Football

Well, after a long time I worked on some modular origami – the origami football (soccerball). Absence really does make the heart grow fonder, cos I absolutely loved making the football. It helped that it very closely resembles a real football, so much so that my daughter wanted to kick it around! And everyone in my house is in love with it

Unlike most modular origami, the individual modules are made from equilateral triangles. For my football, I had used A5 sheets (If you have A4 ie., the regular copy paper, cut it in half horizontally to give 2 A5 sheet). Each A5 sheet gives 2 white triangles and 3 black triangles. A total of 20 white pieces and 12 black pieces are needed. So that makes it 10 white A5 sheets and 4 black A5 sheets (In A4 terms, it is 5 white and 2 black A4 sheets).

The white and black pieces are folded differently, as we need white hexagons and black pentagons. While assembling the ball, each black pentagon will be surrounded by 6 white hexagons. You should be aware that of these 6 white hexagons, one side will have a pocket which will be empty. That is because of the combination of hexagons and pentagons and nothing to worry about

So give it a go and have fun with the football. It is pretty robust, so you can even throw it around a bit!

Origami Details:

Model: Football

Creator: Mark Leonard

Website: Mark Leonard’s Origami Page

Classification: Origami | 32 Unit Modular | Everyday Things

Difficulty Level: High Intermediate

Paper Ratio: Triangle

Paper size: A4 paper

Model size: 4 inches diameter

Instructions:  Mark Leonard’s Origami Page

Tutorial: Youtube