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Origami teacher shares craft gym schedule with close relative

Friday, July 18, 2008

Photo by Matt Stensland. Enlarge photo.

Tina Weintraub will teach a beginning origami class July 25 and Aug. 1 from 1 to 3 p.m.

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By Margaret Hair (Contact)

Steamboat Springs — When Tina Weintraub goes through the 14 steps to make a simple origami jumping frog, it’s clear she has spent years using this craft as a way to engage children of all ages.

Fold by fold, Weintraub explains which corner of a bright green index card to place where, demonstrates the step, and then watches as her student does the same. For four Fridays starting July 25, Weintraub will lead beginner and intermediate classes in origami at the Steamboat Arts & Crafts Gym, covering everything from the basic jumping frog to more complex, multi-sheet gift boxes.

“I was in my 40s when I started doing it,” Weintraub said of the craft. “I picked up a book in a store to give to somebody and decided to try it myself, and I couldn’t believe I had never tried it.”

Until eight years ago, Weintraub taught her newfound hobby to students across the New York City public school system, teaching it in after-school programs, special education classrooms and everywhere else she could.

“One time, I visited a class of children with behavioral problems, who were mostly boys, and they were 13 or 14. And the teacher was saying she was afraid I was just going to die. But in the end it ended up being, ‘When are you coming back?’ They got very involved in it. I’ve never seen anyone that’s done this, that didn’t get involved in it,” Weintraub said, adding that children in New York City aren’t any different than children in Steamboat Springs. She encourages adults to come to the Arts & Crafts Gym class with their children, if they’re in second grade or higher.

A summer resident in Steamboat, Weintraub will join her sister-in-law on the August crafts gym schedule. Barbara Cohen, who lives in Denver and started coming to Steamboat more than 30 years ago to visit her brother, will teach a two-part mosaics class Aug. 4 and 5.

“We’re going to start with small flowerpots, just to learn how to break up tiles and plates, and learn how to glue and grout, and after that the sky’s the limit, you can really do anything,” she said on the phone while working on mosaics in her garage in Denver.

“The biggest thing for me is the process of collecting all the assorted plates and tiles. I like going to the thrift shops and garage sales, and it gives me an excuse to go,” Cohen said.

Weintraub said she’s happy to be working with her relative in their shared loved of arts and crafts.