Yeah Albatrose, don't worry, you should focus on improving your skills first rather than buying an origami hat. If you didn't wear any hats before, you can actually buy one (but not an origami one), to make yourself adjust to hats. Either baseball caps, sun hats or whatever actually suits you. Once you change your image and get used to hats, you will have even bigger motivation to create one with your own hands and wear it all the time. It's kind of like once you spend a lot of money on something, then you are much more eager to wear it or use it all the time. Similiarly with origami hats - just you don't spend your own money here, but rather invest a lot of time into making one. For most people here, those more advanced in origami it's actually pretty easy to make one, so they may not feel so attached to it as you will surely be, but regardless of amount of time it takes, even the very satisfaction from putting something you have made entirely by yourself to use is an really amazing experience, and I wish you make yourself a pretty cool hat as soon as possible.

Of course, if you run into any kind of problems, you are not sure about any instructions you have found, steps to follow or you just have any questions regarding making hats, let us know. I'm sure you will manage without further problems to make a decent hat of an simple design. Anyone can do it to be honest, even without much experience or skills, your motivation and desire to make one should be enough. Good luck!

I'm frankly suprised, that this thread has brought such a big attention and that so many of you are interested in hats. I was frankly expecting more like a negative attitude towards hat or no interest at all. I'm glad, that you share and like my idea. Seems, that it's also time for me to implement something now as I felt quite unsure about wearing it in public and didn't create anything yet, but now that I see so many people willing to try it out and Coffeegirl, that has already implemented into real life, I have to step on and go out to the world, show some of my beautifully self-made origami hats as well (at least I hope they will turn to be as beautiful as I want them to be).

I checked out aliexpress for some designs - there are very few, but the one sun hat in rainbow colors looks extremely nice - I gotta admit though, that it will be very hard to replicate one like this, but hey, now that I can see you guys being so interested this idea, I have to try at least, right? Besides, I haven't given myself a proper challenge when it comes to origami lately, so this could be a great chance to both test and improve my skills. Once I make it I will make sure to show you guys, and of course on a sunny day wear it to work or any other social meetings, even shopping. I kind of feel, that if I were to make a perfect one like this, I could as well make it my permanent hat and simply wear everyday when it's not raining. Would be really cool.

So recently, I have came up with a pretty good, that is already pretty much popular around the world amongst Origami fans, although particularly Japanese people as they seem to have the biggest Origami scene as well as are most open to all kind of origami arts and applying it to future. I know, that this trend is slowly fading due to technology and culture changes, less young people are interested in any kind of art and their own creations in Japan, similiarly to the West, but they still keep themselves in a kind of an conventional society and wearing an origami hat is not that unusual as here, where I haven't seen a single person ever doing that.

I thought to break the habit a little bit and become the first to actually to do that, make an origami hat and go out, meet some people like I always do or even go to work. I have to say, that I have spent some time on making the perfect for me hat. As long as I'm quite experienced with origami and definitely made a few nice hats before, I wanted this one to be particularly good and well, I actually usually limited myself to smaller paper as had no need to rely on a bigger one. So, we could as well say it was my first time creating a hat, that is bigger and perfectly suits my head.

According to my expectations, I have gotten quite many looks from people around me, some actually looked at my hat and smiled a little bit, others were kind of neutral, but not particularly looking at you like a weirdo or anything. But, almost of them actually did look at me. Funny thing is that I actually felt much better once I started grabbing people' attention in a kind of passive and unique way. I usually find people when going to world in a rush, kind of in a bad mood and focused only on themselves. It was nice to get some kind of passive reaction and feel differently a little bit, while promoting origami and well... wearing kind of a stylish hat!

The hat was made from the pink paper (light pink) and looked just like a normal hat, just made from paper. I didn't create a crown or anything, didn't want to look stupid after all, just a simple, basic, nicely-looking hat. I gotta say, that most people in Japanese that did wear them used them as a temporary rain protection, but I kind of don't want to get my hat wasted on rain right away. Although, making them is relatively simple, I just spent way too much time because I'm perfectionist at heart, and as it was the first hat that I wore outside, I wanted it to be really cool. But the same kind of hat I can replicate really fast though, so I will rather focus on making a lot of them in as smalla amount of time as possible and just wear them on daily basis - as rain protection as well. I need to get myself some more paper though as I want them to be quite colorful - different color every day. Gladly, there is literally tons of different kind of papers color-wise, in many different shades too, so I frankly doubt that I will get bored any time soon.

Anyway, I have made this topic because I was extremely interested in the idea of wearing origami hats outside. Like I said, I haven't seen anyone do it yet and despite the fact, that origami community is pretty much small, I would love to see more people doing it and promoting this very beautiful art that is origami. Thing is, that Origami really is great, but we need more people around the world to get into it, and every time I ask somebody about origami in world, they just consider it some boring and extremely hard to learn hobby. I try to change their minds, create them some easy pattern in work to show them it's not that hard, but they are all not into it. It's true, that having too many options (games, movies, tv shows and tons of other technology-based) just limits people in picking up their hobbies, I believe if we were to expose Origami arts to the world a little bit more, we could then make it more popular and bring bigger attention. But that would have to be done on a pretty big scale, yet, if you guys find wearing a hat appealing, then I urge you to do so with an Origami hat and you won't regret it. Unless you hate bringing attention to yourself, which I kind of do a little bit, but bringing this kind of attention thanks to self-made Origami hat was actually kind of enjoyable.

