I was delighted to be able to attend the OSN (Origami Societeit Nederland) Convention this year. Below is a slide show with some of the photos taken there. View more photos by clicking on the left and right arrows. I've written some brief thoughts about the convention below the photos.
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Tony with Elsje van der Ploeg
This convention was a great event. Everyone was so friendly, and spoke good English which made it easy to join in, chat etc. Special guests were Mark Kennedy and Arlene Gorchov from New York, who held ongoing entertaining workshops most of the weekend in a designated room.
A few things about the convention stood out for me. One was the large main room which was available for ad-hoc folding throughout the weekend, and was pretty much full on Friday and Saturday evenings well past midnight with groups folding whatever they fancied. At other times during the day, groups again congregated to fold and chat, with tea & coffee constantly available nearby.
Another was the gifts, mainly badges, that a number of attendees gave away to others - so much so that you could easily run out of space on your person to pin them all.
A feature also of this convention also was the ATC Exchange - as you can see in the slide show above. ATC standing for "Artist Trading Cards". Around 40 people took part and made small business cards decorated with their favourite origami model with a brief explanation of why it was their favourite and the contact details of the artist. These were displayed then exchanged with others, so that at the end of the exchange you had 40 different cards. Some were extraordinarily ornate and obviously had had great care taken over them. My personal favourite was the Panda card by Esther Sconenberger from Switzerland, but really they were all lovely in their own very different ways.
The venue itself was also excellent - a dedicated conference centre sited in a peaceful & scenic woodland location. The bar was always open....
Many thanks to everyone at OSN who made it a very enjoyable origami weekend, especially the organising committee, and special thanks to Paula & Gerard who put up Judith Laing and myself before and after the convention.
Tony 18/5/09