Presenters

Wendy Zeichner

Wendy Zeichner has served as president of OrigamiUSA since 2008. Through teaching origami models that she and others have designed, Wendy has inspired many novice folders to love origami and fold on a regular basis. She often teaches at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City (home to the OrigamiUSA office). Wendy has also taught at many origami conventions in the USA and internationally in Japan, Korea, Italy, Spain, France, Germany and England. Wendy recently co-edited a book of Laura Kruskal’s crowns with Patsy Wang-Iverson. This book, Origami Crowns, a collection by Laura Kruskal: Queen of Crowns, is available as a PDF from The Fold, OrigamiUSA’s online magazine.

Marcio Noguchi

Marcio Noguchi is a Japanese origami enthusiast, born in Sao Paulo, Brasil, and author of more than 20 origami books. He is the current editor-in-chief of the "Origami Tanteidan" magazine, board member and secretary general of the Japan Origami Academic Society (JOAS), former board member and past-board chair of OrigamiUSA.

Jun Maekawa

Jun Maekawa is an origami pioneer who helped shape modern origami by applying mathematical concepts. He studied physics at Tokyo Metropolitan University where he developed the Maekawa Theorem describing fundamental geometry and origami. He is a Board member of Japan Origami Academic Society (JOAS). Maekawa-san has taught origami in Japan and abroad and has published many books and articles on the subject. He published "Viva !Origami" (1983), "Genuine Origami" (2007), "The Art & Science of Geometric Origami" (2022) and others. He has a large following and an impressive origami crane collection. Although he retired from the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan at 2023, he continues to work in astronomy as an engineer.

Jannie van Schuylenburg

Jannie van Schuylenburg, from the Netherlands is married and has 3 children and 5 grandchildren. She loves many kinds of handicraft, but origami is her ‘first love’. Her aunt started folding with her when she was 6 years old and that started the love for paper and origami. 30 years ago she became an origami teacher and online teaching has made it even greater. She loves to design her own models. She discovers many of her models though 'playing with paper.' She also enjoyes folding with a project in mind and figuring out how to get there. Over the years she has published several books in The Netherlands, Germany and England. Her father was a skipper and it was not a surprise that she published two books with sever

Carmen Sprung

Carmen's journey through the world of origami starts in 1996 when her son got for his birthday the book "Spiel und Spass mit Origami" published by Paulo Mulatinho. She realized with time her preference for geometric forms and began creating designing own origami stars. In 2001 her website www.origamiseiten.de wnt online and her first international origami convention in Germany shows her the fun and the importance of meeting other paperfolders. Since 2004 Carmen has organized monthly folding Sundays in Ingolstadt (Bavaria). In 2011 She self-published her first origami book "Origami 21 Sterne", in 2020. Her second book was "Origami 25 Sterne". Her motto is: "While we teach we learn" (Seneca).

Li Jiahu

Li Jiahui is a Chinese folder. He started folding in 2005. He created an electronic origami publication and published a collection of my own works called Comic Origami / Two-Color Origami Challenges in 2021. Syn's models provide a charming take on many of the origami animals that we all know and love.

Robert Lang

https://langorigami.com

Robert Lang is a pioneer of the newest kind of origami—using math and engineering principles to fold mind-blowingly intricate designs that are beautiful and, sometimes, very useful. He has been an avid student of origami for over fifty years and is now recognized as one of the world's leading masters of the art.

Michelle Fung

Michelle started designing her own origami models in 2010. Out of the many types of origami, she enjoys designing cute (yet often surprisingly complex), color-changed, representational models the most.

Anne Lavin

Anne has been doing origami for nearly as long as she can remember. Long fascinated by Japanese culture, she studied Japanese for a number of years, lived in Japan for short periods several times, and enjoys attending origami conventions there and all over!

Michael LaFosse

http://www.origamido.com/the-artists/michael-g-lafosse/

Michael G. LaFosse has worked as an origami artist, papermaker, and author for over forty years. Trained as a biologist, he finds his most vital inspiration in the natural world, preferring to study his subjects in their natural habitats. Michael and Richard Alexander co­founded the Origamido Studio In Massachusetts. Together, they design original origami sculptures and make custom, handmade paper for each new creation.

