Origami Festival at Storrier-Stearns Japanese Gardens

This took place two Sundays ago:

Yami's Secret Ancient Technique Invented a Few years Ago

The college kid toward the end getting her stretch on....

LA Times Blurb from 2018 Descanso Gardens

Yesterday I discovered this LA Times mention of our teaching origami last year at Descanso Gardens.  It includes a nice photo story:

Lisa Lashaway of Montrose shows off her finished Origami Thai tulip she made during the Descanso Gardens Origami Hands-On Demonstration, led by instructor Michael Sanders, at the La Cañada Flintridge landmark on Saturday, March 3, 2018. There were two sessions where about 30 people learned how to make two origami items, including the Thai tulip and a children’s spinner. Participants ranged in age from young children to older adults. All materials for the origami were provided to the attendees. (Raul Roa / Staff Photographer)

Kathleen Garcia of La Crescenta folds a piece of paper to finish up the flower part of her Origami Thai tulip during the Descanso Gardens Origami Hands-On Demonstration, led by instructor Michael Sanders, at the La Cañada Flintridge landmark on Saturday, March 3, 2018. There were two sessions where about 30 people learned how to make two origami items, including the Thai tulip and a children's spinner. Participants ranged in age from young children to older adults. All materials for the origami were provided to the attendees. (Raul Roa / Staff Photographer)

Muffit Jensen of Sun Valley looks over her finished Origami Thai tulip during the Descanso Gardens Origami Hands-On Demonstration, led by instructor Michael Sanders, at the La Cañada Flintridge landmark on Saturday, March 3, 2018. There were two sessions where about 30 people learned how to make two origami items, including the Thai tulip and a children's spinner. Participants ranged in age from young children to older adults. All materials for the origami were provided to the attendees. (Raul Roa / Staff Photographer

Finished Origami Thai tulips are placed next to a larger sample during the Descanso Gardens Origami Hands-On Demonstration, led by instructor Michael Sanders, at the La Cañada Flintridge landmark on Saturday, March 3, 2018. There were two sessions where about 30 people learned how to make two origami items, including the Thai tulip and a children's spinner. Participants ranged in age from young children to older adults. All materials for the origami were provided to the attendees. (Raul Roa / Staff Photographer)

Instructor Michael Sanders helps out Beckett Wasson and his grandmother Vicky Adik, of Pasadena, with their Origami Thai tulips during the Descanso Gardens Origami Hands-On Demonstration, led by instructor Michael Sanders, at the La Cañada Flintridge landmark on Saturday, March 3, 2018. There were two sessions where about 30 people learned how to make two origami items, including the Thai tulip and a children's spinner. Participants ranged in age from young children to older adults. All materials for the origami were provided to the attendees. (Raul Roa / Staff Photographer)

Instructor Michael Sanders shows how to fold paper while creating an Origami Thai tulip during the Descanso Gardens Origami Hands-On Demonstration, led by instructor Michael Sanders at the La Cañada Flintridge landmark on Saturday, March 3, 2018. There were two sessions where about 30 people learned how to make two origami items, including the Thai tulip and a children's spinner. Participants ranged in age from young children to older adults. All materials for the origami were provided to the attendees. (Raul Roa / Staff Photographer)

Origami Warm-up

The trick wasn't well executed.  I know the flaw/mistake I'm making that's an easy giveaway; but will do better in the future:

Descanso Gardens: Robert Neale butterfly demo

Carrying on the traditions of Yami Yamauchi.

March 3, 2019

This is from yesterday:




Pam and I are there once again today.

Origami Festival in Pasadena

From the flyer:

At the Storrier Stearns Japanese Garden on Sunday September 30, 12pm-4pm Come and learn to fold paper cranes, flowers and other fun forms with expert paper folders from the Pacific Ocean Paperfolders (POP) and our own Origami Club teacher Nick Cavallo. We will host talks on different aspects of origami from local experts and have Japanese tea and snacks for sale – all in the beautiful setting of our Japanese garden! Festival Program
 12pm to 4pm: Ongoing Origami Folding Stations in the Garden1) Paper Cranes for Peace with Sue DiCicco and our volunteers2) Fold a Flower with Michael Sanders
3) Origami Explorations with POP members, Jared Needle and Bryan Yu4) Learn to Fold ?? with Nick Cavallo Special Lectures followed by book-signings in the House (in En Gallery)12:30pm: Storigami with origami artist and children’s book author, Joel Stern
1:30pm: New Expressions in Origami Art with art historian Meher McArthur
2:30pm: SPECIAL NEW BOOK LAUNCH: The Complete Story of Sadako Sasaki with animator and arts activist Sue DiCicco

LaFosse F14 Tomcat

The Yami Chop

Pam Miike coined the term last weekend:

Bringing a Dollar Bill to Life

Manipulating the audience....





