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If I were on top of things, I would have posted about this before it happened.

This past Thursday, Irene of Bunkado in Little Tokyo invited me on her Book Club event, via Instagram live, to talk about the topic of origami.

I felt a bit rusty on the topic of origami (all my origami events were canceled last year due to the pandemic).  

If you're ever in Little Tokyo, please support Bunkado and the small businesses there.  

Origami Festival at Storrier-Stearns Japanese Gardens

This took place two Sundays ago:

Some sights and sounds from the Monterey Park Cherry Blossom Festival

My exhibit display:

Last weekend Cherry Blossom Festival, Monterey Park

An obituary/tribute was included in the program:

My stage demo was on Saturday.  Last act.

I folded Yami's fireworks as giveaway prizes for the quick fold contest at the end.

I was joined by Pam Miike.

I had ordered a paper glider gun from Amazon and did not break it open until the day of the Festival on Saturday.  It took me a while to figure out that it wasn't broken (Have to insert a paper glider for the motor to start running).

Demonstrating and Teaching Yesterday

I've been coming to the Van Nuys Garden for well over a decade, first hired by Michael Fritzen, I believe.  at some point, Sylvia Wong took over the reigns and brought aboard more regular teachers at the annual Origami Day festival.  This year, Carla Shaw has taken the helm. 

Instead of just entertaining visitors, this year I had the freedom to also teach; and I got to be in the Tea House, which I ended up liking better.

I entrusted filming to one of the volunteers; but something happened and she missed recording some really good moments.  Oh, well.

It was a fun 5 hours of origami (not counting the 2.5 hours before and hour after). 

Georgette setting up her display models

Cherry Blossom Festival last weekend in Monterey Park

Last Sunday in Monterey Park at the annual Cherry Blossom Festival.....


This is one of the first things I do in my demo, asking who in the audience has folded paper before (most people have probably done a paper glider) and as a lead in to action models.



My indoor stage demo was scheduled at 3pm on Sunday but then changed last minute to 4pm to accommodate another performer.

I've been doing this festival since 2002 or 2004.  I think it may have been my very first one and "big break" in doing things like this.  The first year I was outdoors with a booth.  I think my second year I had been given the center of the indoor gymnasium with 4 tables boxing me in.  At some point, I was asked to start doing stage demos.  That's when I had Yami and Joe with me, too.

I talk a bit about the evolution from traditional models into modern origami; including practical application nowadays into physics, sciences, and technology.  Then show off modern works of art.

My material has become such that it's growing a bit stale; but I follow a formula that I don't even need to rehearse, because I've done it so many times now.  Once I start talking about different moneyfolds, it segues into the realm of origami magic.

Us paperfolders love magic:




I'm a fungi:



After teaching Yami's banger to the group (really small crowd I thought, this year), I engage them in a "quick fold" contest for prizes:  Who can fold a banger (doesn't have to be the one I just taught) and make it pop first?





The big finish:

That is one serious paper cut...

Paul Hanson has a new book out that features an origami sai from the movie, "Red 2":





I spent a lot of hours during the 90s training under Mark Mikita, Dan Inosanto, and many others.  At the time, my whole life seemed to revolve around martial arts.

The interviewer's question asking about "the origami thing", "Can that actually work?", reminds me of improvising a rolled up newspaper as a weapon (after all, what is paper, really, but wood, in a sense?).  Fast forward to 22:01 

A WORLD FROM A SHEET OF PAPER by Tadashi Tokieda

Joel Stern wrote in an email:


Another message from Joel Stern:

Hi Everyone,

Group member Edie Gralla forwarded this to me, thinking it might be of interest to many of you. It looks like a fascinating lecture.

Click for more here.

Please join us for a IPAM Public Lecture featuring Tadashi Tokieda, Director of Studies in Mathematics at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and the Poincaré Visiting Professor in the Department of Mathematics, Stanford. Wednesday, May 18, 2016 4:00 PM CNSI Auditorium, 570 Westwood Plaza, UCLA Reception to follow at IPAM This lecture is aimed at a general audience; no particular technical background is necessary.   ABSTRACT

Starting from just a sheet of paper, by folding, stacking, crumpling, sometimes tearing, we will explore a variety of phenomena, from magic tricks and geometry to elasticity and the traditional Japanese art of origami.  Much of the show consists of table-top demos, which you can try later with friends and family. So, take a sheet of paper . . .

Quick Fold Contest

I have an on-stage demo every year at the Monterey Park Cherry Blossom Festival. 

A main-stay is doing a paper banger contest, after teaching it.  I use spaghetti western music, usually with origami cowboy hats; and samurai music (in this case, Hissatsu Shigotonin) with contestants wearing kabuto.

The Cicada Boomerang Glider at the Cherry Blossom Festival

2015 Monterey Park Cherry Blossom Festival

This was from last weekend. 

