Canadian Themed Origami to Celebrate Canada’s 150th Birthday

July 1st is the national day of Canada which celebrates the day when Canada officially became a country on July 1, 1876. This year is Canada’s 150th birthday and since I’m Canadian I figured I should definitely put together a post featuring Canadian themed origami.

We’ll start off this post with this excellent Canadian flag.

Maple Leaf, Designed by Ryo Aoki and Folded by Eyal

Diagrams available in NOA Magazine #414

 

Walruses can be found along the coastlines of Canada and here’s an excellent one folded for a fundraising event.

Walrus, Designed and Folded by Robert Salazar

Crease Pattern available from salazarigami.com if you sign a petition against arctic oil drilling

Visit Robert Salazar’s website at #

 

The Common Loon is Canada’s national bird so here’s an excellent paper loon folded by Joseph Wu who also happens to be a Canadian origami artist.

Common Loon, Designed and Folded by Joseph Wu

Photo diagrams available from Joseph Wu’s Flickr

 

Seals can also be found along the coastlines of Canada. Here’s one photographed out in the wild.

Fur Seal, Designed by Lee In Seop and Folded by Adriano Davanzo

Diagrams available in Origami Pro

 

These dogs are technically Siberian huskies but they look awesome so I’m going to include them in this post. Very similar dogs are used to pull dog sleds in northern Canada.

Siberian Huskies, Designed by Fumiaki Kawahata and Aoto Morisawa and both Folded by P. Colman

Diagrams for Fumiaki Kawahata’s Husky available in Tanteidan Magazine #108

Diagrams for Aoto Morisawa’s Husky available in Tanteidan Magazine #156

 

Canada has some really great salmon and here are some beautiful looking ones swimming up a stream. All made out of paper of course.

Sockeye Salmon, Designed and Folded by Bernie Peyton

Diagrams available in Eco Origami

 

The beaver is one of the more famous Canadian animals. Here’s a more cartoonish looking beaver design by Nicolas Terry. The colour change on the teeth is a nice touch.

Beaver, Designed by Nicolas Terry and Folded by Willie G. Crespo

Instructions not available

 

You can find lots of wild moose all over Canada. Here’s a pretty complex and awesome Bull Moose design by Robert J. Lang.

Bull Moose, Designed by Robert J. Lang and Folded by Mariano Zavala B.

Diagrams available in Origami Design Secrets, Second Edition

 

Polar Bears are found all over northern Canada while puffins can be found on the east coast. Here’s a great photo with both of them together. The puffins have a few extra squares of orange paper to add some colour to the design.

Polar Bear + Puffins, Designed and Folded by Nicolas Terry

Instructions not available

 

Caribou are another quite famous Canadian animal. You can see a caribou on the Canadian $0.25 coin. This whole model is of course folded from a single square of paper. In this case it was 65cm x 65cm Mulberry Paper.

Caribou, Designed by Satoshi Kamiya and Folded by Damian Malicki

Diagrams available in the JOAS 2011 Special Issue

 

Here’s a really excellent maple leaf design.

Maple Leaf, Designed by Brian Chan and Folded by Magali

Diagrams available from Brian Chan’s website

 

Buffalo are native to the plains in central Canada. This buffalo design isn’t super complex but it definitely has a ton of character.

Buffalo, Designed by Hoàng Tién Quyét and Folded by Andrea Borsa

Instructions not available

 

Black bears can be found in forests all over Canada. This one is easily one of the cutest origami bears I’ve ever seen.

Black Bear, Designed and Folded by Robert Salazar

Instructions not available

Visit Robert Salazar’s website at #

 

Elk are another very common animal across Canada. It always impresses me how people can design animals with antlers like this and fold them from just one sheet of paper.

Roosevelt Elk, Designed by Robert J. Lang and Folded by Maxi Purewal

Diagrams available in Origami Design Secrets, Second Edition

 

Here’s another really excellent bear design by Seth Friedman.

Grizzly Bear, Designed by Seth Friedman and Folded by Willie G. Crespo

Diagrams available in the Origami Tanteidan 19th Convention Book

 

This is a really great Canadian Lynx design from animal origami expert Quentin Trollip.

