Lets Make Origami

Tanabata, which is translated as the Japanese Star Festival, is one of my favorite holiday celebrations.  It derives from a romantic legend about two lovers in the sky, who are allowed to meet only once a year.

For the past six years I have celebrated Tanabata with the children of Willowbrook, where I work every summer.  We always have the campers write wishes and make origami ornaments to hung on bamboo for Tanabata.  One year we even did a skit about the legend of Tanabata.

Here are some wishes that our campers made this year.

"Be good at math" (left), "Beautiful planet" (right)

"Good health" (left), "I want a dog" (center), "Peace at home (right)

Here is my Tanabata wish this summer...

"I wish the event at Japanese Garden will go well"

It seemed that my wish had come true.  The event was full of people and fun.  I received some positive feedback.

my demo table

lotus flowers, lily pads and frog that I folded and displayed.

People seemed to be more interested in the lights that I put inside of the lotus flowers than anything that I folded.  They may be hard to notice in the photo above, but they are glowing LED lights that are battery operated, called Fairy Berries, available on Amazon.com

lotus flowers with fairy berries look like these in dark.

The guitar music by Toshi Onizuka was also very beautiful.   Thanks to his music I was able to stay calm and in good mood during the event.  I will definitely need to purchase his CDs.

I got to browse around the garden for a little while, before and after the event.

Traditional kusudama in display, not made by me.

I wore a vintage floral skirt I found at Lodekka. Some of the flowers on the skirt are star shaped, Isn't it appropriate?

koi in the pond

iris flowers were still blooming

I would like to express my gratitude towards all the staff, volunteers and visitors at the event in the Japanese Garden, as well my helper (aka my significant other).  It was a wonderful event thanks to all of you!

I will be working at the Japanese Garden as a part of their Tanabata, Japanese Star Festival event from 1 to 3pm on Saturday, July 7th!  This time, I won't be teaching origami, but instead I will be demonstrating my origami work.  I plan to fold several models that are appropriate for the occasion, including some ornaments for Tanabata as well as flora and fauna of the season.  The garden will also have live music by a local guitarist Toshi Onizuka, storytelling by Michiko Kornhauser, and origami instructions by PSU student volunteers.  I am excited to be a part of this event!

This is Thomas Schroyer, aka Tommy Twimble.  He is a vaudeville performer.  Strange things happen sometimes in Thomas' presence, either on or off stage.  When I took this photo, during a hike, he was almost kidnapped by a Bigfoot.

I've known Thomas as a friend for over a decade.  As long as I've known him he has always been incredibly creative and unconventional.  Besides being Twimble I've known him as a musician, a puppeteer, an iron sculptor, etc etc...  But Thomas as Twimble is my favorite of all.  He is like a clown, but without annoying pranks and creepy colorful makeups of a typical clown.  I love his sense of humor!  Thomas creates everything from music, props, and plots for his shows.  Here is a little peek of what his shows are like on Youtube:


Thomas performs as Tommy Twimble at theaters, night venues, libraries, schools, festivals, and at other special events.  Check out his website: http://tommytwimble.com/ for upcoming shows or show requests.

I would like to start featuring some of the Portland artists that I have gotten to know over the years, as a series on this blog.

First off, Cindy Lommasson is a Chinese brush and ink painting (aka sumi-e) artist and instructor. Cindy and I first met just over a year ago when we had a group art show together at Collin's Gallery. We appreciated and talked about each other's work. We both teach our art classes at Multnomah County Library locations and beyond.

Here are some of her paintings that I especially love (posting here on my blog per her permission).

I've taken three sumi-e lessons from her so far, and I'm really starting to get hooked on this profound form of art. Sumi-e is somewhat similar to Japanese calligraphy (aka shodo), which I had learned in my childhood, but to me, sumi-e is much more enjoyable because it's less rigid and more colorful than shodo.  I get into a sort of meditative state whenever I am doing sumi-e, just like when I do origami.  It's a very therapeutic feel, I love it!

Most recently, I took Cindy's sumi-e class on roses in colors at a library. As always, I enjoyed her class. She is so calm, patient, informative and inspiring.

Here is Cindy demonstrating the stroke for thorns.


Right now roses are perfect object to paint in Portland. I loved playing with different colors to paint the roses.
In the coming months Cindy has more classes on roses at various locations of Multnomah County Library. For more information on her paintings and classes, check out her website at: http://www.cindylommasson.com/