For the longest time I wasn’t really able to find any really great origami cat designs. I could find the occasional lion or tiger that looked really awesome but there were only a few of those and I only really knew of one or two great house cat designs.
Over the last little year or so though I started to encounter more and more excellent origami cats so I figured it was time to take another look at them. In this post we’ll be looking at cats of all kinds, pet cats, lions, tigers and more!
First up is this really awesome tiger. I’m always super impressed with tiger designs that use a colour change to make the stripes. I also really like how heavy the paws look, just like they do in real life.
Tiger, Designed and Folded by Quentin Trollip
Diagrams available in Works of Quentin Trollip
Terry Nicolas has one of the best lion designs out there. This one he folded for a wedding and that would definitely be an awesome present to receive.
Lion, Designed and Folded by Terry Nicolas
Diagrams available in Passion Origami
This cat design by Katsuta Kyohei is probably the most popular pet cat design I’ve seen. This one is especially well folded.
Cat, Designed by Katsuta Kyohei and Folded by J.W Park
Diagrams available in Origami Tanteidan Magazine #124
This is a really awesome cat design that’s very different from any other designs I’ve seen out there. It perfectly captures the essence of an actual cat.
Cat, Designed and Folded by Mathieu Gueros
Instructions not available
Here’s another awesome tiger design that also makes use of two sided paper to make the stripes. If you’re wondering where everyone gets orange and black paper I think most people just buy orange paper and paint one side black.
Tiger, Designed by Hideo Komatsu and Folded by DebugMode
Diagrams available in Works of Hideo Komatsu
This is another fantastic and quite majestic looking lion.
Lion, Designed and Folded by Maeng Heung Gue
Instructions not available
Here’s another incredible house cat design. It’s not super complex but it again perfectly captures the essence of a cat. I’m always amazed with how Roman Diaz’s designs are able to do this.
Cat, Designed and Folded by Roman Diaz
Instructions not avaialble
Satoshi Kamiya also has one of the more famous lion designs. I quite like the pose this one is folded in. It almost looks like it’s tensing up and about to pounce.
Lion, Designed by Satoshi Kamiya and Folded by Maxi Purewal
Diagrams available in Works of Satoshi Kamiya 2, 2002 – 2009
This is a tiger design but it looks pretty cool folded with black paper, almost like a black panther. The way this particular one is folded looks quite playful which I like.
Tiger, Designed by Gen Hagiwara and Folded by Lê Huỳnh Đức
Diagrams available in Spirits of Origami
These two tigers are the exact same model as the previous one but you can totally see how different the same model can look when folded by a different artist.
Tiger, Designed by Gen Hagiwara and Folded by Willie G. Crespo
Diagrams available in Spirits of Origami
Seth Friedman designed another one of my favourite cat designs. This again perfectly captures what a cat looks like walking along. This model was photographed at a convention.
Cat, Designed and Folded by Seth Friedman (Photo by Willie G. Crespo)
Crease pattern available from Seth Friedman’s website
Here we have an absolutely gorgeous resting lion folded by Gonzalo. I love how those back lags are kicked off to the side.
Lion, Designed by Hideo Komatsu and Folded by Gonzalo
Diagrams available in Works of Hideo Komatsu
A caracal isn’t the first type of cat you’d normally think of but Hiroaki Kobayashi designed one and it’s awesome. The colour changes on the ears, nose and eyes are really awesome. This one is folded by 7 sheets of paper.
Caracal, Designed and Folded by Hiroaki Kobayashi
Instructions not available
Here’s another really excellent house cat model.
Cat, Designed by Tanaka Masashi and Folded by Kim Ju Hyun
Diagrams available in Tanteidan Magazine #95
This is a very cool lion design. I really like how expressive the face is and how the mane looks. I’m not sure who the folder here is though, the sign there is kind of blurred so if you know let me know and I’ll update the post.
Lion King, Designed by Horiguchi Naoto (Photo by Maeng Heung Gue)
Instructions not available
Here’s an adorable and slightly sad homeless kitty.
Homeless Kitty, Designed and Folded by 簡單的度過-2
A Smilodon is a type of prehistoric sabre tooth tiger. Satoshi Kamiya designed what’s easily the most famous origami Smilodon but he’s not the only one. Richard Galindo Flores also designed this quite excellent one. I love how eager this particular one looks.
Smilodon, Designed by Richard Galindo Flores and Folded by J.W Park
Diagrams available in Bogota Origami Convention 2014
Here’s a slightly updated caracal design from Hiroaki Kobayashi. This time this one is folded from 8 squares of paper.
Caracal, Designed and Folded by Hiroaki Kobayashi
Instructions not available
This is a much simpler lion design than the previous ones here but they still managed to pack a ton of feeling into that face.
Lion, Designed by Shunichi Ashimura and Folded by Andrea Borsa
Diagrams available in Pajarita Magazine #138
Here’s Gen Hagiwara’s tiger again and this time I really like that little tongue.
Tiger, Designed by Gen Hagiwara and Folded by Guillermo R. Parrondo
Diagrams available in Spirits of Origami
This little sleeping cat is pretty adorable. The paper used here makes it look really furry and soft too.
Cat, Designed by Giang Dinh and Folded by Hare
Diagrams available in Licence to Fold
Here’s another really awesome lion. This was originally Satoshi Kamiya’s lion design but it’s been modified by Soma Cruz. I really love the expression on the face and what’s been done with the mane. The pose is really awesome and life-like. Apparently Soma studied lions for a long time before creating this masterpiece.
Lion, Originally Designed by Satoshi Kamiya, Modified and Folded by Soma Cruz
Instructions not available – Original diagrams available in Works of Satoshi Kamiya 2, 2002 – 2009
This Siamese cat by Rokuya is another one of the absolute best origami cats I’ve ever seen. It looks just like it would in real life and has the exact same character as a real Siamese cat. The colour changes in the design are excellent too.
Siamese Cat, Designed and Folded by Rokuya
Instructions not available
Here’s Katsuta Kyohei’s design again this time looking pretty cute.
Cat, Designed by Katsuta Kyohei and Folded by Rokuya
Diagrams available in Origami Tanteidan Magazine #124
Here are two excellent cats both with the same design and an excellent colour change. No matter which side of the paper you start with facing up the final model looks great.
Cats, Designed by Andrey Ermakov and Folded by Assaf Kessler
Diagrams available in Olympiad 2017 Round #1
This is another really excellent cat design and the paper used here is absolutely perfect. The stretching pose it’s folded in is also fantastic.
Cat, Designed and Folded by Juanfran Carrillo
Instructions not available
Here’s one last lion design with probably the most complicated mane I’ve ever seen.
Lion, Designed and Folded by Tkak Sakai
Instructions not available
Our final image for this post is these two fantastic cats by Gen Hagiwara. Both cats are folded from the same base but if you look carefully they’re a bit different, it’s not just the legs that are folded differently.
Cats, Designed and Folded by Gen Hagiwara
Instructions not available
What did you think about this selection of origami cats? If you thought they were purr-fect then let us know in the comments!
