Making Origami Animals

by Michael LaFosse

Making Origami Animals by Michael LaFosse is a simple yet elegant origami book suitable for children. The book only has 8 models in it, but they are a select choice of easy models that will delight and encourage children. This book:

• has step by step instructions,
• has photographs of the finished models,
• has textual information regarding each animal,
• has large font for easy reading, and
• the images are well spaced so that the diagrams are not cluttered.

The Bat, Ducks, Skunk, and Cat’s head are made out fron one sheet of paper.

The Bat is one of the easiest origami bats that I have encountered which actually looks pretty good too. The model requires two small cuts so that the ears stick up. If you do not wish to use scissors, the model looks great without the cuts too. See diagram page 9.

Interestingly, the Ducks is made with one sheet of paper but utilizes the two color aspect of origami paper. Here, the front is checkered red and back side is white. This delightful “mother-and-child” model can be done in 8 steps.

The Skunk is quite stylized and can be recognized as a skunk predominantly because of the black and white coloration. Thus a sheet of black origami paper is highly recommended. Completed in 8 steps.

The Cat’s Head can be completed in 5 steps. Some of the folds encourage self judgement and need not be accurate. As such, each Cat’s Head will look slightly different from the previous one.

The Butterfly, Turtle, Apatosaurus, and Bobbins the Fox all use 2 sheets of paper each.

The Butterfly is very quaint and can be done in only 5 steps!

The Turtle is made in two halves: the front half (head & shoulders) and the back half (butt & tail). The two pieces slide nicely together.

Apatosaurus: kids love dinosaurs, why not include one?
This one can be completed in 6 steps. The paper near the head gets quite thick, so parental help is needed.

Bobbin the Fox: cute, cute, cute! The fox’s head is balanced on the tip of the triangular body: the head bobs up & down, and left & right.

Summary of Making Origami Animals
Making Origami Animals is simple book, but it’s elegant in it’s simplicity. I recommend it for budding origami artists who also love books because it is a quality book. It makes a great gift for those who don’t’ know much origami but want to learn more.

 

• buy Making Origami Animals here
• see review of other volumes in the “Kids Guide to Origami” series
• see other book reviews