Origami Animals Spring To Life From One Piece Of Paper

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 Duck, design by Katsuta Kyohei

Origami Rooster, original design by Satoshi Kamiya

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 Papillon Dog, design by Miyajima Noboru

Origami Simple Dragon, design by Shuki Kato

Origami Hippocampus, design by Román Dí­az

Origami Tree Frog, original design by Satoshi Kamiya

Origami Common Loon, design by Artur Biernacki

Origami Wolf Spider, design by Brian Chan