Fold by Fold

Reading a diagram

Printed origami instructions use a handful of marks. Every step here shows the same marks, on the paper or beside it, just before it moves, and names the fold with its symbol.

Valley fold

A dashed line. Fold the paper toward you, so the crease sinks like a valley. The arrowhead is solid.

Mountain fold

A line of dashes and dots. Fold the paper away from you, behind, so the crease stands up like a ridge. The arrowhead is hollow, on one side.

Fold and unfold

Make the fold, press it flat, and open it again: a hollow head at the arrow’s tail brings it back. The crease guides a later step.

Unfold

Open out a fold made earlier, along the crease it left. The arrowhead is hollow on both sides.

Collapse and petal fold

Several creases fold at once, valleys and mountains together, and the paper presses flat in a new shape. The arrow follows one corner to where it lands. Opening the fortune teller draws the same lines, with no arrow: it stands up instead.

Squash fold

Lift a flap so it stands straight up, open it, and press it flat, so it spreads out evenly on both sides of where it stood. The dashed line is where it creases as it goes flat, and the arrow follows its folded edge to where it lands.

Inside reverse fold

A mountain line across a narrow flap. Open the flap a little and push its tip up inside, between its own layers, so the tip turns inside out along the line.

Turn a page

Turn a layer over from one side to the other, like the page of a book, to bring another face to the top. Its line and arrow are a valley fold’s (a mountain fold’s for a page turned behind), but nothing new is folded: the layer turns on creases already there.

Turn over

Flip the whole model over, left to right.

Rotate

Turn the model around on the table, keeping the same side up.