I love hats, but similiarly to Leonard I have never wore an Origami hat. I haven't made as much of them, although I did have some cool designs in a past, I particularly loved my crown, that would be great to wear outside, but then agian, wearing a crown when going to work our integrate socially may be a little bit different, like I treated myself like a Queen or something. People can get all kind of ideas and I have noticed, that they are pretty much oversensitive about their own ego and self-esteem, so I will probably not wear it outside. But, I will gladly create some casual hat and wear it a few times. I will rather only wear it during a sunny weather or with not rain at least as I will rather spend some time on creating a hat as great as possible, so I don't want it to get broken by rain. I will make sure to let you guys know when I do.

So, I was lately wondering what kind of models did you have or still have the biggest problems with? I'm rather asking people with a few years of experience in origamis and already pretty advanced skills, but of course beginners are free to chip in with easier projects. Basically, we can keep this discussion at most difficult models ever, that only a handful of people are actually able to do properly, but that would heavily limit us, so we can expand to what creations were the hardest for you in particular? When I was a beginner I used to have problems even with simpler projects like a Chick, so I'm not gonna mention projects of this level and rather focus on what has proven to be especially troublesome for me now.

I was recently trying to do an Antique Dragon from Satoshi Kamiya's book. He is the absolute legend and I'm sure you are all familiar with his art and skills already, hard to not be actually, if you have even the slightest interest in origami. Back when I was starting, I was mostly focusing on things, that can be achieved with origami. Like what creations are there possible to do - what kind of level is possible to achieve and who is the best. I quickly realized that this is an art, and as it is with art, it's impossible to name somebody who's best at it, as art is different for everyone, but we can all agree upon certain names that had the biggest influence on origami's development and those, that all the time surpass our expectations. Satoshi Kamiya is definitely one of these people. As for potential in Origami - in my opinion, it's pretty much unlimited. I mean, everything can be achieved and its solely dependent on our very imagination. This is the limit - we ourselves are the limit, not origami, origami offers much more than we can imagine and only what we imagine is the limit that we currently see. During my attempts to create Antique Dragon I realized just how much I still need to learn in Origami. I have eventually managed to complete it, but even with step-by-step instructions it has surely took me a bit. Now imagine creating something of this level without having a book with detailed instructions? Just coming up with the idea in your head and creating it in paper. Insane if you ask me. I'm pretty sure I will never reach this level, no matter how much I will try, but I will sure keep trying :)

So yeah, Antique Dragon was definitely a hard nut for me to crack. As for others very complex models, that I have struggled a lot with I can name:

- Sitting Rabbit by Hideo Komatsu - as long as it may seem to not be that hard, I was kind of getting lost in the middle of the intruction all the time. Definitely it's a pretty complex one, we can say so just by the look of it, but I still thought it will be easier for me. Compared to Antique Dragon for example, it definitely looks like the easier one, but while I was actually in the process of creating, it surely didn't seem so anymore. Maybe it was just me though.

- Violonist by Hojyo Takashi - ok, this one got me good. It was so far the hardest model, that I have created. I managed to do it in the 5th try, but still it was pretty far from the perfection. I could have been able to do this one, but I will definitely give it a try again in 6 months or a year, when I polish my skills a little bit more. For now it just seemed like it was a little bit too much, yet I have not given up and I carried on my duty as I intended to.

There were others, that have given me a lot of trouble as well, but not as much as those 3 mentioned above, but they were also done on a different skill level. Projects that I was struggling with as much as with Violonist 2 years ago were fairly easy for me to do now, so I have sure improved. But those 3 were done quite recently (last 6 months), which I consider to be my peak, so I believe it's more relevant to list only those that were the hardest for you when you were in your best shape :)

Looking forward to an fruitful discussion :)

I know exactly what you mean Litegami. We all need something to focus our attention on, that is either relaxing for us or just making us comfortable. Life cannot only be a grind, and you also need to find time for activities that you really love and enjoy doing, otherwise it's not a life and I don't wish anybody living their life like this. Glad to have you here!

Welcome Shibura! Don't worry about the fact, that you are new - many members here are total beginners when it comes to origami, and even those with a couple years of experience still have tons to learn. Such is the way of origami, basically impossible to master as everyone has a different vision and a different approach. But don't worry and keep trying, if you encounter any problems make sure to let us know and we will do our best to help you!

Welcome, good to have you here! Wish you all the best with your Origami projects, it surely isn't an easy hobby just like you said, but it can be extremely rewarding and satisfying once you put enough work. Considering your experience, I'm sure that you have already realized that, so not much else to say. Just stay safe and enjoy origami!

Leonard, nice looking tutorials - yeah, they are pretty short and written in a quite straight-forward manner and I guess total beginners may have quite of a problem to understand what you really wanted them to do, as long as I understood everything, I also have built all of the above many times, so that's less of a problem for me. It would be best if any of the beginners actually replied here to see if they can understand it - of course, without videos or pictures at least it will be extremely hard to do it properly. Even though, I'm not too much of pictures fan - I believe videos are a much better idea, pictures will only limit our dimensional thinking, while videos may not exactly develop it, but are at least pretty much fast-paced, so we have to think for ourselves for most of the part. So, that's a pretty solid supplemntation for the videos, but without them, it's pretty much useless. Hope you don't mind my pretty harsh opinion, anyhow a pretty good job and I'm looking forward to see more, if you have some time to make them :)