King Cobra Ronald Koh - 2001c

You will need a 1 X 28 strip of homogeneous paper to fold the entire cobra,or a 1 X 4.5 to fold just the bust. A paper width of about 24cm, 90 to 110gsm, is recommended.

Begin with the diagonal valley fold on one end of the strip as shown on the left. Usingthe circled landmark, make six pleat folds at right-angles to the horizontal edges to markout six squares.

2.

Now fold, crease firmly, and unfold as shown to divide each of the first three squaresections into halves, ...

... then fold and unfold again three times to divide the 1st, 3rd and 4th halves into quarters, ...

1.

3.Square 1 Square 2

4.

Square 1 1/8

... and then divide the quarters into 1/8ths. Rotate paper 90 degrees clockwise.

90o

1/8 1/8 1/8

Valley fold the 5th square in half,crease firmly, and unfold.

Fold the 5th square intoa waterbomb base.

5th Square

6

Ignore the foldinginstructions below thissection if you are foldingonly the bust of the cobra.

5.

1st Square

2nd Square

3rd Square

4th Square

5th Square

If you are folding the bus of the cobraonly, please ignore the folds from thispoint that involve the 5th square andbeyond.

Valley fold vertically in half.

1st Square

2nd Square

3rd Square

4th Square

7.

Valley fold one layerin half, ...

... then valley fold the inner section on the left into quarters.

Repeat Steps 8 and 9 on theother side, then unfold to theposition at the start of Step 7.

8. 9. 10.

Repeat Steps 7 to 10 on theright side.

12.

13.

14.

Valley fold, marking themidpoint as shown, thenunfold.

Valley fold again, creasefirmly, and unfold.

Open out the waterbombbase completely.

15.

16.

Make four crease lines, usingthe circled landmarks.

Collapse along the existingcrease lines as illustrated,with the vertical mountainand valley folds extendingall the way through squares1 to 4, ...

11.

17.

18.

... like this, with the top of the triangular section going under the horizontal edge immediately above, ...

... until you get this.

Watch your position, now.Valley fold twice as shown,crease firmly, and unfold.

Repeat Step 19 at theillustrated location.

19.

1st Square

2nd Square

3rd Square

4th Square

20.

1st Square

2nd Square

3rd Square

4th Square

25.

Open out, ... ... and make the mountain and valley crease lines as shown.

Collapse along the existingcrease lines as illustrated, ...

... and like this. The paper on the upper half of the zigzagging, mountain fold line ‘a-b’ is to be folded 90 degrees to the back of the rest of the paper.

Valley fold the two tabs inthe middle to each side.

26.

Turn over ...

... then squash fold, with three with three layers on each side.

21. 23.

24.

a. b.

27.

22.

Swivel the broad flap on theright and the narrower pieceimmediately behind it to theleft, ...

... then swivel the narrower piece to the right, freeing it from the triangular layer above, ...

... like this, before swivelling the broader piece back to the right.

Now swivel the broad flap onthe left and the narrower pieceimmediately behind it to theright, and repeat Steps 29 and30 on this side.

Valley fold each of the verticaledges to the centre, crease firmly,and unfold.

34.

Now bring the corners ‘b’ and‘c’ to the the apex at ‘a’, ...

... then separate the layers and squash fold, ...

28. 29.

30.

31. 32.

33. a.

b. c.

35.

... like this. Turn paper over.

42.

Reverse fold.Fold and unfold at the top,creasing firmly.

The diamond shaped piecein the middle will be used toform the head. Valley fold bothsides as shown.

Squash fold both sides, ...

... then valley fold all layers as shown, crease firmly, and unfold.

Hold the circled area firmlyand pull to each side toopen out the pleated layers.

Valley fold as shown, along thecrease lines made in Steps 38and 39.

Pleat fold both sides toclose up again.

Valley fold both sidesagain as illustrated.

44.

36.37.

38.

39.

40.

41.

43.

Now for the head ...

