Presenters

Deanna Kwan

Deanna Kwan began her origami adventures when her son, Daniel, discovered Unit Origami by Tomoko Fuse. As a mathematics teacher, modulars are fascinating. At the 1997 OUSA Convention, Deanna discovered people who are friendly, helpful, talented, and willing to share their passion for folding paper. She has taught at every OUSA Convention since. She teaches origami in NJ at schools, libraries, scout meetings, parks, women’s clubs, arts festivals, senior centers and her local folding group. Recently, Deanna has embraced teaching virtually and has been honing skills to enhance the presentation in this platform. She loves the beauty and magic of origami -- the learning, the friendships, the teaching, and the happy faces.

Arlene Gorchov

I started folding when I was about 10 years old but then took a long break and started again in 1990 when I went to my first convention (FOCA) in NYC with my two children. I met Mark Kennedy at that first convention and that meeting led to a whirlwind origami romance that would, for both of us, lead to teaching origami and making friends all over the world. Mark was already teaching, making friends and spreading the origami word. For me, it was a new world.

I have a regional meeting that meets in my house and a large origami reference library (thanks to Mark). I am on the OUSA business committee an am a support person for OUSA Folding Sundays which are on hiatus right now.

Origami has been a wonderful source of peace and friendship.

Robert J. Lang

http://langorigami.com

Robert J. Lang has been folding origami for a pretty long time. Along the way he has designed and documented some 800 figures, has his work shown in various museums around the world, and authored, co-authored or edited 21 books on origami and its applications in science and technology. For the last 20 years he has been a full-time origami artist and consultant. His current interests include mathematical algorithms for artistic origami design.

Meenakshi Mukerji

http://origamee.net/

When Meenakshi Mukerji was introduced to modular origami, her passion for the art rekindled, and she began designing and displaying on her website. In 2005, OrigamiUSA presented her with the Florence Temko award. In 2007, her first book, Marvelous Modular Origami, was published, followed quickly by six more books. She has been a special guest at several origami conventions and contributes regularly to magazines. Though known for modulars, she designs single sheet origami as well. Born and raised in India, she has a BS in Electrical Engineering and an MS in Computer Science (USA). After a 15-year software career, she stayed home in CA devoting time to family, travel, origami design, authoring origami books and spreading the joy of origami.

Carmen Sprung

https://www.origamiseiten.de

In 1996 my son got for his birthday an origami book capturing my curiosity: „Spiel und Spaß mit Origami“ published by Paulo Mulatinho. This book was the beginning of my love for origami.
In 1998, Pietro Macchi presented his ideas of folding with rectangles at an origami convention in Munich. My enthusiasm for geometric origami shapes was born. Until now it is a pleasure for me to discover fascinating geometric secrets just by folding.
Since 2004 I organize a monthly origami Sunday. Sharing origami ideas with others (beginners or advanced) is a good way for having fun and for getting new ideas.
Having specialized in origami stars, I self-published my first book "Origami 21 Sterne" in 2011 and the second one "Origami 25 Sterne" in 2020.

Goran Konjevod

http://organicorigami.com

I grew up in Croatia and moved to the U.S. in 1995. After getting my PhD in 2000, I worked as professor of computer science at Arizona State, and then in 2010 moved to a research laboratory in the Bay Area. I have been folding for over 30 years and designing and exhibiting my own work for about 15. Most of my work is abstract and based on sequences of simple pleats whose interactions create tension and curve paper into the third dimension. Despite my background, I tend to think of my folding work as art, in a unique sculptural medium: unlike traditional additive or subtractive processes, folding is transformative. Besides paper, I fold metal, both sheet and mesh, and have also used foldings as patterns for casting bronze and iron

Mark Morden

Mark Morden first learned origami in grade school. After rediscovering the art later in life, he has been folding regularly for the past 30 years. In 1994, he founded Puget Area Paperfoldering Enthusiasts Roundtable (PAPER) in the Seattle area. The group promotes origami through participation at community events and monthly meetings. Mark has created original tessellation, geometric, and modular folds. His works were included in the 2003 "Origami Masterworks" at the Mingei International Museum in San Diego and the 2005 "Masters of Origami" exhibit at Hangar-7, in Salzburg. Mark is a regular attendee at Pacific Coast Origami Conferences and has taught classes during the events.

Mark, is a retired architect now living in Las Cruces, NM.

Michał Kosmulski

https://michal.kosmulski.org/origami/

I'm an origami designer interested most of all in tessellations but I take inspiration from other genres as well and like to use techniques such as wet-folding, usually associated with figurative origami.

Michael LaFosse

http://www.origamido.com

Michael G. LaFosse has been working for over forty years as an origami artist, papermaker, and author. He finds inspiration in the natural world, preferring to study his subjects in their natural habitats. He credits the work of the late Japanese Origami Grand Master, Akira Yoshizawa, for leading the way by exploring nature and achieving creative expression in origami art.

In 1996, Michael and Richard Alexander co-founded the Origamido Studio, where they author publications of their original origami sculptures and make handmade paper for each new creation. Their works have graced museums worldwide. Current traveling exhibitions include "Origami in the Garden." Together, they have authored over 70 books and kits about origami.

Linda Mihara

http://www.origamihara.com

My lifelong love of Origami began when I was 5, learning models from the 2 Origami books published by my Grandfather, Tokinobu Mihara. I am an origami artist, designer, curator and teacher. Some of my design projects include origami for TV commercials (Mitsubishi Motors with Robert Lang, Febreze, McDonalds) print ads (Wall Street Journal, SF Chronicle) and visual window displays (Hermes, Saks Fifth Ave). I have curated origami exhibits, both locally and internationally, including co-curating the Origami-Natural World exhibit at the National Museum of Natural History in Taiwan, Taipei. My first love is teaching the art of origami, so join me for the first, virtual World Origami Days 2020. Let's have some fun!

