Insects seem to be a fascination among origami designers – at the height of “bug wars” when designers were competing for the most intricate designs that were  complex, had lots of legs, were thin and realistic renderings and really pushed the boundaries of existing techniques:

This astonishing model starts as a frog base. Through a torturous set of point isolation and narrowing, we get the impossibly thin legs and a lovely set of antennae. Halve this, now fold that in half, then do a double rabbit ear, now halve that … thank goodness for thiiiiin paper and accurate folding.

A deep sink, turned inside out becomes the signature leaf-shaped body and a rather lovely squash fold becomes the head and mouthparts.

This is a masterful design by Brian Chan, and was so much fun to fold (even if my 40cm square of washi was not quite square) – it brightened my day and helped me not think about the chest infection I am currently battling.