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Kunihiko Kasahara / |
Gay Merrill Gross / |
Jan Polish / |
• On my way back from Würzburg, I thought somebody should write a report about this convention. And I did it myself. The following is my totally subjective report on the 9th Origami Deutschland Convention in Würzburg. The Convention started at 17:00 in the Technikum Hotel with a small speech by Susanne Wellenberg. Being late, I only heard a few words, mainly about having fun and happy folding. Which was just what I intended to do.
• Searching for familiar nametags, I first found David Lister, introduced myself, and was immediately involved in an interesting discussion about life, the universe, and everything. All too soon it was time for dinner, and after that I took a first look at the many origami models that participants had on display.
• Then Mr. Kunihiko Kasahara, the special guest, talked about his vision of Origami. A lady from the Siebold Museum expertly translated from Japanese to German and vice versa. Mr. Kasahara also had some sheets with diagrams: Some Origami models Froebel used for kindergarden, and very old japanese instructions on making 1000 cranes. The sheets themselves were interesting: they very elegantly collapsed into a third of their original size. I believe this is a traditional fold. One of Mr. Kasahara's statements was that over all the mathematic and geometric applications of Origami we should not forget that we fold for fun, and not for science.
• After this presentation, and although it was getting late, people started folding at several tables. Some even stayed awake until well after midnight. Not me. I took another look and some pictures of the displayed models, and then I was ready for some sleep. I hadn't slept a lot the previous night, and due to some delays my voyage had taken almost 10 hours instead of only about 6 ½. So 22:00 seemed a good time to get some sleep.
• Saturday was a very busy day. At breakfast I met John Cunliffe of ELFA; he informed me that in the afternoon, he would give a show involving top hats. After breakfast, Gay Merril Gross showed me a few of her folds and told me about her work with Lilian Oppenheimer, and how the small "Friends of Origami" turned into the huge OUSA of today. At 9:30 the AGM of Origami Deutschland started. It was the first one for me, and it took over 3 hours...sigh.
• At dinner, Jan Polish surprised us all with the beautiful models Mark W. Kennedy ("The Paper Dragon") had folded and enameled (if that's the right word for it ...). What a wonderful, generous gift! There were salmon, masks, dragons ... all about 4-7 cm long. I'd probably break my fingers trying to fold this small! Jan told us Mark folds dozens of these while driving; every red light, every traffic jam is worth a few folds. Traffic jams are not wasted time for Mark!
• After dinner, I took another look at all the beautiful papers I couldn't afford in Silke Schröders little shop, and then it was time for John Cunliffe. First he told us something about the history of top hats, and then he showed us how to fold one. Following that, he demonstrated the connection between Origami and Magic: Using an Origami paper cup, he turned water into wine. Strange enough, my paper cup can't do this. John had two collapsible top hats with him. Unfortuantely I missed the demonstration of the very cleverly engineered collapsing mechanism, but I hope to see it next year.
• At 17:30, two buses picked us up for a city tour and the visit to the Siebold Museum; for the week of the Convention, it had been turned into an Origami Museum. Brian Cox from Canada had previously installed a mobile of 1001 cranes, which now slowly moved over our heads while we enjoyed the local white wine and listened to a speech about the Siebold family. There was also a long cloth tube hanging from the ceiling, all the way from the first floor to the basement. It had hundreds of Origami models attached to it; the traditional crane, flowers, dinosaurs, turtles, santas, etc. Somebody must have spent hours folding and attaching all these models.
• After the speech we stormed the exhibition. There were many models by Kunihiko Karahara (of course), and other creators too. Kasahara's models were arranged in scenes, from the monkeys in the jungle to the owl at night. For me, one of the most exciting models was the "Gecko on the wall" by Herman van Goubergen from Belgium, who also was in Wurzburg. It took a while before I found the Gecko ... and there was a fly, too, which unfortunately isn't recognizable on the picture.
• A chosen few then proceeded to assemble a (fairly straightforward) puzzle on the floor. The result: Viva Kasahara! Then the bus was there to take us to dinner in the "Ratskeller". I was lucky enough to share a table with Gay Merrill Gross, Edwin Corrie and Cinzia Garufi. Thanks to Gay I finally learned how to fold the Lotus out of a napkin. I had tried to fold it with paper before, but had always ended up tearing it to little shreds. Edwin showed us his "bird no.9" (or was it no.7 ... ?) and later on a white rabbit in a black ... top hat! At nine o'clock I called home; was I surprised when my daughter Lea picked up the phone! My wife later told me that Lea missed me very much, which made me feel great of course
• The last day of the convention had two highlights: After breakfast, I happened to overhear someone ask Kunihiko Kasahara to show him how to fold a few models that had been on display at the exhibition. Whoever happened to be around was lucky, because this was not an official event! The first model was an owl; with only a few folds, this very convincing model looked at you with huge eyes. The next was a cute little cat; mine needed a little help, it insisted on falling right on its face. Then Mr. Kasahara taught a pyramid, but I had to leave because I didn't want to miss the next highlight: Gay Merrill Gross. Someone else happily took my place, and only then did I notice the crowd that was standing around the table.
• Gay first talked about the stories Lilian Oppenheimer used to tell, and then showed us her version of Alice, the little girl, sitting around bored on a rainy day. During the story, a newspaper turned into a paper hat, the hat changed into a firefighter's helmet, then into a pirate's hat, a boat, and finally into a lifejacket. Of course, all the folds were simple and well known, but the story evolving around them made each model a very special thing. The next story was about the brothers long and the sisters short that received a birthday party invitation and what happened then. This story didn't even use models, just a few folds to symbolize an object. Only the "happy end" resulted in a model: a box. And then there was Mother Nature waking up after hibernation, and finally a lovely story about a magician and his wishing kite. Right after that Gay showed a few modular "action" models, one of them being a spectacular butterfly ball, and I was very sorry when I learned that her book "The Art of Origami" which included these models was out of print, and sold out too.
• Right after this came yet another highlight (obviously I can't count): Jan Polish with a huge stack of business cards showed us how to fold the the dimpled cuboctahedron by Valerie Vann. Well, the folding part was easy, but assembling this four-piece modular was a nightmare; the zig-zag folded biz cards didn't look like they would ever turn into the finished model Jan was showing around. But eventually they did, and after this the other models were comparatively easy: A star by Jeannine Mosely, and a cube, Jeannine's variation of a traditional module.
• After this presentation, it was already time to eat. The Convention ended right afterwards, and some even had to rush before dessert to catch their train back home. On my way back Barbara Rähmi and I folded a few of the models in Kasahara's "Creative Origami" while Andreas Rähmi tried to read the chapter about creativity at the same time ... it proved to be a bit difficult. The Rähmi family left at Basel, and on my way from Basel to Berne I found an unsuspecting victim that had to look at all the models I was taking home from the Convention and listen to my babble about Origami. He seemed happy enough to find someone to chat with though. When I learned that he was webmaster of one of the biggest marketing companies here in Switzerland I made him give me his e-mail address. So if you think this homepage needs plastic surgery to become halfway presentable, I know where to ask for help :-).
• Arriving late at night in Bern, I immediately started to tell my wife every exciting detail of the convention until she got THAT look and decided it was time for her to go to bed. I was of course too wild awake to sleep, so I downloaded all my e-mail, prematurely announced this report on origami-l, briefly visited my favourite MUD, and - at one o'clock in the morning - finally went to sleep.
Matthias Gutfeldt
