HOW TO CRANE: Step-by-Step

Hi, all.

So I was folding some paper cranes recently for the GSA's upcoming Week of Silence.  (Basically just Day of Silence, but with lots of promotion on the Monday through Thursday beforehand.)  And I was also showing a few other people within the GSA how to fold cranes, and I kind of just decided to make this tutorial and post it on my blog.  You know.  For the good of the people.

-HOW TO CRANE-

Materials:
- a square piece of paper and preferably a table.  that is all.

The rest of this tutorial will be given in photos and captions.  Click on them and they should enlarge.  Enjoy.

So get a piece of paper.  This is foil paper, but any kind will do.
(I actually do not recommend foil paper for your first time; it's finicky.)

Fold it diagonally, with the color on the inside.

Now do that again the other way. 

Now fold it horizontally with the color on the outside.

Now do that again.

Now poke the middle point up and make a tent-y thingy like this. 

See how the diagonal folds you've made just kinda collapse in?
Push 'em in more.  Make it happen. 

Now put it on the table and flatten it.  It should make a square.
Be sure the open tip is at the bottom.

You should have four flappy thingies on the edges.  Take one.
Fold it to the middle seam.

Do that again with the other one.

And then the other side.

It should look like this, you know, like a kite.

Now take the tip and fold it down.

Flatten it back up again, flip the paper over, and repeat. 

And then, one one side, open the thingy-things like this.

And then pull up the tip from the bottom. 

Open it.  Then open it moreeeeeeee.  (This should be
taking advantage of the fold you made when you folded
the tip down.)

Take them corner folds you made and reverse them.
Try to be as clean about it as possible.

Flatten it on a table.  It should look like this.  Then, 
like most of these steps, repeat on the other side.

Now, my friends kept forgetting this step, but like, ya gotta take
the legs on the bottom and make 'em skinny.  To make it easier
to remember, I started calling this step "sexy legs."  For some reason.
Just fold it to the center again. 

Now do it again.  Sexy legs.

And then a third timeeeeee....

And then a fourth time and you're good. 

Sexy leeeeegs! They're like legs, see?

Now take one leg, and kinda pull it out and flatten it and
turn it halfway wrong-side-out and stuff?  It's hard to explain. 

And push/fold it up a little moreeeee.  This is an
okay picture, right?

This hopefully shows it a little better.

And then make it all the way wrong-side-out,
like that.  (This is hard the first few times.  A lot 
depends on how precise your previous folds were.) 

And then do it to the other side too, and it should look like that.
Now.  Time to get nit-picky.  Choose which little pokey thing
is the least precise and would be better as a crane head than as
a crane tail.  I choose the right one.

Fold it down carefully, like when you folded the legs up. 

See how it's not just all smushed-down, but instead can be
made nicely wrong-side-out again?  Good.

Now make it wrong-side-out.  Huzzah!  It's a head!
(This also depends on how nice your other folds were.) 

Take a wing.  Fold it down.

Take the other wing.  Fold it down. 

Fold them back up a little so it can sit.  And then?  Yaaaaaaay
you did it!  Be good to your new avian friend.

Have a nice day!
- Allie H-S