Non-Folders Reactions to Your Origami

[zxop9]

Someone:Wow thats great you should sell those

thats what my dad does, then i tell him the same thing i do every week he comes to see me "they are like videos, i can't make 10 coppies of war of the worlds and sell them, it's illegal dad." and he will go "then i'll sell them and say i did it" i usually give into him, so he tries to sell them but no one ever goes to his farm 45 minutes out of town to buy origami ;p

[mrsriggins]

Then sounds like a complete waste of time. And I doubt that it'll piss the teacher off at all. She'll just have a large collection of paper knick-knacks by the end of the year.

The main deal with folding during class is the noise it causes. Trick is to fold in a way that doesn't make noise. This means slow and deliberate folds, no crispy paper, etc. Also, best bet is to do mindless things, like tessellations, that way you can still pay attention.

I fold during my most interesting lecture, and it's not that I'm not paying attention, just gives me something to do with my hands.

Back in the days when I still went to school.... During the winter I would wear really baggy sweatshirts and fold in the pocket. I would do tiny cranes the size of a rice kernel and make chains. I have a chain that's 10 feet long from my freshman year in high school. I would also teach the other kids how to make easier models because if I tried to do anything above simple they got lost and I ended up folding it for them. To the main question though.

WHOA!!!!! x too many to count
This is the best tip I've ever gotten- x 3 (moneygami)
How do you do that? x4
Can you teach me? x10
NO way that's only paper/money! x 6/x 2

It's usually more of an awe reaction especially if i whip up a dollar koi. I've never gotten any rude comments.... Someone would probably get hurt if I did- most likely the commenter . But everyone knows I'm an origami nerd, and just a nerd in general so ... *shrugs*

[eric_son]

I have finite number of my work-colleagues, so I can hear still the same:
"You have small amount of work?" or " You have much free time..."

That's really REALLY annoying. I get that reply a lot, and usually from those types of officemates who try to look busy or who suck at work that they normally get overloaded with just the normal load.

Unfortunately, I'm stumped. I don't have any good replies for this kind of comment. Currently, I just shrug them off. But I'd really like a good comeback reply for this.

Does anybody have any good ones?

[zxop9]

tell them thats what your mother said last night ;p
it's a sick joke better not use on someone bigger then you ;p

[Nathan]

I get:

Incredible!
You have too much spare time. <-- most common reply...
I would never be able to do that.
You should sell those.
What's the biggest/most complex/coolest thing you've ever made?


If I fold in class I can't pay attention to the lession. If it is a class where we aren't doing anything important that day, I may fold.

Fold tessellations so you can concentrate? Hmm, that's a good idea Jared. I should try tessellations. (looks up origami tessellations for dummies on google)

[Jonnycakes]

I have finite number of my work-colleagues, so I can hear still the same:
"You have small amount of work?" or " You have much free time..."

That's really REALLY annoying. I get that reply a lot, and usually from those types of officemates who try to look busy or who suck at work that they normally get overloaded with just the normal load.

Unfortunately, I'm stumped. I don't have any good replies for this kind of comment. Currently, I just shrug them off. But I'd really like a good comeback reply for this.

Does anybody have any good ones?

Perhaps point out that while you are actually doing something with your time, they are just watching you and doing nothing? It could work depending on the circumstances.

[Joe the white]

Its not that you have too much free time, its that you make time for things you enjoy. Many people while their hours away with tv, sports, etc. Hobbies are quite healthy, and help in anger management and stress relief. Maybe these people need hobbies, or a good dose of empathy =p.

My boss, the director at the library, denied my suggestion to purchase books on leatherworking, blacksmithing, origami (each one we currently have has been checked out at least 20 times the past 2 years), and jewlery crafting even though we have people that ask for them. Her response was "Real people don't do these sorts of things." I replied with "I guess I'm imaginary then." .

[angrydemon]

That reminds me of the book shops in Malaysia. Very few of them actually sell origami books, maybe because NOBODY here folds origami. Those that do only sell very simple books that hamsters can fold from and "boxed sets" full of unnaturally tiny sheets of kami. The only "complex" origami books I've seen so far are Origami Insects and Their Kin, Origami Sea Life, The Complete Book of Origami, Origami Sculptures, Origami Prehistoric Life and Origami Design Secrets. Wait a minute, Origami Design Secrets??? My eyeballs nearly popped out of their sockets when I saw that!! But it costs a lot of money and my mom didn't let me buy it because I was "planning" to order my Kamiya book...which didn't happen until 2 weeks ago I've never seen that book ever again Right now I'm hunting for Mythological Creatures and The Chinese Zodiac in Origami by John Montroll. I NEED to fold the 3-headed dragon! Chances are I'll have to order it online...

