Only when I made them myself I decided they were not so hard after all. Iva from  Тuk-Tame (Here and There) showed me every step in great detail. After that I made this bear myself – it’s great for holding incoming letters. The only thing you need is lots of time and patience when you’re folding the basic elements. It’s good to make them all before you start building different shapes. You need a specific size for folding each element. Start with an A4 sheet of paper.

Look at the pictures below to see how you can easily cut the paper along the folds  to get 32 identical pieces of paper.

When you’re done, you have to fold each piece individually.

You will need several cut and folded A4 sheets to make your little animal. If you prepare the elements, kids could do the assembling, too. They are like the elements in a paper construction kit.

You need 18 pieces of paper for the base. I had some difficulty at the start so you may use a bit of glue to make the first circle. After that it is considerably easier for the kids.

Make the next line in the same manner – you may want to switch colors, e.g. to make the legs.

With each subsequent line the shape will become narrower at the top and broader at the bottom, until it looks almost complete in 9-10 lines.

Check our Facebook page for pictures of a 3D origami swan.