If you fold it...they will come...

Last night was Foldageddon!! and it was a great turnout.

i got there around a quarter of an hour early, and the barstaff pointed me to a table in a corner, and one person was already there, so i said "oh well we'll wait until six because a few other people are coming"...it got to ten past six and nobody else had turned up.

i was nearly crying, because one person is worse than none isn't it? at least if nobody turned up i could slink out and pretend it had gone brilliantly. so i said that we should start, and as we finished folding the first model, a girl walked round the corner and said "oh are you kirsty? there's four of us waiting for you at the bar - they said you hadn't arrived yet!" so we did the first model again, then three more people arrived and joined in - and there were some people behind us who were taking the piss out of us a bit, then i noticed they'd made penguins out of the flyers on the tables, so obviously they wanted to join in but thought it wasn't cool enough, so that was brill.

and everyone had a great time (well at least they told me they had a great time) and made their own models to take away, and they were all helping each other which was lovely, and they all want to do it again.

and Elly came who wants to write a feature on me for a local Leeds culture guide. and when we left we left a load of cranes on the table, and i saw a fair few people sneaking over to take one. i should have put my website address on them!

so all in all, it was really good. there's a couple of things i'd change (not least the venue, because they had a band on at 8pm, but they started 'warming up' at 7pm, which i'm sure they did on purpose because we were sat enar them, because they warmed up with shouty metal music, then when they started playing at 8.30 they were singing stuff like stairway to heaven!), but yeah. it was good, and hopefully we will definitely be doing it again. So thanks to everyone who came:


(sorry Edward, you got missed off the picture!)

Foldageddon!! at Testspace

I'll be doing a blog tomorrow about Foldageddon!!, which went really well, but I quickly wanted to give you all the exciting news which I promised earlier in the week.

I've been asked to put on a Foldageddon!! workshop at Testspace Leeds, which is an initiative to bring together the creative (they use the word creative! hurrah!) folk of Leeds.

Go check out their website here.

I'm really pleased to be involved with this, as like Light Night, it reaches out to people who maybe wouldn't get involved in 'arts' events normally. Plus, I'm pretty damn pleased to be asked!

So on the 6th June, from about 11am, I'll be at 42 New Briggate in Leeds (near the Grand Theatre), hosting a drop-in, free workshop. Feel free to come along, and if you say hello, and that you're a blog reaader, I might just fold something a little special for you!

BREAKING NEWS

I've just had an email from Light Night, and I've been accepted! I now have to attend three meetings to decide on the budgeting, but I'm definitely in!

I feel SO proud of myself, I can't even begin to tell you. I never thought I would be involved in an arts project, let alone having my own exhibited at a high profile event. It's really a testament to the idea that if you want to do something, you can. So go out there people, and try something you've always dreamed of.

Oh, and put 8th October in your diaries. You'll find me in the tunnels, most likely a nervous wreck and twitching, but glowing with pride (and with the help of 1000 glowing cranes).

Just a quick update...

...to say that Foldageddon!! will be taking place this Thursday starting at 6pm, at Carpe Diem in Leeds (opposite Mandela Gardens).

If you would like to come, please let me know so I can make sure there's enough table space/paper for you. If you can't make it until later, that's completely fine, just let me know. I'm really looking forward to meeting some of you, and hopefully we'll have some great pictures to show those of you that can't make it.

In other news, no word yet from the Light Night committee, but I should have some very exciting news at the end of the week! Stay tuned, folks!

Two hundred!

Last night, I folded my two hundredth (is that even a word?) crane for my project.

This currently puts me at having to fold 7.33 a day to make my target (I'm hoping to have them all done by September, so I have wriggle room and time to wire them all up). However, I'm hoping to get a bit ahead then I'm not obsessively folding all the time like a crazy person. Plus, I'm going to stop folding other stuff, because that's a bit silly really when I've so much to do, even though I really love sonobe units.

It's funny, but when I hit 100, it still felt like there was a really long way to go, but all of a sudden, getting to 200 feels like a real achievement and 800 seems totally doable. Ask me again nearer the time and I'll probably growl at you whilst my hands make foldy gestures because they've taken the paper away from me in case I hurt myself...but for now, it's totally doable.

FOLDAGEDDON!!!!!!

It's the news you've been waiting for...it's Foldageddon!!

Foldageddon is an informal origami class, where you can learn to make three origami models. It will be held in Leeds city centre (exact location to be confirmed depending on numbers, but will probably be around Millennium Square) at 6pm on 27th May. Best thing of all, Foldageddon will be completely FREE!

It'll be a case of pitch up, I'll demonstrate/give out instructions, then wander round helping out where people get stuck, so it definitely won't be a "teaching" thing. Plus, that means that if you can't get there for 6pm, still pop your name down and come a bit later, as you won't be missing out! If you already fold, still come along as it'd be lovely to meet fellow origami people. If you've never folded before, trust me it's easy, and it's a lot of fun. Nobody will judge, and even if you completely mess up (which you won't!), you can scrunch it up and call it art.

If you want to come to Foldageddon, please leave a comment, or let me know via twitter (@gazpachodragon) so I can get a ballpark figure and arrange a venue. Also, please tell your friends/family/random strangers in the street. Feel free to tweet about it, or link to this blog, or make origami cranes and leave them in shops with a note attached.

Foldageddon!! You know you want to.

UPDATE: Hello! If you've been redirected here for details of upcoming Foldageddon or Fold For Peace meetings, please have a look at the latest post on the blog, and keep an eye out for future announcements (there's TONS coming soon!). Also follow me on twitter @gazpachodragon (or use the buttons on the top right of the blog) and I'll announce the latest news/meetings/exciting things on there!

No word yet, btw...

The deadline for the Expression of Interest Form for Light Night was Friday, so I'm expecting to hear any time now.

Which is horrible, as I'm really terrible at waiting.

Every time my phone beeps with an email, I get tense thinking it's a response (it never is). I'm checking my email every ten minutes through the day. I'm obsessively googling and checking twitter to see if anyone else has heard (they haven't).

The longer I go without hearing, the more I think I obviously haven't got in and that the whole thing is being planned without me, and it will only be in October that I realise, when I'm sat at home alone with 1000 light up cranes as my only friends and tears running down my cheeks.

Yep, I'm pretty desperate to find out.