BOS Spring 2009 Convention (27-29 March 2009, Nottingham)

Pictures of the convention are posted in the gallery. Enjoy!

What can I say? My second convention, the BOS Spring 2009 Convention, was a full success. I absolutely loved it.
And because it was my second one, I can't help but compare. The atmosphere and set-up was very different to the Autumn 2007 Convention in Cambridge. So I couldn't really say which one was "better", but I do think I enjoyed this one more. The first time round I somewhat felt like a fan meeting her stars. It having been the 40th anniversary of the BOS there were quite a number of famous overseas designers present, and that was indeed special. This time round I felt much more like I was part of the community (rather than an observer), and that really made it for me. But enough about comparing, and more about the weekend itself.

In one sentence that'd be:
Lots of folding, little sleep!
For those that like long versions, read below.

I was excited to see that many of the attendees knew about my videos, and that they appreciated my work. It was somewhat strange to have others recognising my name and face (or my hands?!). And it was definitely a good way of getting conversations started. Deep inside I'm very shy, you know...
What of the folding? There were, obviously, sessions that were officially announced and held. I led one of them (the 22.5 degree rose by Toshikazu Kawasaki), and I do hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did.
Of course, I also attended some sessions myself. Those were: on Saturday "The Last Waltz" (Neal Elias) taught by Dave Venables, and "Squirrel" (Komatsu Hideo) taught by Dennis Walker; and on Sunday a workshop on creating human figures held by Mark Leonard, and "Lion Mask" (Victoria Serova) taught by David King. There were plenty of other sessions going on in parallel which I would have loved to attend, but I guess it's good that there aren't three of me running around. All the sessions went really well. I already knew "The Last Waltz", and have to admit the main reason I went for that session was to get some inspiration for the video I want to make on it. It definitely gave me a better sense for which steps people seems to have the biggest problems with. And of course it's a nice model to fold in any case. Mark Leonard had shown me (and a couple of others) how to fold the base for the human figure on Friday night in the bar, so it wasn't all new to me anymore in the workshop. In the workshop Mark added some comments on the design process he had gone through. And having folded the model twice, I tried to reproduce it on the train back to Oxford. I think I might have forgotten one step in the end, because the shoulders are a bit too high, but overall I'm quite pleased I managed to memorise most of the model. And now I have some very sketchy and incomplete diagrams to give me a general idea the next time I try. As to the squirrel and the lion mask, both were wonderful sessions, but I'm sure I couldn't fold the models again without diagrams. The squirrel was probably my most beautiful fold of the weekend, and the lion mask session the most relaxed one. It was the last session of the weekend, so there were only six or seven of us. And may I add that there was a very apparent correlation between complexity of steps and jokes being made.
But of course I folded lots more than that. We showed each other some models we especially liked (and for which we remembered all the steps), and that was probably the most fun bit of it all. Sitting together with no time constraints, chatting, joking, teasing each other, and once in a while making a crease or two: that is what made this weekend such a wonderful experience for me. I especially enjoyed the side-stabs I exchanged with those I shall not name here, but some of whom I expect to send me a cherry in the near future.

Altogether the weekend was very relaxed and fun, and definitely something I look forward to repeating in the future.

P.S. Did I forget to mention the special guest "Robert Harbin"? And the awesome magic tricks performed at the novelty competition? Ah, I'm a lost case...