Origami Crane
There is a legend concerning the origami crane. This states that if someone makes one thousand cranes, their wish will be granted. This is the most classic of all origami and everyone should learn how to fold it.
Submit your questions/comments and photos to us!
So what are you waiting for? Follow our instructions below to get started on your first crane!
Start with a 6 inch (15cm) square origami paper. Once you've mastered folding the origami crane, try using an extra special paper.
I've seen a display of a thousand origami cranes at a wedding, folded using Patterned Metallic Origami Paper and it looked simply stunning! If your best friend or sibling is getting married, what is a better wedding present than a thousand origami cranes?!
Fold the bird base first. Once you've completed the bird base, continue with the instructions below.
Fold the outside corners to the middle, as shown.
Flip the piece over and repeat the fold. Now crease each lower "leg" of the piece as shown, in preparation for reverse folds.
Using the reverse fold, make the neck and tail of the origami crane.
Use a reverse fold to make the head of the crane. Now fold the wings down, one at a time.
Almost there. Pull the wings gently apart to open up the origami crane, and push down on the back of the bird to flatten it a bit.
And your origami crane is complete! We've completed the first one. Now readers, how about you send in the next nine-hundred and ninety-nine origami cranes?
Thanks so much to all our readers for the following photos. Please keep sharing and sending them in!
From Susie of London:
From Jeff of West Hartford "My niece brought me some origami paper from Japan for Christmas. Your site is the best one I've found for instructions, and I'm making my way through it!"
From Allie:
From Steven of Orlando "There is a big one, and there are other small ones 'Flying'."
From Lea of St Catherines "This was an installation I did; there are exactly 1000 cranes."
Wow, Lea! I thought it'd take a while for readers to send in 999 cranes but you just made it happen! I hope you made a wish coz you definitely deserve it! :)
From Alice in Manchester "This was my first attempt at Origami, I was really pleased about how my crane turned out!"
From Alli in Hillsborough "That's about 62 origami cranes right there. Didn't take that long to make them. :)"
From Natalia of Galway:
