I had a wonderful experience attending the Pacific Coast Origami Convention for the first time at Double Tree Inn, Portland, in September 2019. I was allowed to exhibit my work and also got to see the entire gallery of other people’s awesome origami creations.

On the left is a picture of my exhibition at the PCOC convention.

This exhibition opportunity was amazing for me because I was able to display all my origami work that I was very proud of. I also got to explore may other people’s exhibitions. This was very interesting for me because I got to see many different types of origami that I didn’t know about before the convention. I got to explore different types of paper, different categories of origami, and even different ways of displaying origami. All of these displays were amazing and breathtaking. It was so cool to see a room entirely devoted to all the different types of origami pieces imaginable! The room looked so colorful and beautiful!

I also got an opportunity to teach a session at the convention. This was my first time teaching origami, and I had a wonderful time. I was a bit nervous about this teaching session, because most of the teachers and students at the convention were adults! But the teaching experience ended up being really great! I was able to connect and work with people that I had never met before, and this opened me up to learning to interact with new audiences. Before this teaching session, I used to be jittery around new audiences and was quite shy, but it ended up being very fun to teach how to make my model, and see everyone walk away with a completed piece. I also learned how to be a better teacher and be patient if someone got stuck. I learned a few tips and tricks about teaching origami that I didn’t know before, like using a bigger piece of paper than you normally would to demonstrate how to fold the piece, so that everyone can see it. I also figured out how to demonstrate the assembly of a modular origami piece. The teaching session was a really fun experience altogether.

I also attended a class on how to make the Infinite Twist model. I had never made a model like this one before, where you just pleat the paper in different directions to arrive at the finished model. The tension caused by the pleating makes the paper twist. I was very pleased with the finished model, and liked it so much I made two extra ones! The one in the middle of the picture below (the purple one) is made of a special paper we got during the class, and the other two models (the green one and the brown one) are made of regular kami.