And I did it. I made myself a pretty nice hat in a light pink, although it took me a little bit. My origami skills are still so poor, I literally had to spend a few hours and multiple tries to even get the simplest model, but I have eventually done that. And my motivation seemed to be greater than ever as I was actually creating something that I can put in practice and will greatly affect my image, so I wanted to be really good. Turned out to be an average, simple hat, but I'm very happy about my results nonetheless. Creating a design from a bigger paper is definitely a whole another world compared to the smaller one. It may not be particularly difficult, but as long as I said, that I already had some previous experince with bigger scale paper, I still feel like I really lack a lot when it comes to creating something on bigger scale compared to smaller paper. But I will get there eventually and I feel extremely happy about the hat, that I have been able to make. Satisfaction is real! Oh, and as for any kind of stares and attention, I frankly never really got the impression like something has changed greatly. I didn't even get any comment about it except for a few people from work, that have actually complimented it and said, that it looks pretty much funny. But, I may be different in this regard as I always wear kind of an alternative/hippie style, so one) it's not much of an image change for me and two) I may be used to people looking at me more than others, that easily blend into the crowd due to wearing totally normal clothes.

Either way it was pretty cool experience and I'm sure I will wear them much more often. I just need to make a couple more hats, preferably better looking than the one I have currently made, and that will require my to heavily improve my skills, as I saw some really cool designs, but they still seem far out of my reach. Yet, I'm a total beginner though, so I shouldn't be concerned about this. Practice, practice and practice - that's what I have to focus on right now.

Thanks for sharing this cool idea with us!

Brilliant idea! I'm pretty new to Origami and haven't had a chance to create a hat yet, but I do have a little bit of an experience with bigger paper already, so I will gladly give it a try. I can already see myself wearing a hat like this, seems like a really great experience to be honest. And I'm sure it would fit me well! I will probably for for a light pink one as well as I really love this color. I have no issues with people staring at me or grabbing attention - the opposite actually, I love being recognized and I even wear a kind of an alternative, one could say a 'hippie' style on daily basis, so totally zero issues for me. I'm not sure when I will have time to sit on this, but hopefully over the weekend, so I can start new week with an refreshed image.

Wow, then you must be really good if you were able to complete those models. For now, they all seem to be impossible for me to do - totally out of reach unfortunately, but maybe in a few years... :P I'm a beginner, so my opinion here isn't as relevant as what I struggle with you guys must be doing in your sleep, but I have been recently trying to do Augustar Star and well, it took me a while to get it right - 6 tries in total, but managed to get it done eventually. It's looking really beautiful by the way, so if you haven't done that, I urge you to do that :P Really amazing for some decoration.
I also struggled a bit with creating Totoro - it's kind of like a square cat with a big smile, very cute once you actually do it. I totally couldn't get it right at the beginning, but then swiftly created a very nice one in a third try.
I also found a nice tutorial for a crown box over the internet - the box itself was quite tall and as long as it seemed really easy, I have struggled a lot with getting it done. I mean, I have completed it in the first try, but it was far from what it looked like on the picture, so I kept trying until I got it right and felt satisfied from my work.
And now the one, which have given me the most problems despite it being fairly easy to do, at least for most people - Puffy 3D Heart. As long as I have practiced 3D origamis a little bit and suprisingly I was doing pretty much okay with that, getting this hard to indeed be puffy and a little bit pushed forward was literally a nightmare. I spent a lot of time on that, but giving up was never my intention, so I have eventually gotten it right, but still there is room for improvement if you ask me.

Those models, that I have struggled with must seem easy for you, but well, everyone was a beginner once ;)

Hey, I actually experienced the same problem and after reading the internet I have came to the same conclusion as Leonard. I'm a beginner as well, although maybe a little bit more experienced than you and I also thought, that using a bigger paper is just simply easier as it just basically naturally folds, but once you will get to try something done, you will notice that the structe isn't nearly as stable as it is when you use a smaller paper, hence it's so much harder to get all those elements to work. Leonard explained everything pretty well, but I will also chip in and add, that you should focus on even easier arts than Leaf or Lotus. I have actually done Lotus and have to admit, that it's not that easy as some may think. Took me quite some time to learn how to do it. Never tried Leaf though, but seems like it can be a lot of fun - a lot of detailing here, which is something that I'm pretty good at hah, so I should definitely like it. But for the very easy projects you have Chick, frog, boat or a cat - I have been praciting on them quite a bit first before I jumped to more advanced projects. Of course all these animals can be done in many different ways, and some of the tutorials you find over the end are probably very advanced, so try to stick to those simple ones. You can even type "origami for kids" in Google and just pick whatever kids do. I mean, don't let your ego win, firstly you have to start from the very basics and make your way up, just like with everything. And starting with projects meant for kids is not a shame at all, I did start with those and I'm sure many others did as well :)

Good luck!

