Head.

Buffalo Head

Buffalo Head

A very simple model representing a buffalo’s head with curved horns. Bull Head is a variant.

Tea Tag Frog

Tea Tag Frog

A simple frog, based of the traditional jumping frog, and folded from a tea tag.

Traditional Crane from Wax Wrapper

Traditional Crane from Wax Wrapper

I folded this traditional crane from a wax wrapper (Polish: woskowijka). These are sheets of fabric soaked in beeswax, and advertised as a reusable, eco-frie...

Baby Elephant

Baby Elephant

I folded this model in a workshop with the late Artur Biernacki at the 2016 convention of Polish Origami Society.

MinBird II

MinBird II

Another attempt at making a minimalistic bird, this time from a full square, which allowed me to include a tail (MinBird I is folded from a square cut diagon...

Pureland Ladybug

Pureland Ladybug

Compared to Ladybug 1.1, this one has a much less refined shape, and lacks any color change. However, it is much simpler to fold, being pureland, which means...

MinBird I

MinBird I

A minimalistic, almost abstract bird, folded from a square cut diagonally in half. Compare with MinBird II.

Tea Tag Boat

Tea Tag Boat

Yet another way to fold your tea tag, this time producing a design similar to the traditional paper boat. Proportions are different (depending on those of th...

Java Duke

Java Duke

I got this nice viking-style Java Duke from the organizers of JavaZone. Quick origami sketch on the right. It was great to be here. Thank you!

Coffee Cup (CFW 200)

Coffee Cup (CFW 200)

This model is one of Fujimoto’s few figurative origami designs, but a very distinctive one. I really like it for its simplicity and elegance. Despite being a...

Daffodil

Daffodil

This design is derived from Star a la Fujimoto III. Central part is raised, and has a color change, just as many kinds of real daffodil. In this fold I think...

Crane (Window Blind Fabric)

Crane (Window Blind Fabric)

I folded this traditional crane in order to test a new folding material: fabric used for roller window blinds. Despite the fabric being quite thick, I was ab...

Tea tag Hedgehog

Tea tag Hedgehog

A one-fold hedgehog, part of my series of tea tag origami models. Design from 2019. Folding the tea tag is a good way of making your cup stand out from others.

Lily

Lily

This model is derived from my Star a la Fujimoto variants, which can be seen on the petals. I think for this model three-dimensional shaping with curled pet...

Hex Snake

Hex Snake

This snake is just a strip of paper that I cut off the side of an A4 sheet with a hex grid so that an integer even number of grid divisions was left on the r...

Elephant

Elephant

This elephant by Fumiaki Kawahata is very cute (I think I’ve seen it getting called Baby Elephant). I folded this one at a workshop given by Margret Bach dur...

Tie

Tie

I designed this origami tie in order to illustrate a point I’m going to make in a not yet published part of my series on origami classification. The point is...

Rabbit

Rabbit

A simple rabbit, designed by Taiko Niwa.

Terror from the Deep

Terror from the Deep

I slightly damaged a sheet I wanted to use for something else, so I thought I’d do some crumpling and created this claw. The name came by itself, but then I ...

Trampling the Serpent

Trampling the Serpent

Wet-folded from an A4 rectangle of Koh-i-Noor Hardtmuth watercolor paper.

100 Złoty Frog

100 Złoty Frog

Polish banknotes have 2:1 proportions, a square folded in half. This makes them good for adapting models folded from square paper. I came up with the idea of...

Crane from RFID Chip

Crane from RFID Chip

In late 2016, I folded this traditional crane from an RFID chip identical to the one on which the crane is sitting. The sheet was very small, so this experim...

120-Degree Boat

120-Degree Boat

This design is an analog of the traditional paper boat but folded from a hexagon. The 120° angle at the top of the sail results in a more slender boat than t...

Toilet Paper Snail 1.1

Toilet Paper Snail 1.1

A snail folded from a complete roll of toilet paper. This is version 1.1 — version 1.0 lacked the back part of the body extending beyond the shell. Adding it...

