Origami Elephant
The origami elephant from a dollar bill is sure to amuse and delight your friends, dining partners and waitpersons.
It should be considered somewhat advanced origami.
If you have trouble making an origami crane, this one might be a bit much.
We'll make frequent use of the terms valley fold and mountain fold.
If you do not know what these are, then you are in way over your head :)
Actually, you can learn about these folds right here.
Start with a U.S. one dollar bill. Other currencies or denominations would work, but this one has a special "feature" that will show up later.
Place the bill in front of you, face up but upside down (again, you'll see why later).
Now make valley folds at the halfway points of the bill, as well as the top corners.
Origami Elephant
Now valley fold the top corners as if you're making a paper airplane.
Then fold the top pointed corner down, at the white line shown. With us so far? Good!
Now fold the right edge of the bill back behind, until the bill is doubled as shown. Crease the fold.
Next unfold the bill. The fold the right edge back again, until it lines up with the crease you made in the previous step.
Make another crease.
Now fold along crease A...then B and C, as shown in the two photos below.
The following photo shows what the backside should look like. Now turn the folded bill back over.
You will now make a valley fold approximately where the white line is in the photo below.
This will give the result below. This stage is shown from the backside in the next photo.
For clarity, we're showing this stage from the side also. The idea is to get the distance "x" to be equal to the distance "y".
Now fold the 4 corners of the center channel as shown below. Next, squash fold the top and bottom as shown.
It can be a little tricky to get these small pieces folded and creased, you may need help from a rounded tool as shown. A car key might help.
Now unfold the top pointy part.
Make valley folds on the outside of the center channel.
Also make a mountain fold just in front of the channel, so that this piece overlaps the channel.
Now flip the piece over. Whew! This would be as good a time as any to break for drinks :)
Ready again? OK, make another valley fold at the front edge of the front legs.
And a mountain fold a short distance in front of that.
The idea is to overlap the front legs by about half their width.
These next two photos show those folds:
Now fold the whole thing in half down the centerline as shown, using a mountain fold.
Next you will make the ears.
Fold the point of the trunk back as shown to make the ear crease line (ignore the trunk crease for now).
Note the ear is angled forward slightly.
Unfold the trunk then use the crease line to make a reverse fold inside the body of the elephant.
If you're drawing a blank on reverse fold, check out our instructions for the origami flapping bird.
Now unfold the trunk.
Next push the trunk into the body, making two valley folds (one on either side) along the trunk crease shown below.
The trunk crease lines will end up in contact with the front edge of the front legs.
It should look something like the photo below.
Next, crease then reverse fold the trunk so that it points down.
Do a couple more reverse folds to get the trunk pointing up, and the trunk tip pointing slightly back.
Now turn the elephant over and open the legs a bit. Valley fold out a small tail.
Now your elephant is ready to stand on his own four legs!
Note that the floating eye in the pyramid from the backside of the dollar bill lines up quite nicely to be the eye of the elephant. Neat!
If you're performing this little stunt at a bar, we hear that these little fellas like peanuts.
