When 2023 was ending, I had the desire to design a dragon for 2024, so I started by focusing on a 15-cm sheet of kami.
The previous weeks, for Christmas, I had been folding my Papá Noel design (published in The Fold), so for the dragon, I modified the head with rabbit ears and added a horn. In step 13, the horn is mountain folded and is caught by the ears.
Then, for the body of the dragon, I thought about my other design, Papá Noel With Crane, and seeing some pre-marked lines, the wings came out.
This model has a fun folding sequence and clear lines. It looks cute and elegant. The design avoids difficult steps; it can be folded with many types of paper and works in almost any size.
Ryū or Tatsu (竜・龍) dragons bring good fortune and are generally benevolent. Furthermore, they bring happiness, wealth and success and symbolize wisdom, perseverance and immortality in the minds of the Japanese.
Happy folding, and let’s enjoy folding the year of the dragon, dear folders!
If you fold the Yoshi Dragon, please tag me on my new instagram account: @miminohara.origami.
Millions of thanks to dear Jane Rosemarin for helping me correct the Yoshi Dragon diagrams.
Comments
Cute little critter. I started trying to fold from the diagram, but soon gave it up and went to the video. The diagram is not clear about landmarks - fold what to where? I can see right away what's happening in the video without having to interpret.
Nice model! One minor error found in diagrams. In step 22 the second instruction says to “mountain fold the body”. However, that crease should be a valley. The diagram is correct, but the text is not. Otherwise I found the diagrams easy to follow.