Crane with Color Change (Left-Right)

Crane with Color Change (Left-Right)

This variant of the Traditional Crane adds a color change along the axis of symmetry. It’s a very simple change, based on blintzing, and I’m pretty certain I...

Snail

Snail

Last Friday (2022-08-19) I was folding with a bunch of friends and someone asked if I could fold a snail. I didn’t know any such model by heart, so I improvi...

Crown from Strip

Crown from Strip

This model is very simple, and you can probably easily reverse-engineer it even without much origami experience. Once the strip is folded into the zig-zag sh...

Apple (CFW 202)

Apple (CFW 202)

Shuzo Fujimoto’s Apple is one of his best-known designs. Though one of his relatively few figurative models, structurally it is deeply geometric, being based...

Easter Egg

Easter Egg

Decorating Easter Eggs is a popular Easter tradition in Poland, Ukraine, and other Slavic countries. This one is folded from a single sheet of paper rather t...

Column of Flagellation

Column of Flagellation

Originally, this work was supposed to be a joke, and to get a punny title such as Vertebral Column or Ribbed Column. However, while I was working on it, my v...

In Ukrainian Steppe

In Ukrainian Steppe

The steppes of Ukraine with their endless open spaces, occasionally lined by kurgans, have long been considered a place full of mystery, mood, adventure, and...

Traditional Jumping Frog

Traditional Jumping Frog

Jumping frog, one of my favorite traditional models, and an example of action origami.

Tea Tag Butterfly

Tea Tag Butterfly

A simple butterfly, folded from a tea tag. Folding the tea tag is a good way of making your cup stand out from others.

Bible

Bible

After a book with a face on the cover (called Biography), I designed a book with a Maltese Cross on the cover (aptly called Bible). This model’s design is ba...

Rocket

Rocket

This rocket is a very simple to fold model I designed for an astronomy-themed origami workshop. The rocket can stand on its own thanks to a “foot” which can ...

Moon

Moon

A simple model of the crescent moon, designed for an astronomy-themed origami workshop. Proportions can be varied to some degree, producing different phases ...

Carrot

Carrot

Another shaping variant of Ice Cream model, this time resembling a carrot. Using white+green color combination instead of orange+green will get you parsley i...

Ladybug 1.1

Ladybug 1.1

When Sara Adams prepared a videotutorial for my Ladybug, she came up with a few improvements which not only gave the model convenient reference points for fo...

Dollar Bill Hare

Dollar Bill Hare

This is one of my favorite origami animals: simple to fold, quite realistic but also a model with its own character.

Pajarita

Pajarita

The Pajarita (little bird in Spanish) is one of European traditional origami models, especially popular in Spain and Spanish-speaking countries.

Traditional Crane

Traditional Crane

The traditional crane, often considered a symbol of origami. It is also probably the model most often referenced in metaorigami.

Bed

Bed

A simple origami bed with color-change for the bedsheet. My design from late 2019.

Traditional Crane from book wrapping foil

Traditional Crane from book wrapping foil

I folded this crane as an experiment from Herlitz book wrapping foil, and to my surprise, it proved to be a rather nice folding material. Since the foil is a...

Hedgehog from Sponge Cloth

Hedgehog from Sponge Cloth

Hedgehog, wet-folded from a household sponge cloth. Have a look at my review of this untypical folding material.

Life-Size Desk Lamp

Life-Size Desk Lamp

This is a life-size fold of my desk lamp origami model. I cheated a little by putting a metal profile inside the post since the paper I used had too little s...

Biography

Biography

This origami book features a portrait on the front cover, so I called it Biography. The structure of the book is basically the same as in my Long Story Short...

Book with Diamond on Cover

Book with Diamond on Cover

Recently, I gave an Origami Connect workshop on my origami book model Long Story Short. Preparing for the workshop motivated me to revisit an idea which I ha...

Long Story Short (gray)

Long Story Short (gray)

On August 2nd, 2020, I’ll be teaching my origami book model, Long Story Short, in an online Origami Connect session, organized by OrigamiUSA.

Triceratops

Triceratops

I really like this triceratops design by Roman Diaz. Most dinosaur models, especially triceratops, are quite complex. This one, in contrast, is so simple you...

