3D Origami Butterfly – Tutorial

3D Origami is so addictive…I just can’t stop making these models… albeit time consuming! I loved the colors in this origami butterfly…

How To make a Modular Origami Butterfly:

You will need a total of 269 units for this model.

The breakdown : 179 Green + 80 Yellow + 10 Pink units.

The steps for making the triangular units is available here.

And before I forget…the size of the butterfly will depend on the size of the units… so before you start making the units, decide how big you want your butterfly to be…

Step 1:

As we always do, start by inserting the green units in this fashion (like connector units).

Step 2:

Keep inserting the units.

Row 1 – 1 unit

Row 2 – 2 units

Row 3 – 3 units

As you can see, Row 3 has one yellow unit in the middle.

Step 3:

Row 4 is inserted as shown with 2 green units and 2 yellow units.

Step 4:

Insert the next row by increasing one unit in each row. The middle unit will be a pink one.

Step 5:

Keep adding the units to get the structure shown here.

Step 6:

Add Green units to complete the wing. We would have consumed 44 Green, 4 Pink and 22 Yellow units by now.

Step 7: 

Repeat steps 1 to 6 to make one more wing in the same manner.

Step 8:

The lower wings of the butterfly will be a bit smaller and so the wing will use lesser units. The design of the wing has also been modified. This wing consumes 34 Green, 1 Pink and 14 Yellow units.

Step 9:

Make another wing just like the above (Step 8).

Here are all the wings completed.

I just made the design based on what came to my mind. You can make the butterfly wings as you like.

Step 10:

We will make the body of the butterfly by making a row of units. I’ve used yellow and green triangular units here.

Step 11:

To attach the wing to the body of the butterfly, insert a unit in the top of each wing as shown here:

One half of the unit is inserted in the wing and the other part stays out.

Step 12:

Insert this loose part in the body of the butterfly. In the same way, insert all the wings.

A view of the model at this point.

Step 13:

For the antenna, I just cut out a strip of paper and made a little quilling at the corner. These were then glued on to the top most unit.

And the colorful butterfly is here…