Back to the topic. My fingerhands were actually designed in school. I folded one, put it on a "certain" finger of mine in a "certain" position and all my friends laughed their brains off. I also used it to stroke people on the arm. It feels very ticklish and annoys them very easily.

[Jonnycakes]

Those are some good books! Origami Sea Life and Origami Design Secrets are easily my two favorite origami books. Sea Life because it has excellent models of all difficulties, and ODS because it taught me a TON about designing and reading CPs. I highly recommend that you try to get ODS at some time or another-it is an excellent read on the theory of origami. And the $50 price is justified-it is a large 600 page book with color illustrations.

[origami_8]

Some weeks ago in school, I had to held a speech accompanied by a power point presentation. The subject was free to choose as the important thing was how the presentation was held. Naturally I took Origami. Because my classmates wouldn't have had the slightest clue what I'm talking about if I had begun to talk about diagramming standards and the like, I decided to talk about the different styles of Origami and put together the most impressive pictures from all over the net. When I was done with the speech there was complete silence. My classmates as well as the teacher sat there with open mouths and didn't know what to say. It was about five minutes until the teacher asked if anyone had any questions, that was very funny. Most people really don't know any Origami apart from the things you learn in kindergarten like ships and planes and usually in school I only fold little toys in the brakes. (I can't fold during classes because we don't have books and need to write everything along when the teacher speaks).

Unfortunately at work I'm not allowed to fold and my co-workers are only thinking about Origami as a waste of time *sigh*

Apart from that, most comments I get are positive. When I fold something on my way home, I usually give the things away to someone who was watching me carefully while folding - and there is always someone watching me. Most people can't believe that I present them something I needed soo long to make (usually just a few stations). The answer I give them is always the same: "I can make a new one whenever I want, I'll throw it away if you don't want it", they always want it...

Oh, about the books! The most complex book I've ever seen on a bookshelf here in Vienna was Lionel Albertino's "Safari Origami" and that was only one time. The remaining books are only simple ones for children

[eric_son]

That reminds me of the book shops in Malaysia. Very few of them actually sell origami books, maybe because NOBODY here folds origami. Those that do only sell very simple books that hamsters can fold from and "boxed sets" full of unnaturally tiny sheets of kami. The only "complex" origami books I've seen so far are Origami Insects and Their Kin, Origami Sea Life, The Complete Book of Origami, Origami Sculptures, Origami Prehistoric Life and Origami Design Secrets.

OT: I got most of my good origami books while on business trip to KL. That was back in 1998. I got Origami Insects and their Kin, Origami Sea Life, Brilliant Origami, Complete Origami and a whole lot of Montroll books from the PageOne bookstore at Lot10. Heheheh. And that was just with one purchase! On that day, I wore a smile that reached up to my ears (and so did the store cashier...hehehe)

[ahudson]

I have finite number of my work-colleagues, so I can hear still the same:
"You have small amount of work?" or " You have much free time..."

That's really REALLY annoying. I get that reply a lot, and usually from those types of officemates who try to look busy or who suck at work that they normally get overloaded with just the normal load.

Unfortunately, I'm stumped. I don't have any good replies for this kind of comment. Currently, I just shrug them off. But I'd really like a good comeback reply for this.

Does anybody have any good ones?

I generally point out that it's good stress releif, and is a better use of time than TV at least! I read recently that the average person (in the United States, 2005 if I remember correctly) spends 31 hrs per week watching television... imagine if we all folded instead! That's almost a full-time job...

In terms of folding at school: at this point, most of my freinds say something along the lines of "not again!" or "hey cool, now he's making a frog". People I don't know so well give other reactions: "wow, you must be a genius", "How do you come up with things like that" etc. The worst part is that they seem to expect answers!

I did have an interesting incident when some guy asked me if I could fold a naked woman. The teacher overheard and sent him to the office He never asked about it again.

And on the topic of books: I've found that most books can be found online, used, for a reasonable price. Amazon.com works well, I've bought three or four books through them and it's worked fine.

[angrydemon]

I generally point out that it's good stress releif, and is a better use of time than TV at least! I read recently that the average person (in the United States, 2005 if I remember correctly) spends 31 hrs per week watching television... imagine if we all folded instead! That's almost a full-time job...

I fold in front of the TV

[Jonnycakes]

31 hours a week??? That is over 4 hours a day-I don't quite believe that. People watch too much TV, but that is quite a lot, especially for the average person.

[origami_8]

I know families where the TV set is always on. They really can't live without it. Fortunately my friend an I decided some time ago to give our TV set away and only watch selected things on the computer during dinner. This way we do not waste any time that we could use for folding