As with most origami, the classic bird is made from a perfectly square piece of paper. Acquire one. You can either buy specialist origami paper for £10 a pack, or you can make your own for absolutely nothing (the Chancellor of the Exchequer would prefer the former).
Pre-crease along these lines, then fold in half along the diagonal A to B (you don't actually need to draw the lines on your paper, unless you are the kind of person who DID go out and buy the origami paper).
Tuck point A inside.
Tuck point B inside so that it meets point A.
Fold point C inwards, crease the fold line, but then open out again. Mirror with point D.
Lift up point E (top layer only!) and then fold it down and back so that points C and D meet.
Turn the whole thing over. Fold point F inwards, crease the fold line, then open out again. Mirror with point G.
Lift up point H (top layer only!) and then fold it down and back so that points F and G meet.
Fold point I (top layer only!) inward, then fold point J to meet it (again, only the top layer).
Turn the whole thing over again. There should only be one layer to fold now. Fold point K inward, then fold point L to meet it.
Now the slightly tricky part. At the bottom you should have two separate halves on either side of the horizontal. You need to fold point M inside out along this imaginary line.
A close-up of how that should look.
Now do the same with point N along this imaginary line.
Do another inside-out fold near point M to create the head.
Shape the wings and position to stand. Voila: one classic origami crane. Supposedly if you make 1000 of these in one year, you are blessed with good fortune. So what are you waiting for?
