After abandoning a search for a decent “statue of liberty” model, I decided to settle on an American Bald Eagle as a symbol of independence, what the 4th July is celebrated for in the US:

After looking around, I settled on a figurative bald eagle by Robert Lang from “The Complete Book of Origami” and happy with many aspects of this fold.

Difficult to complete with copy paper, the thickness and brittle nature of copy paper means that several steps are likely to distress the paper severely and the body thickness makes shaping late in the fold difficult – quite happy with this as a first fold. I added pleats on teh wings to suggest feathers as I thought the wings needed it, and modded the talons a little to make them less clumsy.

Should I fold this again, I now know what becomes what and so would approach some of the steps a little differently, but living/folding is learning – right?