I've seen products on TV which are designed to make folding laundry easier. According to the commercials, you just put your shirt on a little flat board and move the sides [for lack of a better way to say it] in a certain order. When you're done, your shirt lies neatly folded in the middle of the board.

I thought it would be neat to have similar boards which did little Origami figurines. You could make cranes, cicadas, frogs, and turtles just by "bending" the board in a certain way [think of opening and closing doors]. Designing them would be as simple as putting hinges along the lines where folds would take place.

Category suggestions? I moved this to Culture:Art at the suggestion of Delty, but I still don't think that it fits. Product:Packaging is a bit off, too.
-- rgovostes, Oct 20 2003

Fold It Right http://www.asseenon.../fold_it_right.html
As Seen On TV! [rgovostes, Oct 04 2004]

Product: packaging? where this one sits.. http://www.halfbake...dea/pretty_20litter
[po, Oct 04 2004]

Unfortunately Origami, like many such crafts, is (IMHO) at its best when it causes the practitioner to become absorbed in learning and applying it's principles in a transcendent manner which allows their intense concentration to filter out the 'background noise' of the surrounding world and thus calm their minds to the extent that they become receptive to the awareness of genuine wisdom. As such Origami is a noble and age-old vehicle for meditation. By using a mechanical solution to circumvent the learning process and yield quick results for the unskilled you are robbing it of its most valuable quality. However I acknowledge your skill in seeing a novel application for the shirt folder and it would certainly be enjoyable and worthwhile designing the origami folding boards themselves.
-- dobtabulous, Oct 21 2003


I gave up origami because all too many designs require not perfect folds, but bending, pulling or shoving the paper just so to achieve the desired result. That part I could never master and I suspect neither could your boards.
-- DrCurry, Oct 21 2003


I do a lot of origami, and it strikes me that because of the positions of angles, these boards would only work for one size of paper.

and as dobtabulous indicated, you would loose the inner peace and calm associated with being absorbed in a an origami model (the "peace" of paper, as they say).
-- -wess, Oct 24 2003


I once made an origami turtle.... but my cat ate it. However, I do think that your idea would work some how.... If I need to mass produce lots of little origami things I will contact you.

PS. here's a fun thing to do with your cat. Put your printer on the ground and flip the cover up... (not lazer printers.... oi!) then print somthing and watch your cat chase the ink back and fort... It's cute..
-- PYRO, Oct 24 2003



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