Beth Johnson

http://bethjohnsonorigami.com

Beth is an origami artist from Ann Arbor, Michigan. She has been folding paper for many years, and began designing her own models in 2010. She is often recognized for her expressive minimalist style, and for her explorations of tessellations as textural elements in more representational pieces. She has been a guest of honor at numerous origami conventions worldwide, and received the 2011 Florence Temko Award from Origami USA in recognition of her work.

Beth divides her time between teaching, designing, exhibiting and diagramming, and also does volunteer work teaching art and origami in her community. She is currently working on publishing a book with instructions for her designs.

Jeremy Shafer

https://www.youtube.com/jeremyshaferorigami

Hi everyone! Thank you for taking part in World Origami Days and I hope you will join me for the class that I will be teaching. The models that I will be teaching will be a surprise... even I don't know yet which they will be! But you can bet they will be kinetic and fun models that I haven't taught yet on YouTube and they will probably be in the simple to low-intermediate skill level. Short Biography... I love origami! Oh, that was too short? Ok, I've been designing origami for 30 some years, authored three books and made many hundreds of origami tutorials which you can watch on my YouTube channel, www.youtube.com/jeremyshaferorigami . I also offer 1-on-1 origami tutoring sessions which you can book on www.calendly.com/jeremyshafer

Char Morrow

When I discovered origami through Tomoko Fuse's Unit Origami book around 1990, I was inspired to design an origami workshop for the students who attended the summer program in mathematics for high school women that I directed. My students learned geometric models to promote understanding of mathematical concepts, and they learned to love origami! Then I discovered the origami community! I have taught at origami conventions across the USA and in several other countries. I now organize a local group, which is not so local now that we all meet on Zoom, but so fun and inspiring. I co-curated, with Wendy Zeichner, the Math Unfolded exhibit at the Museum of Mathematics, and finally, I am proud to say that I received the 2020 OUSA Teaching Award.

Boice Wong

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzovUuQjox0ojqd7GtRz4-g?

Boice is an origami artist from Portland that currently studies in Phoenix and is known online by his handle, OrigamiByBoice. He enjoys folding and designing models that represent or render forms such as humanoids and dragons. A goal in his folding is to trick people into thinking the fold is not just a single square.

​Boice also makes YouTube tutorials where he seeks to make complex topics, like learning crease patterns, much less intimidating as well as using the platform to show proper permission and crediting standards.

Yara Yagi

https://yarayagi.blogspot.com

I started to fold ten years ago, when my mother bought a paper elephant and I started looking for Origami in Internet. Since I folded alone, I learned to read diagrams by myself and I began to fold a lot. Then Carlos González Santamaría (aka Halle) invited me to make testfolds of his diagrams for Spanish magazine Pajarita. In 2012 I started to create or, as I usually say, play with paper. Since then I participated in the exhibition Mujeres de Papel, at EMOZ museum in Zaragoza (2016) and Paper Heroes, in Tel Aviv (2017). I was invited to the Argentine and Italian conventions in 2018 and to the first Origami World Marathon in 2020. I prefer to fold figurative models, but a modular (or multi pieces model) is also a challenge.

Ekaterina Lukasheva

https://kusudama.me/

Ekaterina Lukasheva has a passion for mathematics and art, and the convergence of these two passions has given birth to her intricately folded paper art. Ekaterina Lukasheva was born in Moscow, Russia, she was inspired as a child. Being a child she was fascinated by the world architecture, art and mathematical games and puzzles. She went on to receive MSc in mathematics and computer science, and a PhD in mathematics, giving her strong mathematical background that allows her to feel the geometry of origami intuitively.

Ekaterina Lukasheva’s art is half about beauty and half about the exploration of possible with the complex curved folds and a flat sheet of paper.

Tom Hull

http://origametry.net

Tom has been active in origami since the 1980s. He's a math professor at Western New England University in MA and is one of the world experts on the mathematics of origami. He has co-authored two origami books, "Origami, Plain and Simple" with Robert Neale and "Russian Origami" with Sergei Afonkin. He's also written the book "Project Origami" on using origami as a tool for teaching math in high school and college. Tom's origami artwork focuses on geometric and modular models, with his PHiZZ Unit and Five Intersecting Tetrahedra models being his most well-known creations.

Kathleen Sheridan

http://www.origamiandyou.com

Kathleen Sheridan is a Spanish teacher turned origami instructor living in St Paul, Minnesota. Her business name is Origami and You to represent the connection she strives to bring between herself, her students and origami.

Just months ago, Kathleen was teaching origami at workshops, team building sessions, birthday parties, after school clubs...Now she is doing it all online – even the birthday parties! Weekly you can find her streaming live from Insta or FB and teaching Folding Fridays through the Momath in NYC.

Kathleen is in her 5th year as a Board member for Origami USA. She is a founding member, Co-Chair and Host of Origami Connect, a program offering online classes through Origami USA. It’s open to anyone around the world!

Michel Grand

I started folding in 1983 and creating in 1987. I mainly created envelopes.

My models have been published by origami associations in Western Europe, as well as in the USA and Hungary, but also in books by Nick Robinson, Gay Merrill Gross, Szuszanna Krisckovics and Steve and Megumi Biddle.

I have a great interest in the history of folding on which I have written a few articles published in France, England and the USA.

Patty Grodner

In 1986, I met my mentor, Norman Schide, and started folding with him every Friday for over 20 years. I started going to the OrigamiUSA annual convention in New York a few years later. I am currently serving on the OrigamiUSA Board of Directors and chair the Pacific Coast OrigamiUSA Convention Committee, Origami Connect, and the Scholarship Committee.