I just recently got into Origami and I absolutely love how practical those arts can be compared to drawing, which I was focusing on earlier.

As for Origami hats though - I have made a few designs, but never wore one. Not sure why though. Just never really thought of it as I simply treat Origami more as an art for myself, I'm not that much into exposing it, although grabbing attention and promoting origami surely would be cool. I only decor my own house, never thought of actually 'decoring' my own image, but that indeed seems like a good idea. I will try your idea though with the few hats I have made. Just not sure if they will fit, but if they do I will gladly grab one to work - I always wear a hat to work, so it's actually not a biggie for me. Alternatively I can always make some more hats. Frankly, as I'm pretty new into this, those hats I have made so far must look extremely poor compared to yours guys anyway, so if they don't fit (which they most likely won't), I will just make another one (or a few), that will be of perfect size. We will see, but that's a great idea anyway Flying Deidara.

I'm slowly getting more and more into origami and I have noticed quite a funny thing. Coming from drawing to the origami, I realized that I have already done most of models. Well not exactly the same, but very similar ones, dragons, animals, it was all already done in this or the other way, so I feel like I actually have an easier time doing new models than a typical beginner as I already have a certain vision of how I want it to look like. Although, I still didn't try any of complex projects like those you guys mentioned here - I wouldn't stand a chance right now. Even if I didn't have any problem at all with drawing it, creating it with paper is an entirely different beast, so I'm trying to not go above the indermediate range, and even those from here give me tons of problems. For example a fairly easy (or so it seems) Swan by Robert J. Lang proved to be extremely hard. I still feel like I didn't get it entirely right and I have spent really a lot of time on it. Same with Frog by Jun Maekawa - looks pretty easy, but once you actually start doing it, it's getting extremely hard to get everything right. Drawing would be easy, but here feels like I really need to get the structure right and instructions are not always enough accurate for me to do that. Or maybe that's because I still have relatively very little experience with Origami. Two days ago I have also given a try to Butterfly by Robert Lang, but despite 5 tries I just couldn't make it. Even though when we look at the picture it look like a pretty easy one, once you actually start creating it, you instantly notice it's complexity and then I have realized, that I'm far above my current level. Of course I hate to give up, failing is part of the learning process and can be fun too if done in the right mindset, but eventually had to postpone it a little bit. Gonna do a couple of more easier projects and give it a go again.

Some day I hope to get onto stuff like you guys have mentioned here. Would be lovely to get on this level someday :)

Thanks, both of you! I will make sure to become an active member Leonard. I really like origami and I feel like my feelings towards it are only growing stronger. When looking for what to make now, I'm kind of taking a random approach to be honest. Just going through numerous tutorials and picking those, that I am actually able to make. Most projects seem to far out of my reach for now, so I only focus on those simplest ones. Haven't really done anything in 100%, but I have learned a lot by trying various approaches and ways to create something. We will see how it goes, but I'm sure I will stay here for quite some time!

Hello everybody! I'm so excited to be here. I'm a total beginner when it comes to origami, but I had plenty of experience with drawing and model spacing, so compared to my peers I consider myself to be pretty advanced in terms of manual skills. I have picked up Origami by a total accident, I was looking for some cool drawings and there was a guy on drawings forum, that was also heavily into origami. I chcked a few of his arts and I was really impressed. I realized, wow, this is really something, to be able to make such nice figures of different animals, creatures and patterns - this guy was really good at origami and also amazing at drawing. Very talented, pretty young too, I believe he was in his early 20s. He kind of inspired me to check into origami and well, here I am... We could say that I picked up origami like a week ago, didn't complete anything yet, but I did a couple of tutorials of simple arts, kind of worked, but I wasn't satisfied, yet I was granted with a bit better perception on how to do this. I'm sure I will be able to learn a lot from you guys and I will do my best to be an asset to your community.

That's what I'm talking about, keep doing it until you enjoy it. That's basically the most important rule of any hobby. That's exactly what I did with drawing, even though I got pretty good, I just decided to let it go totally, because I just simply wasn't into it that much. If you want, name a couple of models that you have problems with and we will do anything to help you, maybe the reason for your constant failure is something simple, that you just haven't noticed yet? Like using a paper of wrong size etc.

I remember when I was fairly bad at drawing too, but yet I enjoyed it and I sticked to this activity. All my other friends were doing something else, going out, drinking, playing soccer or basketball and I just kept drawing. I mean, sure, I was going out too, like a normal human being, but I liked drawing and despite my lack of skills, I just continued doing it until I eventally got pretty good at it. It started to bore me a little though, so I have switched to Origami. But the point is - as long as you enjoy doing something, then do. Life is too short to give up on things, that you actually enjoy doing. Most of our lives are filled with things, that we don't want to do and yet we have to, so use this very little time you have left to focus on something, that you indeed enjoy doing. It worked for me and even though I already reached a pretty high level in drawing, once I stopped enjoying that, I switched to Origami and just like you, I'm starting as a total beginner with no regrets, that I have already left something, that I got fairly good at. Learning is also part of fun - remember this :P

I know what you mean guys... I could say, that I always had a knack for drawing and I did fairly a lot of drawing when I was a kid, but once I became a teenager, started going out with friends to play soccer, then slowly the video games were rising to the popularity etc., I kind of dropped it to do some more engaging stuff with my friends. Even though I liked drawing and I picked it up just naturally, I didn't even have time do that later and kind of lost my interest. Friends were more important and other activities that allowed me to interact with my friends were more important than staying at home alone and drawing. That's how it is, people need other people, even as kids (or actually even more then) and thus will always follow the bigger crowd to interact with them. I have picked up drawing later again when I was in high-school and kinf of more focused on what I want to do, what I want to achieve and able to assess what to do in my spare etc. But earlier than that? I had no idea at all, I just did whatever I could to stay with my friends in a pretty cool tight-knit group we have formed together.

Getting back to the topic though - you definitely have a higher chance of succeeding than Leonard did, but as others said - I wouldn't count on getting them interested in the long-term. They will be interested initially, during your meeting with them, but as soon as they come home, their friends invite them out or if they are too young for going out, then they will have their great video games sitting on shelves just waiting for them to grab, and they will quickly forgot about what you taught them. Well, maybe not, but probably this is how it will turn out. And don't think of yourself as a bad teacher if you will fail, it's just kind of out of your control.