236: Sipho Mabona’s Koi Carp

When I first saw installation art, in origami, folded and designed by Sipho Mabona, I knew I wanted to do stuff like that also – this koi is elegant and beautiful:

Lovely dorsal and pectoral fins, graceful tail and head complete with gaping mouth.

There is much to admire about this model – it is tricksey to tease the fish from a square and Mabona achieves this fiarly simply – very happy with this as my first fold, althought it was a little fiddly to do the mouth crimps at this scale (I used an A4 cut square).

I can imagine schools of these, and indeed that is how Mabona displays them – in slight size variations floating in groups as if being fed in a pond – lovely stuff, feel privileged to fold it.

You can have a go here: pdf

7 thoughts on “236: Sipho Mabona’s Koi Carp

  1. i have been trying to follow Mabona’s Koi animation … but it is extremely difficult to follow … i get stuck at a few points where my folds don’t seem to match up with what he has … is there a better step by step tutorial that you’ve used or can offer?

    i’m dying to complete this model, so far i’ve tried 4 times and am getting close, but am still missing something crucial. any help would be great. thanks

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