Introduction: Koi Money Clip on Blender

The koi fish symbolizes a bunch of good things (strength, prosperity, good luck, yadda yadda) in some Asian cultures, and a gold colored koi specifically symbolizes wealth and prosperity.  With or without money, whipping out this clip from your pocket allows you to keep it classy while taking a fish out of your pants.

Step 1: Make Fish Outline

Find a picture of an uncontorted koi fish online.  Put this picture in the background of the 3D viewer on Blender.  Add a plane, delete three of the points on the plane, and extrude the point (Ctrl + LMB) as many times as needed to draw the outline of the fish.  Close the fish outline by selecting the first and last points only and connecting them (F).  

Step 2: Fold It in Half

Select two vertices from the fish outline and connect them (F) to make a line through the fish between its ventral and anal fins.

Select both points from the line formed above and all points on the tail end side of this line.  Put the 3D cursor on the line formed above and rotate all highlighted points 180 degrees along the Y axis (R, Y, 180).  With the vertices from the tail end still selected, grab and move them all down the z axis (G, Z, # and direction of units).

Step 3: Insert Eye

On the front half of the fish, place the 3D cursor where the eye would be, and add a mesh circle on the same plane as the fish body.  Scale to a reasonable eye size.  

Make numerous faces for the front half of the fish, making sure to keep the eye hole open (select desired points, F).

Step 4: Extrude Fish Surfaces

Select any points that got mangled with the previous rotation and delete them.  Select all points on the tail end of the fish and close the surface (Select vertices, F).  Make sure the top and bottom halves of the fish are both closed surfaces.  

Then, extrude each half of the fish along the z-axis (select appropriate faces on each side, E, Z, # units and direction for extrusion).

Step 5: Add the Curved Part of the Money Clip

Place 3D cursor between the top and bottom halves of the fish, near where the center of the curvature will be.  Add a cylinder (Shift+A, cylinder).  Rotate it if necessary (R, X, 90).  Scale it down to an appropriate size (S, move mouse).

Do it again to make a smaller cylinder inside the bigger cylinder.

Adjust length and placement of both cylinders.

Step 6: Clean Up Surfaces

Select and delete the points that are unnecessary for the curvature of the money clip from the cylinders from step 5.

Close all surfaces (select desired points, F).

Step 7: Embellish Fins

The embellishments are only done on the fins and tail portions of the clip that are facing outwards.

Make a line connecting the inside border of the fin.  Subdivide several times.

Select a vertex from the line formed above and a vertex from the outer edge of the fin and connect them (F) to make a fin line.

Subdivide several times and adjust the points between the two endpoints to make the fin line look more organic.

Select the midpoints of each fin line and extrude them along the z-axis (E, Z, # units and direction for extrusion).  Then, close the surfaces.

Step 8: Embellish Tail

Using the same concept as step 7, first make a line for the border of where the tail starts on the lower half of the body.  Subdivide this line multiple times.  Connect a point from this border line to a point on the outer edge of the tail.  Again, subdivide this line and adjust the midpoints for a less rigid look.  Close each area of the fish tail segments separately.  After this is complete, select every other tail segment face and extrude along the z-axis for desired texture.

Step 9: Add Gill

In object view, add a NURBS curve to the front half of the fish, where the gill should be located.

Under the NURBS curve object data context, change the bevel depth and resolution values until it looks like a gill (circled in yellow on picture).  Convert the curve into a mesh (Alt+C) and close all ends of the curve.  Join the gill mesh to the fish mesh.

Step 10: Add Some Traction

Add a cylinder (Shift+A, mesh cylinder) at the end of the fish body, near the tail.  Adjust the position of the cylinder so that it fits the width of the fish.

Delete the vertices of the cylinder that are not protruding into the interior of the money clip.

Close all surfaces.