8000 Sculptures from Chopstick Sleeves

October 25, 2018 9:37 PM

Tatsumi collected over 13,000 paper sculptures that range from obscure and ugly to intricate and elaborate Yuki Tatsumi was working as a waiter in a restaurant when one day, as he was cleaning up a table, he noticed that a customer had intricately folded up the paper chopstick sleeve and left it behind. Japan doesn’t have a culture of tipping but Tatsumi imagined that this was a discreet , subconscious method of showing appreciation. He began paying attention and sure enough noticed that other customers were doing the same thing. Tatsumi began collecting these “tips” which eventually led to his art project: Japanese Tip.

And here's a modern twist on chopstick redesign

posted by MovableBookLady (8 comments total)

I figured there had to be whole books of chopstick origami but I didn't see one in a quick googling. But here is a instructions on making a bird chopstick stand out of the wrapper (a step up from the accordion or V-fold I do.)
posted by vespabelle at 9:58 PM on October 25, 2018 [4 favorites]

This is extremely up my alley. The one I make is the last one on vespabelle's link.
posted by rhizome at 10:27 PM on October 25, 2018 [2 favorites]

I picked up the habit of folding random pieces of trash (senbei wrappers, mostly) into strips and then tying them into a little knot from the older ladies I used to have tea with in Japan. (Similar to the one 5th from the top/3rd from the left in the grid photo - there are several others like it in the photo.) Nothing as beautiful as some of these, but I found it really charming that even trash is routinely made neat and attractive.
posted by sunset in snow country at 10:28 PM on October 25, 2018 [1 favorite]

I love this. The thing I do at restaurants is make little ropes out of straw wrappers, which I then tie into magic knots. This is also exceedingly up my alley.
posted by limeonaire at 12:11 AM on October 26, 2018

Here's my contribution to the ancient art of tikegami.
posted by rory at 2:05 AM on October 26, 2018 [2 favorites]

Wow! Thanks for this!
posted by carter at 3:55 AM on October 26, 2018

Beautiful !Thanks for sharing this.
posted by Shepherd at 5:16 AM on October 26, 2018

These are lovely. They reflect a skill I absolutely don't have. My former colleagues at Samsung could pretty much instantly render a chopstick sleeve into a pretty and functional chopstick stand. They were endlessly amused at my total inability to even make something that would hold the chopsticks slightly off the table.
posted by scruss at 7:26 AM on October 26, 2018