Never fold a kangaroo

I wrapped the presents [1] for Lorie's baby shower and I wanted to do something … different for the bow.

I have an interest in origami, and one of the books I have gives the instructions for folding a kangaroo and baby and I thought that would be a nice bow; something that is different. [2] [3]

So I grab the book and some origami paper. Quickly glancing through the book it looks easy enough.

Until you actually do it.

Since this is the third work in the series to be made from it, instructions for folding the bird base are not given.

Instruction between steps one and two of kangaroo and baby (nice).

I've found that the instructions for origami tend to follow the Unix man page model: it makes sense once you know how to do it. But if you don't know how it works then getting from (say) step 23 to 24 may take some time.

[4] [5] Step 23 is making one of the last folds for the head of the kangaroo. Okay, I see a valley fold here, a mountain fold there but how does that get from the illustration in step 23 to the illustration in step 24? That one step alone took me more than an hour to get.

[6] [7]My first attempt ended up looking more like an aroused male mutant kangaroo than a female kangaroo with a baby. [8] [9]

It only took me four hours to make the bow.

[1] /boston/2000/04/16.1

[2] /boston/2000/04/16/t_kangaroo1.jpg

[3] /boston/2000/04/16/kangaroo1.jpg

[4] /boston/2000/04/16/t_kangaroo2.jpg

[5] /boston/2000/04/16/kangaroo2.jpg

[6] /boston/2000/04/16/t_mutant1.jpg

[7] /boston/2000/04/16/mutant1.jpg

[8] /boston/2000/04/16/t_mutant2.jpg

[9] /boston/2000/04/16/mutant2.jpg

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