Origami: How to fold a Lion

The king of beasts, Lions.

The gorgeous mane looks so cool, doesn’t it?

Whenever I see the lion in the zoo,

I cannot help but sit straight to see its powerful figure!

Today, I’ll show you two ways of folding the male lion.★

How to fold a lion Ver.1

This is how to fold a cute lion like a character.

Get a sheet of origami paper ready.♪

1. Fold it in half and make a crease along the dotted line.

2. Open it up and fold both sides to the crease.

3. Fold both corners behind along the dotted lines. (a mountain fold)

4. Fold both sides behind along the dotted lines.

5. Fold it in half along the dotted line. (a mountain fold)

6. Fold it along the dotted line and make a crease.

Fold the corner inside, as picture No.7 shows.

7. Fold it along the dotted line (a valley fold), and open it up, as picture No.8 shows.

8. Fold the top part down along the dotted line.

9. Fold the tip behind along the dotted line and the face is done!

10. Now, we will make a body part.  Fold it along the dotted line.

11. Fold it to the right along the dotted line.

12. Fold it to the left again and

13. Fold the tip along the dotted line.  Fold the tip inside, as picture No.14 shows.

14. And the body is done!

15. Draw a face and it’s done!

Do you see a mane on it?  You can draw the mane with your favorite color too!

It looks like the lion is relaxing.  It’s so cute, isn’t it?

Let’s make origami lions with various expressions!♪　

How to fold a lion Ver.2

This will be more realistic than the one of No.1.

We will put two sheets of origami paper with different-sizes together.★

Even though there are so many procedures,

each procedure is not that complicated.

Let’s try to fold it nice and slow.♪

1. First, we will make a body part.

Fold it in half and make a crease.

Fold both sides to the crease along the dotted lines.

2. Turn it over.

3. Fold it in half along the dotted line.

4. Turn it over.

5. Open the bag part and fold it as picture No.6 shows.

6. Fold it up along the dotted line.

7. Fold it down along the dotted lines again.

8. Fold both corners inside along the dotted lines.

9. Turn it over.

10. Fold it up along the dotted line.

11. Fold it along the dotted lines as picture No.12 shows.

12. Fold both corners to the middle along the dotted lines.

13. Fold it in half along the dotted line.

14. And the body part (head, body, back legs, tail) is done!

15. Next, we will make a mane and front legs.

Cut the other origami to the 3/4 sized of the other origami for the body.

16. Fold it in half and make a crease.  Fold both sides to the middle.

17. Again, fold both sides to the middle along the dotted lines.

18. Open the top part and fold it like the picture below.

19. Do the same thing for the bottom part and turn it over.

20. Fold it in half.

21. Fold both corners to the middle along the dotted lines and make creases.

22. Fold the corner inside along the crease that you made.

23. Do the same thing for the other side too.

24. Open it up.

25. Do the same thing for the other side too.

It will be like the picture below, if you see from above.

26.  Fold it along the dotted line.

27. Turn the top layer over and

28. fold it the same way as you folded in No.26.

29. Fold it so that both blue lines can meet each other.

30. Fold the other layer to the back so that both blue lines can meet each other too.

31. Change the direction and

32. the mane and the front legs are done!

33. Put these parts together.

Put them together like the picture below

and fold the bigger corners behind along the dotted line.

34. Fold it like a staircase and make a nose.

35. Fold the tip inside, and the face is done!

36. Fold both legs inside along the dotted lines.

37. Fold the tail lightly along the dotted line.

38. And it’s done!

We used the different colored origami paper for each part

but you can also use the same colors too! ★

How it stands looks so cool, right?

Let’s make your original zoo, making other animals with origami paper.♪

【Translated by　 Kana Toda PIERCE】