47.46.45.

48. 49. 50.

52. 53.

Open up and flatten thepleated layers.

Swivel the left half of the headpiece to the right, ...

... then stick a finger in between the layers from beneath, all the way to the corner, ...

... and do a closed double sink; i.e. mountain fold both layers along the inner crease line, and valley folding the same layers along the outer crease lines.

Swivel the piece left oncompletion of Step 48, ...

... and repeat Steps 47 to 49 on the right side of the head.

Turn over. Fold and unfold as shown,creasing the layer nearest to you only.

Now bring the intersectingpoint of the mountain fold - ofthe first layer only - downwardsby pushing in the sides asshown, ...

51.

54. 55.

57.

58.

59.

... while bringing down the whole of the upper section, ... ... like this.

Now valley fold between the circled landmarks, crease firmly, and unfold.

Valley fold the lower sectionand twice at the top.

56.

Now valley fold the left cornerunder the layer directly above it. This is an enlarged view of the

top section. Reverse fold asshown.

The two pointed pieces willbe the fangs. Mountain foldto hide the excess paper.

60.

Draw the fangs slightly together, witheach positioned about 90 degreesfrom the rest of the paper.

Valley fold, ...

61.

62. 63. 64.

65.67.

Unfold, one layer only... ... do a closed sink, ... ... and repeat Steps 56, 57, 61 to 63 on the right.

Rabbit’s ear fold asshown on bothpieces tp form theforked tongue.

Fold the edges of each side tostand at 90 degrees to the foldingsurface.

Valley fold up, slightly below theexisting crease line as shown in thediagram.

66.

69.68.

Mountain both corners into the pocketson each side of the the triangular tabunderneath, ... Lift the headpiece and slot its triangular

base into the pocket underneath asillustrated, to lock the jaws neatly in place.70.

This is how the king cobra should look at thisstage.

Turn paper over.

... like this. Make a little crimp in the centre of the eyeball and gently press the layers at the front and back of the eyeball together.

Note: The eyeball may flatten as folding progresses. Wetfolding helps keep it rounded. A little ball of cotton inserted (shhh ....) behind the eyeball also helps.

71.

73.

Swivel the left half of the headpieceto the right, ...

... then stick a finger under the first layer as illustrated, all the way to round out the eye on this side, ...

74.

72.

Swivel one flap to the left and repeatSteps 71 to 73 on the right.

Mountain fold the excess corners of thehead uderneath as shown. Crease thefolded edges firmly.

75.

76.

77.

78.3rd S

quare4th S

quare

Mountain fold both sides as shown tohold the layer with the eyes down.

Turn over

Pleat fold as shown, dividing each squarearea horizontally into 1/16ths.

79.

3rd Square

4th Square

80.

Now do a series of crimp folds. The space between eachvally and mountain fold should be 1/32 of the the heightof each square area.

Now comes the tricky bit.

Hold the crimp folded areas together and collapsethe model along the existing crease lines on thefifthe square like this, ...

81.

83.

82.

... and this.

Now turn the paper over, ...

... and the back of the circled are in Step 81 should look like the.

Turn over again.

This is how the cobra should look at thisstage.

Turn model over.

87.

88.

86

Valley fold both sidesas shown, ...

85

... then make two more valley folds between the circled landmarks, drawing out the hidden layers until this part of the model looks as in diagram 86.

Valley fold between thecircled landmarks., ..

... then valley fold the right vertical edges to the horizontal edges below.

84.

89.

90.

91.

92.93.

94.

Fold down and crease firmly, ...

... then swivel down each of the flaps.

Close sink each of the flaps beforevalley folding the corner on the right, ....

... like this. Turn paper over, ...... and this is how the other side should look. Turn model over again

Repeat from Step 87 on each of theoverlapping layers on the right, thenrepeat on the left.

We shall now work on the body. Pleat at 45-degreeangles as shown.

