Origami Heart with Pleated Wings

Origami heart with pleated wings is a design by Francis Ow. It offers a twist to the origami heart with wings design. The steps are slightly more complicated too.

Origami Heart with Pleated Wings Step 1: Start with a 6 inch x 6 inch (15cm x 15cm) square origami paper, color side down.

Fold paper in half on both the horizontal and vertical axis BUT instead of creasing the entire length of the paper, make a small crease in the center only.

Origami Heart with Pleated Wings Step 2: Fold both the bottom right and left tips to the center. Crease well and unfold.

Origami Heart with Pleated Wings Step 3: Fold both the right and left sides to the center. Notice that we're not creasing the entire length of the paper. Instead crease only to the point where the vertical fold touches the diagonal crease.

Origami Heart with Pleated Wings Step 4: Make the 2 diagonal folds as shown, on the upper layers only. This means that we'll be opening up the paper somewhat.

Origami Heart with Pleated Wings Step 5: Refold the paper using the existing diagonal creases and press paper flat.

Origami Heart with Pleated Wings Step 6: Make 2 small diagonal folds as shown. Crease well and unfold.

Origami Heart with Pleated Wings Step 7: Use the creases made in Step 6 and proceed to make inside reverse folds . This is a commonly used technique in origami and we've made a separate page to show how it's done. Please follow the link if you're not familiar with this technique.

Origami Heart with Pleated Wings Step 8: Flip paper over.

Origami Heart with Pleated Wings Step 9: Fold down the top layeras shown.

Origami Heart with Pleated Wings Step 10: Make 2 diagonal folds on the upper layer only.

Origami Heart with Pleated Wings Step 11: Fold up the bottom part to form a "boat shape".

Origami Heart with Pleated Wings Step 12: Make 2 small digonal folds at the top.

Origami Heart with Pleated Wings Step 13: Here's the defining moment of this origami. We're going to make pleated folds, or also called accordion folds.

It's like folding a paper fan.

To do so, we alternate between making valley and mountain folds.

It looks nicer at the end if the folds are smaller.

Origami Heart with Pleated Wings Step 14: Hold on to the center of the pleats while gently pulling down both sides to form an inverted "V".

Origami Heart with Pleated Wings Step 15: Make 2 small horizontal folds at the top to complete this origami.

Origami Heart with Pleated Wings Step 16: Flip paper over and your origami heart with pleated wings is complete!