Sorry for the sad camera angle.  I should have had someone else film.

Descanso Gardens

With a few of my gymnasts and their families

So today concluded the 2nd weekend of our origami workshops at Descanso Gardens this year. 

Yesterday was a pretty low turnout (lots of rain).  It rained a bit this morning.  The sun came out after we were done at 3pm.

I had a decent turnout of some of my gymnasts from work. 

I had some of my origami teaching filmed which I'll try and sift through the lulls and edit down to what hopefully will be of interest to origami enthusiasts; especially those of you who are looking for ideas on how to teach in an entertaining fashion to the general public.

Descanso Gardens

Pam Miike and I are once again teaching origami at Descanso Gardens.  We were there last weekend.  Due to the rain on Saturday, we found ourselves inside the Tea House; and due to the expanding number of people, on Sunday we were packed inside and also teaching more people outside. 

Because there is no Cherry Blossom Festival this year, the traffic flow is lighter. 

We will be there this Saturday and Sunday for more paperfolding fun.

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

Origami Day at Van Nuys Japanese Garden

Hisako Tanji, Georgette Jenkins, Pam Miike, and myself:

Source

It's an annual thing.  Under new leadership, though. 

Pasadena Origami Festival at Storrier Stearns Japanese Gardens

Meher McArthur:

Looking for something fun to do with the family this Sunday? Come to the Pasadena Origami Festival at the Storrier Stearns Japanese Garden, from 10am to 4pm. Come and learn how to fold flowers, animals and modular forms with expert folders like Joel Stern and Jared Needle of the Pacific Ocean Paperfolders (POP) in the gorgeous setting of our Japanese Garden. I will be giving a talk about contemporary origami art and signing copies of my new book New Expressions in Origami Art and my earlier book Folding Paper. 

So today I spent time at the Gardens teaching the Thai Tulip:




In between teaching, I managed to film Joel Stern telling teaching tales:

This one is a Storigami by Christine Petrell Kallevig:

Photos here.

Teaching at Descanso Gardens for Family Night

Family night at Descanso Gardens yesterday involved a showing of "Kubo and the Two Strings".   I provided the origami entertainment prior to the movie playing out on an outdoor big screen.

Yami's secret ancient origami folding technique finally revealed!

Yami actually first started doing his "karate chop" knee action about 10 years ago.  I've since "turned up the volume" by expanding upon the comedic effect and setup/build up.

Warming up the crowd and testing their abilities to listen, watch, and follow directions

This is Yami's banger.

Before any vigorous, physical activity, it's important to warm-up and active stretch.

This will tax you, physically; teach you spiritually; test your mental acumen; train your listening skills; and take your powers of observation to the next level!

Origami. It's not just for kids, anymore.

Descanso Japanese Gardens Origami Introduction

This is part of my warm-up introduction.

There weren't too many people sitting at the table beforehand, like on other days; but this gives me a chance to build up interest before we start teaching.

I like to talk about modern origami, show off complex and fun action models; segue into moneyfolds; then from there...magic!

Origami at Descanso Gardens

This is the event that Yami Yamauchi used to do; and has passed it on to me (I believe my third year doing this).

This year, they decided to host their Cherry Blossom Festival over two weekends.  These clips are from last weekend:

Sunday, it started out great (I wish someone had filmed it!); and then we hit rain:

We've had an unusual amount of rain in Southern California, this year.

Amazingly, people wanted to keep folding.  The umbrellas didn't exactly help because the downpour just soaked the tableclothes as they ran off the umbrellas.

Pam Miike and I are there again this weekend.  Unfortunately, tickets are sold out (as they were last weekend).  The Gardens wanted to try and control the crowds this year.

There is always next year!

Van Nuys Japanese Gardens OriDay

My conversation of the week while folding some origami for a child last Sunday:

Me: "How old are you?"
Her: "Four."
Me: "What do you want to be when you grow up?"
Her: "Five."

Been doing the Japanese Gardens in Van Nuys origami event for about a decade, now.

One of my display tables:

Pam, Hisako, and Georgette teaching indoors

Always nice to get visits to my events by my gymnasts:

A few more photos here.

Paperfolding Puzzle

Last Sunday was the annual Oriday Festival at the Van Nuys Japanese Gardens.  As usual, I was tasked not to teach (my friends Hisako Tanji, Joy Nishijima, and Georgia Jenkins were indoors to teach) but to entertain.

I brought along a couple of paper puzzles to keep folks entertained:






The following entry was a post originally started on 9/03/2013:



I believe this comes, via Martin Gardner's Mathematical Games columns:


Solution: