Stupid Origami Camel!!!

Where do I get these crazy ideas?

I had a sudden flash recently, while I was hanging out at my display table in a church lobby, that I could make origami camels and have them on my display table. If I got really good at making them, I could give them away to adorable, missions-minded children that swarm my table (mostly because of the tootsie rolls in a little basket). In my imagination, I thought it would be the Japenese paper-folding equivalent of giving out balloon animals. Everyone loves those!

So I ordered a cheap booklet online that contained, among a whole menagerie, a camel pattern. I got it about four days later. I took it with me on my trip down to Lexington, VA for Sunday's service and worked on my first camel in the hotel room.

The camel is comprised of 44 separate steps (deceiving actually, because some steps require multiple folds and twists). I had to teach 7th/8th grade art one year, and I did a whole month on origami; I know my valley folds and mountain folds. However, I thought the 44 step camel looked difficult, although its listed as "moderate" in the book.

I had a piece of 8.5 x 11 inch paper, and I set off folding, only to get stuck on step 12. I folded and unfolded, but I could not get my paper to look like the model. I got frustrated and tried again, but to no avail. I decided straight off that one problem was the paper size. I would need a big piece of paper for all these complex folds.

Last night, I got a 12 x 12 inch piece and restarted the whole project. I reveled in the success of finally figuring out step 12, even though my paper was starting to rip into little holes along the folded seams. I made it all the way to step 31 before I got totally flummoxed and threw the filthy, ripped up piece of paper across the room. Stupid origami camel!!!!