How To Make An Origami Heart

My name is Origami Mark, and you can contact me on my website, which is origamimark.co.uk.

This session, I'm going to make a heart--a beating heart. This is normally made out of currency--a ten-pound note, five-pound note, twenty-pound note--they all work. But, for the purpose of this, I am using a piece of currency-shaped paper instead.

And to start the model off, we fold the paper in half. Then, we take the crease we've just made and fold it down to the raw edges, whichever side suits you best, to form a triangle. Now, that triangle can be opened out as a little pocket at one end--allowing you to open it up; and you can flatten it down--like so.

The next thing we're going to do is do a petal fold, which is simply the blunt end of that heart shape we just made: We fold the raw edges over the center, the same on both sides--the symmetrical thing. Open it up, and then pull the central raw piece of paper downwards, remaking the pieces you just made; and they should all come to a point. Now, the next thing we do is we open up the front of the model, symmetrically.

Turn it over, and fold back, to taste, the top two points that we have in the middle there--top two points down. And you can then fold those points yet again, tucking the end into the back of the model--that stops them getting in the way. We then take the right and left-hand points; and fold them in a little way, to taste--a little way, to taste--essentially, so that we've made a heart.

And the heart will beat if you grip it at the back with your thumb on top and your finger underneath. You can have a heartbeat.