Gargoyles are statues that are designed to convey water from a building’s roof. The water would usually run through a channel on the back of the gargoyle and out through a spout in its mouth.

These gargoyles are made out of paper to using them to discharge water is probably not a good idea.

Nonetheless they look quite awesome and I’ve seen enough origami gargoyles now to make this post.

We’ll start this post off with this imposing gargoyle by Tong Liu.

Gargoyle, Designed by Hoang Trung Thanh and Folded by Tong Liu

Instructions not available

Here’s a great little gargoyle design by Andrés.

Gargoyle, Designed and Folded by Andrés Lozano

Diagrams available from Andrés Lozano’s website

Here’s a very tiny version of Alessadro Beber’s gargoyle. I definitely don’t think I could fold something like this so small.

Gargoyle, Designed by Alessadro Beber and Folded by Xu Daniel

Diagrams available in the Origami Tanteidan 20th Convention book

This is an updated version of Andrés Lozano’s design.

Gargoyle 1.1, Designed and Folded by Andrés Lozano

Instructions not available

Here’s a larger version of Alessandro Beber’s Gargoyle and you can really make out all the amazing details in the design.

Gargoyle, Designed by Alessandro Beber and Folded by Анатолий Кириченко

Diagrams available in the Origami Tanteidan 20th Convention book

José Anibal Voyer designed this great little gargoyle mask.

Gargoyle Mask, Designed by José Anibal Voyer and Folded by Rui Roda

Diagrams available in The Book of Folded Paper Masks

Here’s another fantastic gargoyle mask design from Tom Defoirdt.

Gargoyle Mask, Designed and Folded by Tom Defoirdt

Instructions not available

This is Hoàng Trung Thành’s gargoyle design folded incredibly small by Xu Daniel.

Gargoyle, Designed by Hoàng Trung Thành and Folded by Xu Daniel

Crease pattern available from Hoàng Trung Thành’s Flickr

Here’s a great traditional looking gargoyle that you could totally see perched on the corner of a roof somewhere.

Gargoyle, Designed and Folded by Thong Nguyen Nguyen

Instructions not available

Andrey Ermakov’s gargoyle is definitely one of the most impressive designs I’ve seen. It’s folded from one single sheet of paper and this one took him 15 hours to fold.

Gargoyle, Designed and Folded by Andrey Ermakov

Crease pattern available from Andrey Ermakov’s Flickr

Here’s another great version of Andrés Lozano’s gargoyle.

Gargoyle, Designed and Folded by Andrés Lozano

Instructions not available

Tran Trung Hieu designed this fantastic gargoyle that definitely looks like something you could see on the corner of a roof.

Gargoyle, Designed and Folded by Tran Trung Hieu

Instructions not available

Follow Tran Trung Hieu on Flickr or Facebook

Alessandro Beber has also designed an absolutely fantastic paper gargoyle.

Gargoyle, Designed and Folded by Alessandro Beber

Crease pattern available from Alessandro Beber’s Flickr

Here’s another view of Alessandro Beber’s gargoyle folded by a different artist.

Gargoyle, Designed by Alessandro Beber and Folded by Andrew Sohn

Crease pattern available from Alessandro Beber’s Flickr

This is the earlier 2.1 version of Alessandro Beber’s origami gargoyle.

Gargoyle, Designed and Folded by Alessandro Beber

Crease pattern available from Alessandro Beber’s Flickr

Here’s a fantastic gargoyle design by Hubert Villeneuve that he designed for an origami challenge.

Gargoyle, Designed and Folded by Hubert Villeneuve

Instructions not available

Here’s another excellent gargoyle mask design.

Gargoyle Mask, Designed by Rikki Donachie and Folded by Rui Roda

Diagram available in BOS Magazine #243

Our final model for this post is this incredible Gargoyle by Andrey Ermakov. He created this as part of a contest to honour the great origami artist Eric Joisel who passed away in 2010.

Unfortunately this model didn’t win the contest and I can’t imagine what the winning model must have looked like.

Gargoyle, Designed and Folded by Andrey Ermakov

Crease pattern available from Andrey Ermakov’s Flickr

Which one of these paper gargoyles was your favourite? Let us know in the comments and be sure to check out these artists on Flickr as well.