I had a great time at this year’s origami convention. Jeannie and the girls went and had a great time too. A lot of my origami friends were there: John, Brian, T.J., Brian, Kenny, and the list goes on. (You know who you are!) Met a few new friends too, (Hi Susan!) and a few from the west coast and beyond who only make it every few years (Hi Won and Joseph).
As I mentioned before, I put a good amount of effort into my exhibit this year, so it was really gratifying to have folders I admire and respect complement on particular models. I think someone had something to say about every single piece. Michael Lafosse like my reptiles, and Joseph Wu and Brian Chan liked my Oliphaunt.
I taught my first class on Saturday morning, first session. Everyone in the family went on Saturday and we were all in good shape to turn up early. This class was the set of diagrams I had completed, 14 in all. It was a very full class, so I’m glad I made a second set of printouts. Overall they were well received and the class did quite well. A few models had a few specific sequences that seemed to need clarification, so that was valuable feedback.
My second class was Sunday afternoon. I taught my Luv Bug. I only had one period, and I ran out of time. I was a bit surprised because I can fold it by myself in 20 minutes, so I thought an hour would be enough. It was graded as intermediate, although it probably should have been high intermediate, and the class was very full and I had to walk around a lot showing people a couple of particular tricky steps. But people liked it well enough that I taught the conclusion (about 10 minutes more) to a few groups and individuals in the hospitality area later that evening.
There were a few unique things year. On Saturday night there was a screening of the movie “Between the Folds” a documentary about origami that profiles about a dozen top folders today, with an emphasis on the mathematical side of things. It was very well made, if (like origami itself) a bit idiosyncratic as per the choice of subjects. I really enjoyed seeing the interviews with Eric Joisel, whom I’ve never met, and Yoshizawa Sensei, whom I will never meet. Very nice soundtrack too.
Sunday night there was a giant fold completion. June Sokimoto, who owns a paper store in San Francisco, donated a few rolls of nine foot paper typically used for theatrical backdrops. It was a total blast, with everyone folding like mad. We worked in teams. Lizzy and her friend Michael made a swan. T. J. Norville and I got together and folded one of my U.F.O.s. He had asked me to teach him that model the day before, so he knew what he was doing and we were able to finish it in the allotted hour. When we started we didn’t know if it would work at all, but it came out awesome. I’m going to burn it for the 4th of July, or maybe when we go camping.
Sunday was also the first, last and only day in the month of June without rain this year.
Monday was a day seminars or origami related topics. The highlight for me was Toshi Tohiro from Tokyo talking about his origami software. It’s pretty specific to meshes, but it’s still pretty mind blowing. In fact it inspired me to dust off the Foldinator (my own origami software) and work on developing it again toward a releasable product. That’s a big topic, so more on that in a future post. For now I’ll say I’m staring with defining and XML schema.
I also folded a few new original models over the weekend. One is a sphere (yes that’s right, out of a square of paper), which worked out surprisingly well on the first try. Also, riffing on a theme, an orb UFO (maybe I can turn it into a Sputnik. For that matter, using my polar folding technique, I could make Mercury, Gemini and Apollo capsule. Jeannie suggested should fold a Space shuttle, complete with external tank and solid rocket boosters. I probably could, but that might be carrying things a bit to far.)
At the Monday night dinner I was sitting with John Montroll and Won Park, and they were discussing dollar folds, because John is coming out with a new dollar book and dollar folds are Won’s specialty. I came up with a neat little dollar fold of my own. It’s a pyramid, where the pyramid on the great seal on the bill lines of with the folded pyramid. This only took up half the paper, so out of the other half I made a Sphinx.
So it was a great convention on many levels. As always, now I’m really jazzed up about folding and wish I had more time to fold. One last thing — John has a fan site on the internet:
johnmontrollcandividebyzero.info.
Up next: pictures.