So, did you guys make any Origami hats? I'm sure most of you did on a smaller scale in home, while practicing their skills back in the days as it's really quite a basic design. If so, have you ever wore one? Like exposed yourself to the public with one? There is tons of different designs, so basically anyone will find something suitable for themselves. For example I have made myself a hat very similar to the one Luffy from One Piece wears. For those unconcerned with anime, you can just google Luffy and you will surely see his hat. I didn't apply the same colors though and I used a light pink instead, but the design was pretty much the same. I love Luffy's hat and I actually think, that I could use the very same colors and expose myself not only as an origami fan, but also as an Anime fan. That could be fun hah, I woner what kind of people' around me reaction will be. My guess is that pretty much the same.

Don't worry Coffeegirl. I haven't done any of those you listed apart from a 3D Puffy Heart few years ago and I'm not sure if we followed the same tutorial, but it gave me some troubles as well. I, on the other hand was actually pretty much horrible with any kind of dimensional origami, so both pushing it forward and maintaining a 3D structure was quite of a problem for me. But yeah, don't worry about that, just keep trying. For example, now it is relatively easy for me, but just a couple years ago it was really hard. As with everything else, you improve by practicing, so worry less, create more!

Now, as for hardest models in my career, that I have been doing in my very best, so fairly recently I could name: Mantis from J. Langa - ow, how much time I have spent to get it right, F-18 Hornet Plane (you can easily find a tutorial on the internet just by googling this phrase) - at the beginnign it seemed to be fairly easy, but getting the wings and the tail right was extremely hard. Just creating one is intermediate at best, but to give it a nice and real look, well, that's whole other level! Elephant, but the advanced one, that looks just like a real Elephant - really hard, I believe it took me 3 or 4 tries and I was extremely focused on every single one of those, completing every single one and then throwing them away when I didn't like them. I also done some sketches during the process to get the better evaluation of what I'm looking for in general. But, it was extremely fun and it was one of my most satisfying models, that I have ever done ;)

Last one, that definitely deserves to be mentioned here is Crab - just a simple crab, but looking very real, I have obviously used a paper of the right color too and hands down, that was the most satisfying work I have ever done and also I believe, the hardest one. It could be because I felt like I have never done anything of this sort. As it's a crab, I had to keep it pretty much flat, but then again pretty dimensional so it resembles the real crab. Besides, I couldn't find many instrucitons towards doing this one and out of 5 books I have, I didn't find it any of those, so had to rely totally on the internet. But I told myself, that this is what I'm doing, I have motivated myself and eventually pulled it off. I believe, it took me around 10 tries to finally get it right - sure, I have had many drafts that were 'okish', but they were just okish, they weren't good enough to satisfy me and I'm sure most of you would have done the same. I had to do one looking exactly like the one I saw on the picture. Period. And I have achieved my goal, what has made me tremendously happy :)

I never tried any of those, that seem to be even more complex like Violonist or Antique Dragon, but I have seen them many times already and I believe it's finally the time to get it rolling. I will let you guys know how it went for me and judgind by the complexity, it will be most likely posted here :)

Hey, nice to meet you. I also had a bit of an experience with drawing (I haven't actually mentioned that in my introduction thread). Not much, but I did a few anime characters sketches, gotta say that it was easier for me than actual origami, but seems much less rewarding and I chose origami after all, but I may as well draw something too from time to time. Hard to say. Anyway, glad to meet you and I hope that you will have a great time here!

Thank you all for your kind words. Yes, I'm kind of in an creation crisis right now, just not sure on what I should focus next, been trying to create some anime characters, but can't get it right. We will see, I feel like I'm preoccupied with work lately and it has sure taken a toll on my productivity as well.

Leonard, thanks for briefly and very warm introduction to Japan. Seems like most people are saying the very same thing - that it's a great country with basically countless opportunities, that literally never gets boring. And the food <3 I literally instantly got hungry when I think of real Japanese Sushi or Ramen. Despite pretty classical, it's the most you can get here in the West and even then, I heard that Japanese food is just on a whole different level than what we can taste here. Well, I will see once I finally make it there. I have some money saved, so I could probably go for like 2 or 3 weeks, but that's not too long and will cost me quite a lot of money. I would actually prefer to be outsourced to work there like you do - but no idea on how to do this, their laws for hiring foreigners are pretty tough and I would need at least 5+ more years of experience in a relevant field to be granted this opportunity, unless the company I worked there had branches and I was specifically needed here. We will see, I will keep looking for opportunities in this regard, so some day I may be able to get there. Thanks again for all the kind words here, I appreciate it!

Just like Leonard said. You shouldn't make your decision based on being good or bad, just keep doing what you enjoy. For example I enjoy all kind of art, but Origami has struck me the most and that's why I have sticked with it for so long and polished my skills. I wasn't the best at the beginning as well, it's all a pretty slow process, that you have to figure out yourself. Although, I never encountered such problems like you do - maybe you should practice a little bit more before you call yourself a good-for-nothing in origami? I mean, kids designs are very easy to do, but other beginners ones, like even this popular Chick are fairly easy too. Frankly, I was basically able to complete right away, without much practice, but maybe you should give it some more time. Try various designs, even if a few of those labeled easy didn't work out for you, try to make something different, even if you consider it to be harder, it may actually be easier for you. You never know. Besides you don't even know your strenghts and weaknesess. As far as origami goes, you don't know anything about yourself yet, you are as clueless as every other beginner in terms of your own skills.

I can see, that this is a pretty hard decision for you to make, that's why I advise to give it some more time - maybe it will get better on the way, and even then I support Leonard here, that even if it will not get better, as long as you enjoy doing it, you will feel much happier about yourself and eventually, you will improve.

Yes, Deidara was really awesome. I haven't tried to build him yet, despite it's one of my favorite anime characters ever. Probably because I don't want to a bad-looking one, that would be a real boomer :D But once I feel ready, I would gladly make a Deidara's origami character and I promise to do my best here :)