Origami Cow

The origami cow is so life-like you can practically hear the "moos". We'll try to not milk this one for laughs.

Start with a square piece of paper. Then make a water balloon base.

Next fold the tip of the balloon base down the centerline. The tip should cover about half of the folded length.

Origami Cow

square origami paper ready to fold water balloon base tip of balloon base folded to centerline

Now unfold the balloon base and squash fold it as shown.

unfolding the balloon base squash folding the balloon base more squash folding the balloon base

You will end up with the pattern in the next photo. Now simply fold this in half to make the cow's body.

completed squash folding the balloon base completed cow's body

To make the cow's head, use another square of paper. Fold it in half with the colored side (if any) on the outside.

square origami paper ready to fold square folded to make rectangle

Next fold each half upwards, as shown in the next two photos:

top-most half of rectangle folded upwards bottom-most half of rectangle folded upwards

Now crease the end of the folded rectangle, as shown below. The next three photos show how the head is folded. Each outside layer of the folded rectangle is squash-folded backwards.

creasing end of folded rectangle squash folding cow head

completed squash fold cow's head folded and creased

Now reverse fold the nose of the cow (reverse folds are explained here). Then fold the cow's ears forward.

cow's nose reverse folded cow's ears folded

Next, crease the neck of the cow at right angles to the head.

Then do a reverse fold, as shown in these two photos:

cow's neck creased cow's neck reverse folded

To make the neck fit into the body, reverse fold the bottom of the neck as shown below.

It can be tricky to get the right amount of fold: too little and it won't fit into the body, too much and the head will be front heavy and fall forward.

You may want to use a small piece of tape or glue to keep the head in place.

cow's neck and head completed

Now your cow is done. It can be decorated with pens, markers or crayons.

completed origami cow origami cow decorated with markers and pens

Origami. It's the cheese!^TM