Excerpt from Saturday's 40 minute stage demo:

Joseph Wu's Usagi Yojimbo:

This kid Reilly had some of the most delightful reactions and facial expressions while playing with the polypopagon.  All 3 kids were pretty funny with the model hitting themselves in the face:

There was a new magician (not on the schedule) who performed on Sunday.  A 17 year-old kid, I think he was the nephew of one of the puppeteers.  I happened to film part of his magic crane act after I heard him make mention of one of the 3 pictures on cards he had for a volunteer to choose from, was that of a paper crane.  I guessed that the tsuru would be the forced card and anticipated what he was about to do in time to film it:




Another paper mischief from him here.

Allen and Wayne are the regular magicians who come annually.  Wayne plugged origami in his dollar bill transformation trick:

Allen thought his performance was on Sunday (it was supposed to be on Saturday) and closed out the Sunday indoor stage shows.  So we had 3 magicians in one day!



Marti Reis came out to help me on Saturday; and on Sunday, I had Pam Miike.  Slow traffic, but still had fun. 


Photos here.

Michael LaFosse's Art-Deco Wing glider Off a High Rise

This was originally taught to me by Tom Stamm years ago and I've always loved the folding sequence and the flight path of LaFosse's unusual glider- under "normal" circumstances it usually skims across the air in a bit of an up-down motion reminding me of a rock skipping across water. A truly ingenius design. I haven't filmed an example of that flight pattern; but what I did do was throw a couple off the 20th floor of my client's high rise:

*UPDATE* 4/24/2011

Michael LaFosse sent me this story regarding his Art-Deco Wing:

I designed this model while I was a freshman at the U. Tampa, in Florida, 1975. My dorm room was on the 8th floor of Delo Hall, which was situated near the athletic field (The building has since been replace, I believe.)

Many times a week I would launch an Art-Deco Wing out my window and watch it glide over the parking lot, across a street and continue across the athletic filed and out of sight. I never saw one land, but they all seemed to prefer the same path, across the athletic field.

On day, towards the end of my second semester, I took up jogging with a friend. We would jog around the perimeter of the athletic filed, outside of its great walls. To my surprise and delight I found these wings, all in a heap, caught at the base of a fence!

~~~

The accumulation of wings was an interesting sight. They were mixed in with other windswept paper and plastic trash. They had been rained upon and covered with dirt from many months of exposure; though quite deformed they were recognizable. If I remember correctly, the collection spanned a length of the fence area for some twenty feet or so. The area looked as though it got little attention from groundskeepers and the city's cleaning force. I did reach through the fence, and grabbed a decent looking specimen to show my friend and explain what it was all about.

Storigami Time....

Anne Bedrick's teaching tale to deg farrelly's model has long been a favorite of mine. I hadn't told it in years, however, until last weekend, when I decided I wanted to include it in my Tarumpty Tum Tum transformation mechanism video. Should have rehearsed it first (my memory and delivery are not as polished as I once had it), but at least this should give you an idea of the power of the story and model. I flubbed the beginning when I said "snow begins to fall", instead of "snow begins to melt"; and I left out "...in the springtime, the flowers will begin to push up from the earth..."

Of course, I recite it in my own words, and did not memorize, verbatim, Anne Bedrick's story. The essence of it remains, but I think each storyteller should tell it in his own language, his own words that he feels comfortable with, and really "own it".

When Origami is Just Plane Fun!

I get a lot of ooh's and aah's when I launch my paper glider. But it's nothing new or unique. Just check out Sonny Ang's demonstration of his zoomerang:



Tutorial here, and fine-tuning tips.

Then be amazed at Paper Airplane Guy, John Collins:



Tutorial for a boomerang plane, here.

Excerpt of Yami's On-Stage Demo at 2008 Cherry Blossom Festival

Demo excerpt of 2008 Cherry Blossom Festival

Filmed on April 11, 2008, this is a performance demonstration of the Robert Neale dollar ƸӜƷ:

Joe's Twist Box Toy

The first time I saw this was about a year ago. Joe Hamamoto said he got the basket-weaving slinky part from his granddaughter. I don't know if anyone in particular designed it. It's too simple, that I doubt it can be traced to any one person. However, it was Joe's idea to do this out of giftwrapping paper and glue the ends to the insides of a masu box. This is the results.

Origami Whoopie Thingy

The magic of Robert Neale's dollar butterfly

My material is still slowly evolving and getting refined; I know exactly what I need to do to make the presentation better. I just haven't taken the time to do my homework and rehearse the material (I haven't done this model since the last festival).

I think what I need to do is research some material from the field of physics and aerodynamics to give some bs rhetoric about Newton's First and Third Law, wind current and wing lift, upwash and downwash, angle of attack, etc....you know: Get them thinking there's a rational, scientific explanation (other than the simple, obvious one- I'm squeezing a lever).

Also, when someone does question whether or not I am pinching, I should hand it to them while secretly undoing the petal-fold, so he can try it himself. Sometimes, even handing the model to a person untampered has the person failing to make the wings flap.

A Plane Day at the Monterey Park, Cherry Blossom Festival