Yesterday’s origami program with Michael LaFosse was fantastic.  Truly fantastic.  Michael is an excellent teacher and a really nice person.  With his status and credentials, he could have been forgiven for being overly full of himself, but Michael’s not like that.  When he and I went up to the hall where the program was going to be held, and I had set the room up completely incorrectly (I hadn’t put out any tables, and had arranged the seats as I would for a movie night – duh, what was I thinking??), he didn’t blink an eye, but immediately mucked in with me and worked harder than I did to totally rearrange the room.  Michael hauled tables and chairs around to set up 50 chairs around tables, and never once did he complain.

So that impressed me right off the bat, but his teaching style was even more impressive.  We had 63 adults and children in the room for the first session that he taught, the session for ages 6 to 12.  It could have been chaos, but somehow Michael is able to explain folding techniques and walk around the room offering help where needed while maintaining a calm and controlled atmosphere.  Every child in that room left with a completed 8-piece puzzle box, a sailboat, and an owl.  Some of the children in the room were able to fold multiples of these pieces.  No one was bored, and everyone felt satisfied with their finished projects. 

For the final touch on this program, Michael brought out some of his origami works of art to show the group:  a squirrel, folded from a large single sheet of paper, no cuts; a cardinal; a gargoyle, folded by one of his students, once again from a single sheet of paper.  Showing these pieces at the conclusion of the first session is pure genius, since by that point everyone in the room had developed enough origami confidence that no one was intimidated by these masterworks.  Instead, I could see that a lot of kids were inspired by them, and I’m guessing that these kids will go on to try more difficult origami projects.

By contrast, for the adult and teen session, Michael began by showing his masterworks.  Once again, genius: any adults who might have been skeptical were immediately convinced that they were in the presence of an origami master.  From that point on, there was a wonderfully congenial feeling in the room, as we all helped each other with our projects.  We made a three-piece puzzle box, two foxes, and a butterfly.  And then the sweet lady sitting next to me asked Michael for advice on folding a paper airplane for her grandson.  He first suggested that she could look up directions online, if she had internet access, but as soon as she said that she didn’t even know how to turn on the computer, Michael rose to the challenge and said that he’d be happy to extend the program over-time if anyone wanted to learn how to fold his own design for a paper airplane.  Almost all of us stayed for an extra 25 minutes, and added one more project to our collection: a really great-flying airplane. 

Sadly for those of us in Massachusetts, Michael is literally on the verge of moving to Hawaii, so it’s doubtful that we’ll ever be able to have him visit the library again.  Selfishly, I kind of hope that Hawaii doesn’t measure up to Massachusetts, and that Michael moves back this way.  I can guarantee that we’d have a full capacity crowd waiting for him!