Origami Animals Spring To Life From One Piece Of Paper

No cutting? No glue? Not even a little?
Origami Duck, design by Katsuta Kyohei
Origami Duck, design by Katsuta Kyohei
Gonzalo García Calvo

It's like the tale of a superhero: By day, Gonzalo García Calvo is a musician in Madrid, but by night, he's an amateur origami artisan.

You might be familiar with the art of origami from reading Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes in elementary school, or from folding our own clumsy frogs and cranes and flowers as kids. But the vast array of objects and creatures that can be summoned from one piece of origami paper is truly unfathomable to the non-expert.

Origami Rooster, original design by Satoshi Kamiya
Origami Rooster, original design by Satoshi Kamiya
Gonzalo García Calvo

There's no design too complicated and out-there for Calvo to attempt; he says it takes around "three hours for a complex model, and maybe more for the most detailed ones." At this point, he's been practicing his folds for four years.

Calvo told The Huffington Post via email, "I find it fascinating that by changing the steps in the folding process you end up with a totally different model, so in essence, a square of paper has inside of it all the possibilities to be anything you can imagine."

As demanded by the rules of the art form, only folding of the paper is allowed to achieve the stunning transformations, making the results all the more remarkable. "You can fold almost anything with a single square of paper without gluing or cutting it," he said.

Origami Mammoth, design by Artur Biernacki
Origami Mammoth, design by Artur Biernacki
Gonzalo García Calvo
Origami Skull, design by Quentin Trollip
Origami Skull, design by Quentin Trollip
Gonzalo García Calvo

While Calvo conjures tiny violins, flowers and skulls from paper squares, the vast majority of his pieces are animals. "I love animals, and sometimes I see how they act or move, and then I feel the need to represent that in some way," he explained. "I want to capture a feeling."

Origami Simple Dragon, design by Shuki Kato
Origami Simple Dragon, design by Shuki Kato
Gonzalo García Calvo
Origami Hippocampus, design by Román Dí­az
Origami Hippocampus, design by Román Dí­az
Gonzalo García Calvo
Origami Tree Frog, original design by Satoshi Kamiya
Origami Tree Frog, original design by Satoshi Kamiya
Gonzalo García Calvo
Origami Common Loon, design by Artur Biernacki
Origami Common Loon, design by Artur Biernacki
Gonzalo García Calvo
Origami Wolf Spider, design by Brian Chan
Origami Wolf Spider, design by Brian Chan
Gonzalo García Calvo
Origami Papillon Dog, design by Miyajima Noboru
Origami Papillon Dog, design by Miyajima Noboru
Gonzalo García Calvo

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