Hey, so seems like you not much of an beginner anymore, but still fairly new to origami. I hope you will be able to learn a lot from this forums!

Hey! Nice to see a fellow beginner like me :P I hope, that you will (we both will) have a great time here and we will learn a lot from more experienced users. I have actually done a few arts already, but I am still far from even the minimum level, that I would want to achieve. I got to say though, that it's not so hard actually. I mean, sure it is very hard, but once you get the basics and kind of understand the very mechanism and the way people make origami, it's all suddenly becoming so much easier. Still, good luck and I'm glad that you are getting quite a lot of support and warm welcome from mor experienced users. So far, even though I'm not here for too long, it seems like it's one of the most user-friendly communities ever, once you establish yourself here, you can can really feel kind of like at home, to which you long coming back

Exactly. Don't make this stupid decision based on your lack of skills. We are all bad at the beginning. Look, I'm a beginner too, and maybe if I am a bit better than you at this, it doesn't change the fact, that I still have tons to learn and doing any complex models in my current state is impossible. And just as you, I don't even see how I would be able to make some of those harder designs, but I enjoy Origami and I'm going to stick with it. Whether I will get on the desired level or not.

Wow, thanks for your input! I appreciate it. I will make sure to mention all models, that you have given me as an example. You are probably right - it will be hard to get their attention and I may have been getting my hopes for nothing, but still I believe it's worth a try. I'm sorry you had such experience Leonard, but I believe in public schools it is much harder to pull. As long as you operate on a bigger group of children and some of them may get initially interested, when they look at their friends who keep doing something else in the same time, or offer them to play soccer after the school, or video games at home, origami quickly loses its brilliance. I would have probably done the same. I frankly doubt that I would get interested in origami when I was a kid, unless I had other friends that are commited to this as well. But well, I will do it anyway. Worst that can happen is that we will all have a good time while it lasts and I will polish my skills, while also explaining others on how to do a certain model. Win/win either way, so I may be just worrying too much and overthinking it - after all, it's a great practice for me to.

Thanks again for input and sharing your experiences. It sure was a tremendous help for me.

Hello everyone! As you may know from other threads in which I have posted, I'm pretty much a beginnner when it comes to origami.

I have done my fair share of arts designed for kids and they have been a tremendous help in learning. I'm currently trying to sway from creating models for kids and trying something more advanced (although still beginner-level). I'm still learning and my knowledge about origami is pretty much limited, but I feel like I'm moving forward. Next week, I'm going to a family meeting - basically all the uncles and my sisters will be there and they all have kids. As long as I'm sure, that I probably won't be able to get anyone from my family into origami, I thought of introducing this art for kids, they are all pretty small, ranging from 5 to 11 years old.

That's why, in order to introduce them to Origami properly I'm looking for some good easy models ideas. Well, most I have done that were aimed for kids was pretty easy and helped me learn pretty quickly, but still, I'm practicing origami a bit already and well, I'm an adult, so I guess my manual skills are a bit better than those of children. So, what models do you guys think would be suitable for kids, that will try it for the first-time and that can interest them enough, so they keep creating this art long after I'm gone and generally get hooked. I know from experience, that it's extremely easy to get kids interested in something, they just have to like something, and I think most people (even kids) like something the most when they are fairly successful at something.

If for the whole day spent there, they won't even be able to build a single model, then I guess I have very little chances of getting them interested in the long-term. And children do have a great learning curve, I'm sure that if I were to interest them and they kept practicing everyday for even a month or two straight, they would surely become better than I am :P Kids literally absorb the knowledge and everything.

So far I have came up with showing them how to do: a bunny, frogs, tullips and origami rings. Frankly those were the ones that I have as first and literally had zero problems with creating them. I believe anything animal-based will be better, kids love animals and can assimiliate themselves with them more. Actually even I do. I love creating animals and it was always the biggest fun for me (so far), I'm sure I will get to experience the real fun pretty quickly once I will actually be able to do something a bit more advanced, of beginner to intermediate level, but not designed for kids :)

Would those models that I have mentioned above enough? Or do you guys have some better ideas on what I can show them? Naturally it must be something that I'm able to do, but even if I haven't tried a certain model yet, I will be more than glad to learn - shouldn't be pretty long, they are to be super easy after all :)

Thanks for your help :)

Nice thread! I'm a beginner in origami and I'm 100% certain that I don't have any talent for that, so it will probably take me a while before I will even make my mind to try and make some figure or an anime character, so for now I'm only enjoying doing simple stuff and slowly polishing my stuff. Just wanted to say, that justl ike you I'm a big anime fan and hopefully I will be able to make some characters as well - for now I have resorted to drawing, which I am actually much better in, but it unfortunately doesn't bring me as much joy as origami does. Anyway, I will follow the guidelines you guys have mentioned here -> less thinking, more creating and simply enjoy whatever I make :) Thanks!