Yes, it’s a crane you say, and follow it up with so what. Well, it’s my first crane and I’m dang proud of it. Believe it or not, it wasn’t an hour long effort either.

The crane diagram didn’t come from Teach Yourself Origami but the origami.com site. Origami, the web site, is chock full of diagrams, links, and even a registry of fellow origami nuts. Diagrams are organized and easy to locate, ranging from the simple to the complex.

The crane diagram is actually on a PDF and contains diagrams for both a frog and a flapping bird. If you’re an origami guru you might recognize that they all star with the preliminary base.

Diagrams aside, the crane is probably not good for your first attempted animal.  There are a couple of unintuitive folds along the way.  The upside is it’s the most recognized folded paper animal.

I’d love to hear about your first origami experience, even better if it was making a crane.  Did it go well? Total disaster?  Did it have one too many wings?  Send along links to your pics as well.

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