Non-Folders Reactions to Your Origami

perrosaurio · Post by **perrosaurio** » November 6th, 2008, 5:42 am

one month ago, I had to work with a group of italians and german technics. In my work it is very usual to have dead times; I work on astronomy, and a good part of it consist on vigilance of instrument and equipment tracking and following a star for periods that could be a couple of hours in a raw; most of my colleagues read books, search the web or study other disciplines, me too, but as you can imagine, from time to time I grab a piece of paper and fold one or two figures in a night. Normally I carry a little transparent case where I put and transport my works, it's very eye-catching and normally I receive compliments and questions about origami.

Saddly, these fellows works on a laser equipment, very criticized and unstable because it fails a lot, we used it for 5 days, and the last one the system failed in a minor way, taking us 5 minutes to recover it, when it was offline and we were not using it; however, one of them slipped to my boss an official complain that "the guy working there plays no attention and spent all the night playing with paper". So unfair..., that day I didn't touch any paper and it failed when many other things were happening, more important, but I discovered how light is my opinion and my credibility against this "german expert". Useless also try to explain him that origami doesn't distract me, much for the contrary, reading a scientific or technical manual should distract me much more, but of course, it "looks much better".

Now the origami is totally forbidden for me, my work and responsability are under probation and my life is quite more sad and boring, these long nights of 12 or 13 hours in a raw

Sadarac · Post by **Sadarac** » November 10th, 2008, 1:47 am

Its super funny when people say that only girls do origami. Then i say" origami is a male dominated art that originated with the asian samari" then there all like " ...................... *jaw drops*" LOL somebody i know said that its gay but hes an ass anyways so i dont care.

Max · Post by **Max** » November 10th, 2008, 9:00 am

@perrosaurio, you could bring ODS to you lab.

But i know that problem. When folding during lectures it's better to have a word with the prof before :p
For me, concentrated listening is much easyer when i have something to fold in my hands...

mydp · Post by **mydp** » November 14th, 2008, 9:12 am

If I'm folding in front of my students I get hey can I have that? or if I'm folding a new model out of book with my friends around they'll flip threw the book and pick something that "looks easy" and get mad when they can't get past step five and then want me to finish it and give it to them

ilyennevnincs · Post by **ilyennevnincs** » November 16th, 2008, 9:46 pm

For me the worst reactions is the nothing. When I'm sitting on a bus, and blindfolding a flapping bird, and nobody cares(sitting in the seats like a zombie) is annoying. I wish someone would take my paper, and tear it apart, it would be much better than nothing.

My schoolmates' comments:
- Are you crazy?
- You are crazy!
- It's wonderful!
- Can i have it?

One of my friends has a pocket in his jacket for my creations.

nickchartrand · Post by **nickchartrand** » November 18th, 2008, 4:20 am

i usualy get can i have one or i end up with a crumpled model and some jerk walking away

plastgeek · Post by **plastgeek** » November 19th, 2008, 10:49 pm

In my school, there are two types of reactions: They frame everything, or (from guys mainly) tell me to make soething vilgar, which I refuse to do.

Rabadash · Post by **Rabadash** » November 20th, 2008, 2:39 am

"Whats that suppose to be?
Why do you like Origami?
Stop makeing paper airplanes in class ----

Sadarac · Post by **Sadarac** » November 20th, 2008, 5:17 am

i got food for two simple models:)

most people ask for it or they just take it. a few people think its gay but thats just how they are.

redgator12 · Post by **redgator12** » December 8th, 2008, 11:09 pm

I'm only 13 and I always get made fun of for my origami by my older brothers 15-16 years old friends. I'm really protective about my models, especially the First one I folded, and when my brother's friends are stoned off their minds they find cutting, burning, and drawing on my origami entertaining. Also my protectiveness almost got me a detension because I was making a heart ring by Jeremy Shafer for my Girlfriend and my teacher hates when I do origami, and so does the person sitting next to me(They think I don't multitask) and Casey took my Gold foil paper and almost crumpled and tore it and she hates when people cuss so I took it to my advantage and simple said "What the duck?! It's not my fault your jealous of my skill" and grabbed it back. She almost hit me in the stomach but she's weak and not a quick hitter so I stopped her and went to get her in a sleeper hold(she was getting way too aggresive) and see if it would calm her but before I could my teacher pulled her out in the hallway. My girlfriend loved the ring, but we're having some problems(We can't talk to each other because we both have diferrent interests) and My ex girlfriend who I had dumped because of a rumor that wasn't true wants to get back together, and she's better than Natelie. My Ex is so in love with me that I gave her a box with a heart in it and she framed the heart and box with diamonds. Any good diagrams for a good get-back-together-with-me-please models?

Flylikeamouse · Post by **Flylikeamouse** » December 9th, 2008, 9:09 pm

All this and your only 13...

Anyway, most people just think im a bit of a freak/geek for doing origami, but it probably doesnt help that I am.

juston · Post by **juston** » December 10th, 2008, 2:32 pm

Life moves fast when you're 13... I can still (sort of) remember.

I get the usual, "how many sheets is this from," question. The answer is always, "one," but they keep on asking with every new model (when I'm in the midst of folding something I'll even unfold it all the way just to prove a point if they're still incredulous).

I also get a lot of people asking how I can just create something new rather than working from instructions (which makes me wonder where they think those instructions come from in the first place). I generally give them a quick rundown of something resembling circle packing (it helps to have an unfolded model in front of you when doing this... which I usually do since people never believe what I fold is from one square anyway).

And I like it when I tell someone about MC or wet folding and all of the sudden they become the origami police and tell me that's cheating...

silly people.

notefolds · Post by **notefolds** » December 10th, 2008, 6:38 pm

Juston, I know what you mean about the "origami police." If someone finds out that there are multiple sheets involved or the starting paper is not square, they say "Oh, so it's not real origami." So then I show them Lang's Black Forest Cuckoo Clock, which is not folded from a square, and ask them, "So what's this then?"

juston · Post by **juston** » December 12th, 2008, 1:33 pm

Oh, don't even get me started lol... I love using the silver rectangle as a starting shape and in this day and age of "real origami is from squares only" you'd swear I committed some kind of heresy.

I also like dollar bill folds... so there I go, sinning again.

ahudson · Post by **ahudson** » December 13th, 2008, 2:25 am

Not to get off topic, but the reason I (and many other people) don't like several-sheet models is because most of them don't look much better than single-sheet creations. IMHO it's fine to break the rules of purism, as long as you use it to make the model look better than you could otherwise...

Back on topic:
I was folding on the train and somebody started talking to me about what I was folding. Halfway through the conversation they said, "hey, you know you can get a stronger crease by using your thumbnail right?" as if I wouldn't know that! It's funny how some people think they know a lot about origami...