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Origami artist creates life-sized elephant from one piece of paper

Professional origami artist Sipho Mabona has created a huge, life-sized elephant using just one sheet of paper.

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Photography: Philipp Schmidli

Photography: Philipp Schmidli

Considered to be his most ambitious work to date, the elephant took Mabona and a team of over a dozen people four weeks to complete. Standing at over three metres high, the work is now on display at the museum KKLB in Beromünster, Switzerland.

The project was financed through crowdfunding website Indiegogo where he successfully raised over $26,000 from over 600 funders. Once the project kicked off, a webcam was installed to allow people to watch the huge elephant take shape.

As you can imagine, it was quite a challenge and Mabona had to overcome various problems to fold such a huge amount of paper, and at times he required the help of 10 people to create the elephant. But he got there, and you can watch the video below to enjoy discovering more about the process.

Life-sized elephant origami sculpture folded from a single sheet of paper, standing over three metres high in a bright gallery space
Sipho Mabona's life-sized origami elephant made from a single sheet of paper, displayed on a wooden platform in a gallery with golden ceiling panels
Close-up detail of folded white paper showing the intricate creases and folds of Sipho Mabona's life-sized origami elephant
Sipho Mabona's life-sized origami elephant folded from a single sheet of paper, displayed in a gallery space with wooden flooring
Crumpled white paper folds and creases forming part of Sipho Mabona's life-sized origami elephant sculpture
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