Torch

Torch

This origami torch is basically the same model as Ice Cream, just with different colors and shaping.

Ice Cream

Ice Cream

Ice cream, own design. This model can be folded from regular Kami, but I think it looks best when wet-folded from thick watercolor paper. Here, one side of t...

Submarine

Submarine

A simple, one-sided origami submarine I designed a while ago.

Fear Not

Fear Not

Fear not. Stay home. Be patient. 2 × origami eye, wet-folded from watercolor paper.

Ad Astra

Ad Astra

I prepared this composition as decoration for the room where I would be holding origami workshops related to my exhibition at Olsztyn Planetarium. During the...

Wet-folded Eye

Wet-folded Eye

I designed this model for my origami workshops in order to be able to teach wet folding to complete beginners. It is also an example of origami folded withou...

Laptop

Laptop

This is another model I designed for a workshop about contemporary origami, with the aim of demonstrating some techniques used in modern origami design while...

Tea Tag Airplane

Tea Tag Airplane

Traditional origami airplane, a part of my series of tea tag origami models. Folding the tea tag is a good way of making your cup stand out from others.

JavaZone Logo

JavaZone Logo

Folding origami during a break at JavaZone 2019 after an interesting talk about JVM performance tuning by Chris Thalinger.

Hedgehog

Hedgehog

I designed this model especially for the workshop which accompanied my presentation about contemporary origami at the Embassy of Japan in Poland. While rathe...

Spider’s Web

Spider’s Web

Ben Goldberger is an interesting origami artist from Israel whom I had the opportunity to meet at CDO Convention 2018. You should definitely check out his wo...

Superpuss

Superpuss

Oriol Esteve taught this fun model of his during one of Origami Connect classes.

One Hand Washes the Other

One Hand Washes the Other

I got the idea for this model after a workshop with João Charrua at last year’s CDO convention. The structure of an individual hand is taken directly from on...

The Little Prince and the Fox

The Little Prince and the Fox

Le Petit Prince, designed by Viviane Berty, and Fox Baby, designed by Daniel Chang. Folded and arranged by me.

Ladybug

Ladybug

I haven’t had time to prepare any current-year-related model this year, so here’s an older model of a completely different kind: a simple ladybug with color ...

Unripe Sunflower Tessellation

Unripe Sunflower Tessellation

This is a modification of my Sunflower Tessellation. The molecules (“sunflower seeds”) are flatter and the petals are shorter. The back side is also more int...

Sunflower Tessellation (Refold)

Sunflower Tessellation (Refold)

It took me 1½ years before I decided to fold my Sunflower Tessellation once again, this time from rare yellow Elephant Hide paper. I think this is a better ...

Crane with Colored Wings

Crane with Colored Wings

This is a variation of the traditional origami crane which I recently designed: there is a color change giving the wings a different color than the body. I h...

Big Paper Boat

Big Paper Boat

A large paper boat (1.5 m long), folded to test the feasibility for origami of thick double-layer corrugated board (see blog post for details).

Fat Penguin

Fat Penguin

Once in a while, I design something other than a tessellation or a box. This geometric penguin model came about during Outdoor Origami Meeting as I was playi...

Elephants in Love

Elephants in Love

I designed this model, based on my Simple Elephant, for the wedding of two origami friends, Marcin and Natalia. Folded from a single 5:1 strip of red-gold Wa...

Nuclear Mushroom Cloud

Nuclear Mushroom Cloud

This is what happens when you execute an origami crumpling technique such as those mastered by Vincent Floderer but instead of thin and crisp paper, use thic...

Crown

Crown

An origami Crown (my own design), pictured sitting on top of a pomelo fruit. The crown is folded from a long strip of Gampi paper which was left over when I ...

Chess Knight

Chess Knight

A recent origami design of mine — chess knight with a corrugation-based mane.

Celtic Cross 1.1

Celtic Cross 1.1

An improved version of my Celtic Cross. Based on standing crosses found throughout the British Isles.

Trilithon I

Trilithon I

An origami Trilithon based on those found at Stonehenge. The model is numbered I since I also designed some other variants with different proportions and one...

