PTO Convention 2026

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On July 16th-19th, I attended the yearly origami convention of the Polish Origami Association (PTO, Polskie Towarzystwo Origami) in Rogów, Poland. The special guest was Dáša Ševerová who presented a number of her designs, from the very simple but elegant Lonely Flower to the much more complex Colombian Sun fractal. We also enjoyed our time talking about many subjects, not just origami, and had lots of fun by a bonfire which some of us left after 4 a.m.

There were lots of workshops as well as some teaching during free folding. I had three scheduled workshops, including one on Fujimoto‘s star CFW 92 and Daffodil (CFW 97) that I taught for the first time. The latter is only mentioned in passing in a single sentence in one of Fujimoto’s books, and there isn’t even an image of the model anywhere, let alone any instructions. I was also able to put my hands on the Vietnamese Papyrus paper for the first time, thanks to Boryslav, a fellow folder from Ukraine. Thanks to Marta and her 3D printer, we all got nice paper cutters and fun origami-themed keychains, and as every year, the convention t-shirt was included in the package.

During the event, we celebrated the 20th anniversary of the association’s founding, and a special convention book was published, which I highly recommend. It includes 20 models by 20 different authors, including my Sol, as well as interesting stories and pictures from past conventions.

The topic of the folding competition was drawn from among the ideas suggested by the participants, and it ended up being “headgear.” Having worked on a few models representing volcanoes recently, I had the idea to make a Volcano Hat, which won the first place. I like how the popular vote appreciated the design’s absurdity.

Overall, the convention was lots of fun, and the location very calm and full of greenery, allowing us to fully focus on folding while also being easy to reach both by car and by train. The next one will take place during the third weekend of July 2027, but the place remains to be determined yet. Stay tuned.