Get Clover-licious!

St. Patrick's Day is just round the corner and what is Paddy's Day without some origami clovers?

Time to get your green on and fold some for yourself, friends and co-workers! Don't forget to send us photos of your creations!

Origami Helicopter

The origami helicopter is very simple to make. It will float down to the ground slowly like a real helicopter doing an autorotation.

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Actually there is more cutting of paper than folding here, so technically you could call it kirigami (the Japanese art of paper cutting).

Anyway, start with a rectangular piece of paper.

Printer paper might be better than origami paper, due to weight and stiffness.

If your paper is square, cut it so that you have a piece about three (3) times longer than it is wide.

Origami Helicopter

square piece of origami paper rectangular piece of origami paper

Now crease the rectangular paper down the middle lengthwise.

Using scissors, cut along the crease line , a bit less than half the length of the piece.

cut made for helicopter blades

Now fold the helicopter blades over. Unfold them....

helicopter blades folded helicopter blades unfolded

Then add a paper clip to the bottom. This extra weight is needed to make the paper helicopter fly better.

paper clip added for ballast

You can make the body of your flying machine stronger by making some horizontal cuts and folding as shown below:

making additional body cuts reinforced helicopter body

Now hold it overhead and release it, it will fall to the ground while spinning.

Did you make this origami? If so, share your photo with us and other readers!