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Origami Snail



A simple snail model that can be made from regular small paper.

Design

I saw LaFosse's banana slug model which is made from fish base. Two of the smaller flaps are sunk and became eye stalks, while one of the longer flap are folded down to create mantle. I think that is simple and elegant. So what if we apply that structure for snail?

The shell has to be color changed and coiled. This needs more paper so one of the longer flap of fish base needs to be extended. One easy way is to stretch it further like a kite base.

We can already make a recognizable snail using this structure. However I want to differentiate my design from others by:
  1. Minimizing seam, both on the snail's "body" and shell.
  2. Must not require glue for it to look good.
There is no better way than to make test folds and just keep experimenting. After the 7th iteration, I got an adequate one. Just one seam on the body in the form a small flap, and it is restrained by the edge of its shell. The shell's coil is also locked in using inside reverse fold. The only thing I am not satisfied with is the open back between eye stalks and shell.

The final fold just use 15 cm common origami paper (kami).

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