Rodney Kageyama

I heard that Rodney passed away this morning.  He was a mainstay as an MC at cultural events like The Autumn Festival at the Aquarium of the Pacific and the Monterey Park Cherry Blossom Festival.  He and I always exchanged greetings and he'd sometimes promote my origami booth when MCing.  He was also on a television show with another friend of mine ("Quantum Leap"?).

At the Aquarium of the Pacific 17th annual Autumn Festival

V'Ann Cornelius' Right Angle Support Shelf

November 3, 2007 at the Aquarium of the Pacific

Need display shelves for your origami?  And want to make them yourself out of paper? 

V'Ann Cornelius created quite a number of display stands and shelves (if you attend PCOC or OUSA conventions, the model menu displays are more than likely V'Ann's designs; and sometimes also found in the exhibition room to help highlight model displays). 

These are shelves I folded and used 11 years ago, using poster tape to hang them up on the wall.  Diagrams are found in OUSA's The Paper, issue #92.

Return to the Aquarium of the Pacific Autumn Festival

Source

I've missed this Festival in recent times (due to conflicts with gymnastics compulsory season schedule).  I will be there this Sunday, though.

Also attending:  Marti Reis (Saturday), Joy Nishijima, Hisako Tanji, Pam Miike (Sunday).

Aquarium of the Pacific

At the Aquarium

The 2nd weekend of November, my origami pals and I did the annual Autumn Festival at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. 

I finally got around to getting a new computer over a week ago and am just now catching up on some uploads and updates.






Photos are here.

Aquarium of the Pacific Autumn Festival 2009

From last weekend. Yami, Joe, and I missed PCOC; but some of us had to stay behind to entertain the masses...




Link to pix.

POP Beta testing twist box die

I learned this collapsible model (designed by Akiko Yamanashi) from Boaz Shuval at WCOG in February of '05. I thought I"d invest $300 in an experiment, and have a die made of the crease pattern in the hopes that non-folders will be able to do this model. Even though they don't have to worry about putting in the crease lines, it's probably still a bit of challenge to put together and collapse for young kids.

I had a thousand sheets of cardstock scored with the crease pattern in time for the Aquarium of the Pacific's Autmn Festival. Joe, Yami, and I will be making our 5th year return (although I think I missed the last 2 years, personally), snubbing PCOC in San Francisco, same weekend (major OUSA Convention, like the one in NYC).

We just can't be everywhere, all at once.

Aquarium of the Pacific ~Autumn Festival~ November 4-5, 2006

I've been backed up on getting these videos out. Yami, Joe, and myself have been kept very busy. Besides time, I've been having difficulty figuring out music to go with each video. There really isn't much in the way of music for paperfolding. So some vids sit on the shelf, ready to be rolled out as soon as I figure out a theme. And most all of these need music; since I take 10-20 second clips, the natural audio just would come out incomplete and choppy.

I skipped ahead to the most recent festival we've done: The Aquarium of the Pacific, from the previous weekend. I believe it's my 4th or 5th time; with Yami and Joe, it's our third. If you want to see what we did in 2004 and 2005, just click away.

I took too much film footage. Since editing is so time-consuming, I took the easy way out and included most all of it....which makes for a very long video. YouTube only allows for a 10 minute maximum on videos; so I had to upload it to my LiveDigital.com account. The music choice is mostly because of the length of the video. Since I used Jaws music to bumper the previous two videos, and since it's an Aquarium setting we're dealing with here, I included it again, along with another John Williams classic score.

The one thing I'm excited about is David Brill's wedge flexicube. It is awesome! My first one, I had to apply some glue, as I used paper that was a bit thick, and it didn't hold together well. But the rest (and I've made several, because I like experimenting with color combinations and paper-type; plus, I know I'll be giving them away to friends) came out great! I purchased a copy for Joe Hamamoto as well. (He loves the David Brill double star flexicube). You can get a copy here, at the BOS website.

As usual, many of the most exciting moments are when the camera's not running. My cicada boomerang glider generates a lot of interest. It never fails. People always want to fold it after I toss it around. I know it's all fun and games until someone loses an eye; but I must say, it's highly entertaining to watch paperplanes whacking unsuspecting passersby....or seeing them duck for cover. Not when I throw it, but when other people throw their planes, and they don't quite have the hang of how to make it come back, yet.

As always, Joe was well-stocked on his free giveaways. One of these days, when I get a better camera that takes longer clips, I'll let you hear some of his humor. Yami's as well. They are extremely entertaining and highly popular with everyone.

My own favorite giveaways remain Arai's spinning top. I've learned to do Yami's method of stacking several sheets together, to expedite my time. I'll fold about 4 or 5 layers together and do the base; then separate the sheets for the last several steps to fold the top. The sacrifice on neatness is minimal, when I do this. Great model, and I can probably churn 'em out in 3 minutes, tops.



More photos here.

Aquarium of the Pacific Autumn Festival 2005

The adorable girl in the video is one of my dear and delightful gymnasts, Emily:

Joy to Origami (Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach 2004)

The sound in this one is rough and uneven, as I had not yet discovered I could control the audio level. At this point, I was still learning a lot as I went.