A British inventor has designed a unique range of origami which he is now exporting - to Japan.<br /><br />Andrew Flynn, 32, has created the world’s first self-watering origami plant pot - and has agreed a life-changing deal to sell them to the Japanese.<br /><br />Origami - from ori meaning "folding' and kami meaning 'paper' - is the art of paper folding which started in Japan<br /><br />Andrew, of Milngavie, Scotland, created POTR after studying plant pots in his home and trying to figure out a way to make them more sustainable.<br /><br />He was inspired by his engineering background and his mother’s love of origami while growing up.<br /><br />Andrew began creating the world’s first self-watering origami plant pot – and began a Kickstarter campaign with co-founder Martin and brand manager and wife Eilidh.<br /><br />The campaign raised over £30,000 in twenty days with more than 2,000 orders placed for the first batch of pots.<br /><br />In August 2021 POTR officially began selling their products in the mainstream, and signed a momentous deal to sell with letterbox bouquet retailer Bloom & Wild.<br /><br />Now, with their products taking off around the UK and abroad, the Scottish team have just returned from launching their pots in Japan - the home of origami.<br /><br />Andrew said: “One of the really funny things is we're a Scottish brand selling origami to Japan.<br /><br />''I think some of the Japanese customers I've spoken to were quite surprised that a Scottish company, or a company that wasn't Japanese, had come up with a product that was origami.<br /><br />“It's unbelievable. I still pinch myself.''<br /><br />The pots are made from post-consumer recycled polypropylene – recycled single use plastics.<br /><br />They are ground down to a 0.5mm thickness and stamped with the origami folds, which are then flat packed and sent to the customer.<br /><br />Andrew's team created a self-watering system, which uses a length of cord to draw water from a reservoir built into the base of the pot and into the plant’s soil.<br /><br />Andrew said: ''Round about the start of COVID, I was spending a lot of time with my house plants.<br /><br />“I certainly know a lot of people that find it tricky to keep their house plants alive or kill their house plants, and this was definitely me a number of years ago. <br /><br />“We were trying to look at a way for making plant care more hassle free. People are busy, and often forget to water their plants, or perhaps they overwater their plants. <br /><br />"We wanted to look at integrating a feature or system which made that simpler to do and make it less likely that you're going to essentially waste the plant that you've bought. <br /><br />“I think origami is a kind of art form that’s inherently quite striking and very minimal.<br /><br />“I think it sounds weird, but you almost don't have to do too much of the designing. <br /><br />“The resulting design that we have is truly a result of the function. <br /><br />“I think because origami is such a minimal, striking, clean kind of design form, the aesthetic is one of the things that people really gravitate towards. I think that's been really well received.”<br /><br />Now, POTR has begun launching their products in Japan – and have been stunned by the support they have received.<br /><br />Andrew, who also teaches product design part time at the Glasgow School of Art, hopes to take POTR to the US markets in the coming year.<br /><br />“Because of the origami nature of the product, we had interested buyers emailing us from Japan probably since we first did that Kickstarter campaign back in 2020,” said Andrew.<br /><br />“But entering the Japanese market has its complexities, and half of them I didn't even know about until started working on it last year. <br /><br />“The way they buy and import products is really specific to Japan and more tricky, I've been told, than other places<br /><br />"It's a very surreal, slightly existential feeling of something that was in your head now being everywhere. Certainly, seeing it on shop shelves in Japan was totally surreal.
