OrigamiUSA Convention 2016 (17-20 June 2016)
This was my first time attending the annual OrigamiUSA convention, also the first time to visit the United States. Thank you, Wendy and OrigamiUSA, for inviting me to be a special guest; this is my great honor, and I had a very great time folding and meeting origami friends there. Finally, I can meet the origami legend Tomoko Fuse, who is so nice and professional. Thank you for giving me your book with your autograph; it is a very precious present for me!
This year the convention took place at St. John’s University in Queens, a very beautiful place with a great campus and big lawn, with the convention buildings very close to each other. We also had golf carts driving us between the dormitory and convention buildings – a very convenient arrangement!
Thank you, Jan and Jean, for picking me up at the airport, because I’m an idiot at reading maps. I definitely would have gotten lost without them. Also, thank you Susan for taking me on a walking tour of the city, which is very beautiful. Also it was so nice to meet Yamaguchi and Nishikawa sensei again!
The whole convention was very well-organized, I taught my Capricorn and Shark on Saturday and Sunday mornings. They are not difficult, but some steps I could not explain well in English. Thank you, Jason Ku, for being my translator; you helped me a lot with the teaching, which allowed us to finish on time!
I attended the class by Diego, who taught us how to divide a certain proportion of the paper mathematically; it is really useful but a little bit difficult for me, because my mathematics level is very low. I missed the laser-scored origami class by Robert J. Lang, because all the tickets were sold out in five minutes; I should have skipped my breakfast! But luckily, Robert had an extra sheet for me to try during the closing dinner; it was so nice to learn from a world famous origami professor!
The most enjoyable part of the whole convention was the oversized folding competition. We made a giant Tsuru Rose (designed by Satoshi Kamiya). It was challenging folding such huge paper. I had so much fun that night.
Besides origami, I very much appreciated a chance to take some extra-curricular lessons. I joined the Mizuhiki class by Brian Kolins and the Balloon Folding class by Lisa with my best origami friend Rowen Angelo. The classes broadened my horizon; I don’t think I will have a chance to learn that again in Hong Kong!
I am so thankful to OrigamiUSA for everything they did to help the development of origami societies, providing a precious opportunity for some origami artists to connect with the origami artists around the world and promoting origami to the world. Origami brings us together and we are one big family! I hope that we can meet each other again in the future!
OrigamiUSA Convention 2016 (17-20 June 2016 @ St. John's University in Queens, New York. )
