Origami Butterflies

It has been a while since I posted any origami. Time to remedy the origami drought. ;) Here are some origami butterflies I thought were really nice. A couple of different types are pictured, but the one that interested me the most was the swallowtail butterfly. Detailed video instructions for the swallowtail may be found here. The original folding pattern was created by origami designer Michael LaFosse.

Previous Origami:

Koi
Swallows
Long Stem Rose
Royal Crown
Penguin

Japanese Emperor Butterfly Papercraft

The Japanese Emperor butterfly is found in every part of the main island of Japan. It is easily identified by its distinctive purple color. This paper model of the butterfly is offered by the Konica Minolta company on their website. Judging by the size of the template, it appears the finished model is slightly larger than life. The scientific name of the Japanese Emperor is "Sasakia Charonda".

Other Papercraft Insects:

LotR Spider: Shelob
Arabian Fat-tailed Scorpion
Mexican Tarantula

Butterfly Ball Origami

From Jill Britton's website:

"Kenneth Kawamura's butterfly ball is a deceptive (origami) action model. Assembled from twelve water bomb bases, it forms a complex and pleasing geometric shape known as a cubohemioctahedron. The assembly is stable when resting on a surface. However toss it in the air and give it a light smack to see it explode into a cloud of butterflies which flutter prettily to earth. For this reason, it is also referred to as a butterfly bomb."

Instructions for this exploding origami may be downloaded here. Also available are printable patterns to make the individual pieces of the ball look like actual butterflies.