Thrive: The Physics of Origami
From June 2007
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A little classical music, a few sheets of archival paper and exponential patience lead to book royalties, consulting and reams of commissions.
By Russell Nichols
Photos by Kim White
ROBERT J. LANG, a gangly man with a salt-and-pepper beard, wants to show you his bug collection — his origami bug collection.
He keeps the Goliath beetle, praying mantis, ants, garden spiders and cicadas, ticks, dragonflies and locusts in covered plastic cases so no one touches them, though they don’t bite. He has even named some of the newer ones.
Lang decided he could only write another book if he made origami his priority. In 2001, he left JDS Uniphase in San Jose. His wife liked the idea because it meant he wouldn’t commute anymore and the new career was less complex (in theory).
“There’s more he can share about his work that I understand,“ says Diane, who tried her hand at origami once, helping fold 140 cranes for their wedding.
“Semi-conductor lasers? There’s not a lot I can get about that.”
Now, Lang spends more time at home with Diane and their teenage son, Peter. He works in a cluttered studio behind their ranch-style house. Thick binders containing his origami designs sit on a shelf over his computer. Giant rolls of yellow and red paper lean in the corner. Folded insects and animals abound. He makes money from book royalties, consulting and selling figures to companies and individuals at prices ranging from $200-$1,000. He has about 20 commissions currently due.
Maybe a couple thousand people worldwide can fold complex models at the level Lang can, says Jan Polish, treasurer of OrigamiUSA, the national organization for paper-folding aficionados. Hardly any make it their livelihood.
“I could probably say no more than 20 in the world work with origami on a full-time basis,” she says. “None of those 20 people are billionaires, believe me.”
It’s hardly easy. One time, Lang, assisted by origami artist Linda Mihara, folded an entire paper environment — fields, telephone poles, trees, deer, buildings, a dragon — for a 30-second Mitsubishi commercial.
Paper, Never Plastic
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