My friend saw a wall hanging of origami koi that she really liked, but the etsy shop that was selling it had it priced at over $1000. Thus, I set out to make this for her birthday/Christmas present, and after countless hours of folding while walking, an art that I have mastered, I finally finished the koi and attached them to the friend's bedroom wall.

UPDATE: Here's version 2.0 of this tutorial, complete with LED mood lighting.

Step 1: Materials

origami paper (one square per koi you're making)
wire (not too thin; I used 20 gauge)
hot glue gun
tape
ruler
pliers
(optional): string

Step 2: Folding the Koi

For making the koi, designed by Sipho Mabona, I used an online diagram (whose link doesn't work anymore for some reason) and a stop-motion video of the folding process so have fun! It's pretty tricky, especially the swivel folds, but feel free to comment below if you have difficulties and I'll try to help. Fold as many as you want, but I folded 39 of them: 1 white, 2 bright yellow, 3 yellow-orange, 2 dark orange, 2 light orange, 7 red, 2 pink, 5 purple, 2 dark blue, 5 medium blue, 4 sky blue, 1 dark green, and 3 leaf green.

By the way, this link might help.

UPDATE:This is a link to a video tutorial for folding the koi; it'll make life a lot easier than following the stop-motion video. Thank you to DrGaf for bringing the video to my attention. ^^

Step 3: Folding Tips

The fins are the trickiest part, and the stop motion video isn't too helpful on folding it so see the above pictures on tips for folding them.

Step 4: Wire Mounts

To mount the koi on the wall, I needed to make wire connections for each fish. To do so, I used pliers to shape two triangles perpendicular to each other (see accompanying pictures).

Step 5: Arrangement

On a flat surface, arrange your fish in the way you want them to look on your wall. Take a picture and save it or print it out for guidance when you actually attach the fish to the wall.

To be honest, even though I did this step, I ended up winging the design. And I like how everything turned out so skip this step if you want.

Step 6: Mounting

Time to attach the koi to the wall! Using your picture from the previous step as guidance, hot glue the smaller wire triangle to the back of your koi. Then tape the larger triangle to the wall. Rinse and repeat until all fish are attached as you like.

Step 7: Optional Part

If you're completely happy with what you have, great job; you're done! For me, I thought that the koi looked too restricted to one area and looked like it fit a perfect rectangle even though there was plenty more space next to it. This being so, I decided to outline that imaginary rectangle with dark green yarn (no blue available). I liked this result a lot better so do this If you think it would help.

But all in all, I hope you enjoyed my tutorial!

Introduction: Wall of Rainbow Koi