To ensure that the pleatsare done at the requiredangle, the length of thebody should be folded intosquared sections first, asin Step 1.

95. 96.

Continue pleating as illustrated, ...

97.

1/161/161/16

1/161/161/161/16

1/161/161/161/161/161/16

1/161/161/16

98.

1/161/161/16

1/161/161/161/16

1/161/161/161/161/161/16

1/161/161/16

Here comes the really boring part.

Cross-pleat, crease firmly and unfold into1/16th parts per square body sectionalongthe entire length of the body as illustrated.

More painfully boring stuff to go.

Having done that, do a 1/32nd pleat from left toright. Take note that the valley line would be madealong a fresh path between two existing diagonalcrease lines, 1/16th of a square section of the bodyapart.

Crease firmly.

99.

100.

Now pleat from right to left as shown, thesame way you did in Step 97. Be sure tokeep the pleated layers made in Step 97firmly in its original position.

Pleate from left to right again as illustrated.Continue with the alternating cross pleating alongthe whole body length of the cobra, ...

... like this, until you reach the last two square sections of the body.

The overlapping, criss-cross pleating will cause the paper to undulate a little, as illustrated.

Turn the model over.

101.

102.

7/8

1/8

2/8

3/8

4/8

5/8

6/8

103.

7/8

1/8

2/8

3/8

4/8

5/8

6/8

Now we work on the tail, using the lasttwo square sections of the paper. Valleyfold between the illustrated landmarks onthe right, ...

... then repeat on the left.

Valley fold again on the left,using the circled landmarksas your guides.

104.

Squ

are

1 (F

rom

the

Tail

End

)S

quar

e 2

(Fro

m th

e Ta

il E

nd)

105.

Repeat Step 104 on the right,turn the model over again, ...

... and continue with the cross pleating until you reach about half of a body square from the tip of the tail.

106.

Mountain fold along the spine of thecobra from the tip of the tail to the baseof the hooded area, such that the leftand right sides are about 90 degreesto each other. 111.

109.

107. 108.

This is a closs up of the tip of the tail, folded in half.Reverse fold as shown.

Reverse fold again as illustrated. The reverse fold shouldbe along a fresh path between two existing crease lines.

Repeat Steps 108 and 109 progressively towards the tip of thetail. The number of reverse folds is not critical and will dependon where you stopped cross pleating to form the scales.

110.

The tail end of the cobra should look like this, for now.

One major weakness of this cobra is that it would bedifficult to keep the head erect without some kind ofsupport. After all, it was originally designed to be foldedas a 100m monster cobra with a 2.3m hood spread -with structural supports.

So, best of luck to hardcore origami purists. The restof us, please insert a wire between the layers asindicated by the bold, broken lines.

That done, valley fold at the base of the hooded neck,while mountain folding along a ‘Y’ path from the cornersof the valley line and long the spine as illustrated, suchthat the hooded neck stands about 90 degrees erectfrom the rest of the body.

112. 113.

113a

Now mountain fold the excess paper(and wire ) on each side within thebody.

Figure 113a, which provides a view ofthis area before Step 112, shows theextent of the excee paper to be mountainfolded.

Curve the neck of the cobra as shown by gentlypulling the pleated layers apart. At the lower section,the layers should be parted very slightly at the frontTo form a convex curve. To form the concave curveat the upper section, the layers at the back shouldbe pulled slightly apart.

114.

115. 116.

117

If you plan to display the cobra with thebody in a spiral, you should pleat alongthe inside of the entire length of the bodyto allow it to curve gradually. This is boring,but will make things a lot easier on you.

After you have placed the body in a spiral, ypushould round off the body with a soft mountainfold on each side, such that the surface areason each side of the mountain fold liesapproximately a 90 degrees to each other.

That done, mountain fold the edges on bothsides withing the body

continue with Step 116 along the entire length of the cobra, ending at the tail as above.

Done!

If you have come this far, you shouldbe at least 20 hours older than beforeyou started.

I hope it was worth it!