DNA Replication

DNA Replication

My modification of Thoki Yenn’s DNA model. Folded from a long strip (1:8 or so) of metallic paper.

Cat

Cat

I folded this model in order to test what folding origami from felt would be like, and I summarized my impressions in a separate blog post.

Thermos

Thermos

This is what one of the stages of collapsing my Big and Small Squares Tessellation looks like. I couldn’t help but think of a thermos bottle. The extra textu...

No-Fold Stegosaurus

No-Fold Stegosaurus

It’s been more than 20 years since Joseph Wu designed his one-fold stegosaurus. Now, with the recent advancements in minimalistic origami and computer-aided ...

Simple Elephant

Simple Elephant

A simple elephant seen from the front, folded from a square. This is basically the same design as the business card holder and Elephant Bookmark. A minimalis...

Mini-Sunflower

Mini-Sunflower

This is a minimalistic version of my Sunflower Tessellation, folded from a 16×16 grid. It consists of just a single molecule surrounded by petals, and thus c...

Sunflower Tessellation

Sunflower Tessellation

My new tessellation design, folded from a single sheet of Tant paper.

Scroll of Time: 2017

Scroll of Time: 2017

I wanted to try something new this year, so I folded this model from thin parchment paper whereas most of the time I use much thicker papers. Modern parchmen...

Penguin

Penguin

See also the Penguin Attack composition which uses this model.

Penguin Attack

Penguin Attack

A giant penguin (designed by Blanka Pentela (Blunek) ascending King-Kong style the Palace of Culture and Science. This 250 m tall building was erected in War...

Celtic Cross

Celtic Cross

This free-standing cross was inspired by high crosses — stone monuments erected throughout the Middle Ages in Ireland and Britain.

Genie in the Bottle

Genie in the Bottle

A genie (not to be confused with gin) is a kind of_spirit_ which tends to live in old magical lamps and bottles. Wet-folded from a rectangle of watercolor pa...

Professor Mmaa

Professor Mmaa

Professor Mmaa’s lecture is a novel by Polish-English writer Stefan Themerson in which termites try to understand the human society which is so different fro...

Toilet Paper Hedgehog

Toilet Paper Hedgehog

Pureland Hedgehog, designed by Sebastien Limet and modified by me for folding from the loose end of a toilet paper roll.

I Walk the Line

I Walk the Line

Master Yoda — origami model designed by Artur Biernacki. Folded by me from a square of Tant-tissue paper sandwich.

A Pile of Books

A Pile of Books

Origami books of different shapes and sizes. The model used here is my Long Story Short, version 1.1 which has a slightly improved lock.

Dachshund

Dachshund

The Dachshund (Perro Salchicha) is a very cute dog model I immediately liked when I first saw it. I also designed a doghouse in matching style.

Dachshund in Doghouse

Dachshund in Doghouse

Yara Yagi’s dog is standing in front of a doghouse designed be me specially to match this model.

Ichthys

Ichthys

Easter is coming so with fluffy bunnies and cute chickens aplenty, it’s good to also add this fish to the pack.

A Long Way Home

A Long Way Home

Origami mammoth, designed by Artur Biernacki. Folded by me from a square of Unryu-tissue paper sandwich.

Epiphany II

Epiphany II

This is my second attempt at designing a Star of Bethlehem (which can also double as a regular comet). After designing it, I found online pictures of a simil...

Epiphany I

Epiphany I

Depending on context, this origami corrugation can be used as the Star of Bethlehem or just a standard comet. Designed and folded by me.

Long Story Short

Long Story Short

This is my design for an origami book. It’s called “long story short” because you can make the book as long as you wish (any number of pages) and at the same...

Here, Kitty

Here, Kitty

Cat designed by Jose Anibal Voyer. Copy paper painted with acryl.

Head of Cthulhu

Head of Cthulhu

Head of Cthulhu from The Call of Cthulhu by H.P. Lovecraft. Designed and folded by me.

Dachshund Ouroboros

Dachshund Ouroboros

The ouroboros is an ancient symbol of infinity and self-reference. It is represented as a serpent or dragon eating its own tail. This one has assumed the for...