Char Morrow

Char has been folding geometric models for almost 40 years. She loves models that have an interesting mathematical theme, but look beautiful even if you don't know anything about the mathematics involved. Char designed and taught a 2 week geometric origami workshop for summer program students. She also designed a college-level course, "Origami and Mathematics," and gave a presentation, along with a NASA engineer, about how origami is used to design aerospace equipment. Char served for many years on the OrigamiUSA Board of Directors and is the current Chair the OrigamiUSA Youth Scholarship Committee.

Brian Chan

Brian Chan ha a been designing origami since 2004. His often complex models are inspired from nature and science fiction.

Richard Ellison

Richard is a practicing architect in Atlanta, Georgia who has folded origami as a hobby since childhood. He took a renewed interest in the art around 2016 and self-published a collection of original designs in 2020. He folds and teaches regularly with an online community. Representational models from a single sheet are his favorite genre. He and his wife, Heather, have three school-aged children.

Miyuki Kawamura

Miyuki Kawamura is an origami master know for her modular origami. She started origami at two years old. When she was a small child, she loved animals, and folded many animals. Miyuki majored in particle physics at university, and then began to create many polyhedral origami works. She has published Polyhedron Origami for Beginners. Organizer of Kyushu-Tomonokai, a reader’s group of “Tanteidan Magazine” published by Japan Origami Academic society (JOAS)

Brandon Wong

Brandon is currently a 4th year mechanical engineering student at MIT, originally from the SF bay area. His goals is to push the limits on what can be created with origami and to explore novel design techniques, such as hex pleating. You can find his videos and other social media content with my online name @ThePlantPsychologist.

Glenn Sapaden

Glenn has been an origami enthusiast for over 30 years. As an attorney, he spent many hours in the courtroom waiting: for clients to show, for opponents to negotiate, for judges to see. All that waiting gave him time to fold origami. Glenn's particular interest is dollar origami. He likes the challenge of the bill’s shape and how the dollar holds its creases. He also loves to find ways to incorporate the many printed features into a model’s design.

Jeremy Shafer

Origami has been Jeremy's biggest passion since he was 10 years old. He mostly enjoys trying to design whimsical models that fly, spin, or somehow move. Jeremy has published a few books of his models and produced the Bay Area Rapid Folders (BARF) Newsletter for 15 years, but in 2011 switched from print media to making video tutorials on YouTube. Jeremy makes a new video every week and does 4 hours of live streams for his members every month, where he designs models on the spot by request. In addition to making YouTube videos he also earns a by living entertaining at county fairs and other festivities. Jeremy is also an avid juggler, unicyclist, hand whistler and salsa dancer and his sport of choice is unicycle basketball w

Beth Johnson

Beth is a lifelong folder who has been designing her own original models since 2010. She loves folding representational models inspired by the natural world. She has been a special guest at origami conventions world wide. She work has been published widely in origami magazines and she published, The Origami Diagram Book, containing never-before-published original designs from some of the world's top creators. This book represents some of the most beautiful diagrams being produced today.

Francesco Mancini

Francesco discovered origami about twenty years ago when his best friend showed him Sam Randlett's flapping bird. He already knew some traditional models but that one rekindled his curiosity and gave him the impulse to deepen the knowledge and the possibilities of this art. At the beginning he was a lone folder, then he joined the Centro Diffusione Origami, he began to attend a folding group, and went to the first Italian conventions. Now he is vice president of the CDO, and he is part of the editorial team of Quadrato Magico.

Ilan Garibi

Ilan Garibi is an Israeli origami artist and designer. He started his way in the world of art and design as a paper origami artist, and today also designs furniture, jewelry and works of art out of a variety of materials, such as metals, wood, and glass. He masters an origami genre called tessellation. During 2012 he co-established Origamisrael, the Israeli origami artists' organization, and he is its chairman ever since. He is an author of several books in the fields of origami and puzzles.

Linda Mihara

Linda Mihara is an origami artist, designer, teacher, and curator. She hosts a free online class, Free Fold Origami Saturday, and is a columnist for the Nichi Bei News. Linda owns and manages Paper Tree, the Origami Store, located in San Francisco's Japantown.