Canadian Lynx, Designed and Folded by Quentin Trollip

Instructions not available

 

Here’s a really great wolf design that’s not too complex. Wolves of course can be found all over Canada in the wild.

Wolf, Designed and Folded by Fabian Correa

Instructions not available

 

Deer are another animal that can be found all over Canada in the wild and in not so wild places. This one is folded from a single 50cm x 50cm square of paper.

Deer, Designed and Folded by Tomasz Krawczyk

Instructions not available

 

Here we have the winter version of the Arctic Fox which can be found in northern Canada. In the winter its fur is a white colour so it can hide in the snow but in the summer it’s fur changes to a grey colour which is pretty cool.

Arctic Fox, Designed by Oriol Esteve and Folded by Terry Nicolas

Instructions not available

 

Bighorn sheep can be found in the Rocky Mountains in western Canada. I’ve always been a fan of Satoshi Kamiya’s excellent design, especially the head and horns.

Sheep, Designed by Satoshi Kamiya and Folded by P. Colman

Diagrams available in the Origami Tanteidan 21st Convention Book

 

Here’s another absolutely fantastic polar bear design by József Zsebe. It’s not super complex but it really has the spirit of a polar bear and it’s kind of cute too.

Polar Bear, Designed and Folded by József Zsebe

Diagrams available in Paper & Form, Origami for Experienced Folders

 

This is Satoshi Kamiya’s Caribou design again and from this angle you can really see all the fantastic details in the face.

Caribou, Designed by Satoshi Kamiya and Folded by Chris Hui

Diagrams available in the JOAS 2011 Special Issue

 

Here’s another beautiful maple leaf. This one is technically a Japanese maple leaf but it’s an excellent design and it’s pretty similar to a Canadian one so I’ll allow it.

Japanese Maple Leaf, Designed by Inayoshi Hidehisa and Folded by Andrea Borsa

Diagrams available in the Origami Tanteidan 21st Convention Book

 

Joseph Wu designed this really excellent beaver for a Canadian origami convention.

Beaver, Designed and Folded by Joseph Wu

Instructions not available

 

Here are some more excellent loons. You’ll find this animal on the $1 coin in Canada. There are some really neat colour changes in this design and it looks especially awesome awesome when you fold it using black and white paper.

Common Loon, Designed by Artur Biernacki and Folded by Pere Olivella

Diagrams available in Bogota Origami Convention 2015

 

Bison are also native to Canada so here’s another really excellent design from József Zsebe. I really like the 3D shapes in this design, especially the head.

Bison, Designed and Folded by József Zsebe

Diagrams available in Paper & Form, Origami for Experienced Folders

 

I really like Won Park’s koi design. Even though technically koi aren’t really Canadian this one is folded from a $10 Canadian bill and the water is folded with a $20 bill. The koi design is meant to be folded from an American bill and the size is a bit different from a Canadian one but Stefan managed to pull it off here anyways.

The new Canadian money is made out of plastic so you probably wouldn’t be able to fold this now.

Koi, Designed by Won Park and Folded by Stefan

Diagrams available from the Origami Resource Centre

 

I really like this design from Quentin Trollip of a bear eating a salmon. The whole thing is one square of paper and I really like how the bear has little eyes.

Grizzly and Salmon, Designed and Folded by Quentin Trollip

Instructions not available

 

Here’s one more really awesome polar bear also designed by Quentin Trollip. The whole thing is folded from a single square of paper and if you use black and white paper like he did here you end up with black eyes, a nose and feet.

Polar Bear, Designed and Folded by Quentin Trollip

Diagrams available in Origami Works of Quentin Trollip

 

This final image I’ve had saved for awhile now. I’ve been waiting for a relevant post to include it in. These adorable mother and baby deers are designed by Kunsulu Jilkishiyeva. The designs are really great and the whole composition of the photo is even better.

These models were designed for Mother’s Day but deer are still Canadian.

Designed and Folded by Kunsulu Jilkishiyeva

Instructions not available

 

That’s it for this post. Happy Canada Day to all the Canadians out there and if you fold any Canadian themed origami feel free to share a photo in the comments!