Origami Lobster/Shrimp

Origami is the art of folding paper to produce boxes, decorations, toys, models or just art! There’s a huge following out there and you do not need special paper or necessarily to be nimble-fingered to give it a go. Try this Lobster /Shrimp… it’s easy(ish) – well I managed to fold one. And the end result is worthwhile.

Origami almost always starts with a square piece of paper cut to shape or supplied square. Proper origami paper is quite fine and usually coloured on one side. If using plain paper and you want to colour what you’ve made, do the colouring afterwards as paint may effect the paper’s ability to be folded making it harder to fold or easier to rip.

Instructions for folding the lobster pictured.

1. Fold once, corner to corner and then open out flat the piece of paper again as in fig 1.  Now fold the paper so that the right hand and bottom edge of the square meet along the diagonal fold you created at the start.
2. Turn the paper so that the diagonal fold now runs vertically and fold the sides in again to the middle.
3. Now fold the sides at the top inwards so that they also meet in the middle.
4. This is known as a ‘step fold’. Fold the tip so it meets at the centre of the shape and then fold it back again, BUT by creating a new fold a little bit further along. 
5. Carefully cut a small piece out of the centre of this last fold.
6. Open out the piece of paper up to where you were in fig 2. Carefully cut from the bottom along the long sides only and stopping before you reach the edge of the folded piece. These bits become the antennae and the finer you make these cuts the more realistic they look.
7. Fold the figure back up the stage you got to in fig 5, then thread the antennae through the hole you cut. Make a series of ‘step folds’ down the body of the lobster.
8. Make a series of ‘step folds’ down the body of the lobster.
9. Fold the lobster lengthwise in half using the original diagonal fold made in fig 1. Grasping the body at the step fold/segment nearest to the head, carefully pull the fold-out at the top but so as to leave the bottom part of it still folded. Repeat this to each step fold along the body and it will cause the tail to curl around and create the lobsters curled shape.