Haven't seen any O-List email for a few days, so no idea when this will show up. Writing this in the early hours of June 25th (actually very late on Monday June 24th). This year I was only able to make it Monday. Due to a long trip into the area the night before, I didn't actually get to FIT until just before Noon, so this is a last-half of the last-day "report."
I signed up for Monday classes just after registration had opened and before any classes were posted. And while I had glanced over the class schedule online, I hadn't really looked at it closely. So that was the first order of business after registering. There were probably two dozen folks in the great hall when I arrived, as the morning classes hadn't let out yet. The ticketing board was pretty much picked over, so I just nabbed one of each ticket remaining until I found out what classes the folks I knew were planning to take. Also in the mix was an impromptu informal class by Bernie Peyton, his "Angry Fish" model which was apparently the convention "must do" model. Luckily I was able to get to see Goran's Metal sculptures, which had been in the exhibition but I missed that. As I also missed the model menu. C'est la crease. After a taken-out lunch from Cafe 27, it was too soon two pm and time to go to classes. First off was Jeannine Mosley's enjoyable "Crowd sourcing your mega-insane modular origami project". For those who missed it: "Get an organization behind your project that can promote and publish it and recruit minions". One word summary: Minions! Then I went to Wendsy Whitehead's Heart Transplant class, which was how to put preliminary bases into corners of paper and then fold other models so that you can add hearts to them. Wendsy had several sample models and the 45 minute class seemed to fly by. Esp. since we did flapping birds (with hearts on the wings, Wendsy dubbed them hearts a flutter... or Fluttering Hearts or... wait, I wasn't up for nearly three days straight and I still can't remember... After that I went back to the great hall for Bernie Peyton's "class". This was great fun as there were probably two dozen folks crowded around an impromptu U-shaped set of tables, with on person on the floor inside the teaching space and a few folks (Wendsy included) that were off "behind" the teacher, or, as I was, in a blind spot. Despite having taught this model in a class and in other impromptu sessions, and despite fatigue of a Monday late afternoon convention, Bernie did a great job. I was pleased to get the chance to take a class from him and would jump at the chance to take any other class from him on any model. I was amused to do this because I had no idea what the final model looked like or how it work (it is action model). It is a inflatible model that can be collapsed back to 2D for transport/shipping. After dinner (not the offical dinner), it was back to Alumni Hall for "late" night folding. Thanks to Troy <I never caught his last name> for showing me Michael LaFosse's wonderful $bill Seahorse. I didn't get to take that class from Michael directly since I wasn't on-site in time, but Troy did a very nice job and I was happy to have another "quick enough for a tip" $bill model, esp. one that was so satisfying to fold and to behold. I had to leave far too early to catch a train and had far too little time to visit with, and sometimes even to say "Hi. Bye." too and hope I can be there for the full-event next year. Thanks to everyone I did meet, and to all the volunteers who donated their time, labor and energy put this on. -=D'gou
