​GEORGE TOWN, Oct 26 — It started out as a hobby and a way to fill time but origami — the art of folding a piece of paper into shapes — soon evolved into a calling for couple, Kenneth Ch’ng and Cherry Loh.

According to Ch’ng, origami is often viewed as a craft meant only for children, but it is actually an art form that activates both the right and left hemispheres of the brain, proving that the fun activity is a useful form of skill development.

Deeply passionate about the importance of origami, especially in developing both technical and creative skills for children, the couple started the Malaysia Origami Academy and also founded the Malaysia Origami Association.

To the couple, it is not just folding pieces of paper but a form of education for children to boost their study skills, memory development, problem-solving ability and creativity.

They are convinced that origami — made popular by the Japanese, though there are disputes as to the origin of the art — is not only about art but also a form of science. This is evidenced by the various technological inventions that were created using origami folding techniques, from the design of a satellite to fashion wear and even heart stents and airbags.

Previously an electrical engineer and part of the senior management of a semiconductor manufacturing company, Ch’ng saw the potential in origami and decided to go into teaching and spreading the wonders of origami full-time with his wife in 2011, establishing Cherry Art Studio (www.cherryartstudios.com).

Here, the couple share their frustrations in trying to get Malaysians to see that origami is more than child’s play and convince them that it is a combination of scientific and artistic skills.

In their own words:

Kenneth: I’m a technical guy, initially when I sent my wife to learn origami in Japan, I thought, origami is just folding flowers. Then when I learnt more about it, I realised everything is connected to origami. Since 2012, the heart stent, created using the origami method, is already being used now. They also use the creasing and folding methods in airbags.

Cherry: From the start, I love all kinds of arts and handicrafts. When we were living in Japan, I was bored while my husband was at work. So my husband told me to join art classes, so I took up a lot of different classes including origami. All this started from a hobby.

Kenneth: In next five to 10 years, I can tell you origami will be the hottest thing. Even right now, in the fashion industry, you will see collections being introduced using origami. Even in architecture, in Europe, more than 700 structures have been built using origami method. Unfortunately, awareness here. When you say origami, they say, it’s for kids. When we go to schools to promote this, one of the schools tells us why waste time folding paper. They tell us the parents will not agree to their children wasting time folding paper. Their mind is not open, they don’t even listen or let me explain the benefits of origami. If this can be incorporated in our primary schools, it will be so powerful.

Cherry: In Japan, origami is a serious art. When I went for origami class in Japan, I was the youngest one and the only foreigner to learn it there. I also took extra classes from an origami master and had to travel four hours to and from his house to learn the craft from him. It takes perseverance and passion to learn it. It’s different here, a lot of people here are different, they want to learn so that they can make it to earn money but when they realise it involves a lot of work, they can’t do it.

Kenneth: My original intent in setting up the origami academy is to let locals benefit. But if you look at my classes, 90 per cent are all foreigners because they know how powerful origami is. Most of them are Western expatriates and Japanese. I cut down my price and the locals are still not interested.I wanted to make this place into a classroom-type but a lot of international schools have now engaged us to conduct workshops but there’s only two of us to do this. For every school, the amount of time and work we need to prepare the courses is a lot. We need to be compliant to the International Baccalaureate, to meet their requirements and to design the courses for the schools.We also have trial lessons for parents to ignite the interest in them and to show them that origami is not easy.

Cherry: I was searching for origami classes in Japan and I found one whole building dedicated to the art of origami. It’s my dream. I want to bring this building to Malaysia. They have several levels, the first level they show all the origami products where they use origami to fold purses and bags, the second level is like a gallery, third and fourth level are classrooms and fifth level is the studio where they make the origami paper. All sections in the building are related to paper art. So I take up every class and from there I get to know my origami master and I took up extra lessons from him. Each lesson takes up one whole day because I need to travel two hours to his home which is far from Tokyo and two hours back.

Kenneth: Our objective is to promote the benefit of origami in Malaysia and to regulate the industry development because if anything that is not regulated, it will be gone. We nurture interest, skills and also to discover talent. Fortunately, we discovered a 12-year-old girl who is a genius in origami. She could create complex origami without knowing the basics. As for regulation, we need to know how to protect our own intellectual property in Malaysia. We need to do something to protect ourselves. Nine out of 10 crafters here, they don’t have corporate exposure, don’t know all these things about patenting and copyrighting their work. I need to do all these to set up the groundwork and to open up the market, to create a demand, so this industry can sustain a living. This is so that anybody who wanted to be an origami artist can do it in Malaysia while still being able to sustain a living on it. I hope to see this before I die.

Cherry: What I first started making when I learnt origami was making origami jewellery using 6m paper. When I came back here, I displayed my origami jewellery in an exhibition. I wasn’t selling it but a lot of people asked us to sell so after that, we decided to make and sell origami jewellery which we called “unigami”  — a combination of the words “unique origami”. That’s when we started Cherry Art Studio in 2007 but we were only selling it at arts and craft fairs whenever we come back for a holiday as were were still living in Japan then.

Kenneth:  There is a sense of urgency to do something fast now. There’s only me as my wife is doing the R&D in origami. I’m the only think tank, doing the marketing, spreading the awareness, running around, lobbying around, trying to build up the whole ecosystem of origami. I’m trying to build it (the origami industry) up in Malaysia. I’m fighting it alone. Of course we have members but they are all working full-time or students and our lease in this shop is another two years so if it still doesn’t work, we may just close it and concentrate on just organising workshops for schools and art colleges. We are participating in next month’s Penang Science Fair to display more than 200 complex origami models that we hope will change the way people look at origami and to stir interest in origami. Trust me, 99.99 per cent of Malaysians have not seen these super complex models. Some take a month to complete, some required wet folding. There will also be talks, demonstrations and workshops. After this, we will use the origami academy to provide teaching and schools that are interested, we will help them set up origami societies in their school.

Cherry: We both hope that we can get a lot of people to know more about origami. My dream is to have an origami building here. The whole building will be about origami, not only retail, from teaching the art to display to making the paper