Octopus, by Sipho Mabona.

Back in 2016, I made an octopus and posted it here on A Trivial Knot.  Now I’m showing my second attempt, which was made two years later.  With more experience, I was able to make a more elegant octopus, while also using foil paper (which is generally harder to work with).  I was quite satisfied.

Although… if I want to pander to a certain someone maybe I ought to switch to spiders.

To make this octopus, I started with a 15 cm square, and folded it along the following creases:

Crease pattern from Sipho Mabona.  When the colored side is face up, the dark lines are valley folds, and the light lines are mountain folds.

This technique is called “box pleating”, because the creases mostly follow a rectilinear grid.  Once I got all the folds, I collapsed it into a base, like so.

From there you just shape it into an octopus.  I find toothpicks useful for curling the tentacles.