Satoshi Kamiya Origami seminar

I went to the Satoshi Kamiya Origami seminar this past week. I think I first saw him on TV in a video my grandmother sent over, a Japanese program called TV Champion. It's a show about competing to find the ultimate in the field - and this episode was about origami. I was amazed to see this guy making all sorts of things during the show. I don't remember the show much, but I just remember I was quite amazed as he won through the competition easily.

Well, he came to Toronto to give a seminar. The one I attended was a beginner seminar that was open to the public. They apparently had an advanced seminar which would've been great to attend, but it was only open to insiders like the people at the Origami society and other Japanese groups.

Regardless, the beginner seminar was a lot of fun. It was a 1 hour slide presentation, followed by a hands-on portion where he would actually show how to make some things using origami. In the slide show, he introduced himself, how origami originated, and what kind of things he's been working on. He even took the time (about 10-15 min) to fold a bear that he created. During the time he was folding, he was doing question / answer session - and from the way he was just folding and answering questions - it seemed like his hands had a mind of its own. This guy lives and breathes origami... very smart.

The folding session was interesting. It made me feel out of touch with the origami community - there was a time when I was actively folding paper and learning... He didn't teach anything that was hard, but I didn't know any of the ones he showed, so I learned something :)

What was great was the samples of his work that he brought with him. It was displayed all around the room - and they were so crazy intricate. The dragon that he's known for... wow. Just sheer amazement. I took several photos of it but it's just amazing how he made all these - legs, claws, many many scales on the dragon from one piece of paper. I'm glad I went to see him... maybe I'll start folding something again :)