Learn to Make Origami at UCO’s Innovation Studio

The Innovation Studio will host their monthly open house event on March 25 in the Max Chambers Library at the University of Central Oklahoma, with this month’s subject being an introduction and tutorial on how to make origami. 

This event will let attendees learn about and make origami in a relaxed environment, as well as get accustomed to the Library’s Innovation Studio, Karl Siewert, the Librarian in charge of the Innovation Studio, said. 

Attendees will be provided with a lesson on how to create origami, shown books on the subject, and provided paper to make their own origami artwork, said Rebecca Brown, a staff member at the Innovation Studio. 

The origami open house will take place from 5-6 p.m. on the day of, said Siewert. 

These open houses are an important avenue for the Innovation Studio to enlighten the public on the resources and machines available to them inside the Studio, said Siewert.

“From our perspective, they (the attendees) are gaining knowledge of the studio, and an opportunity to see what we do here so they can potentially come back and use it (the studio) for other projects in the future,” Siewert said. 

“These events are a way for students to get in and feel a sense of community by getting hands-on mentorship from a librarian. I think it makes a big difference to them (the students) to know that they have an advisor with experience there to assist them with their work and answer questions,” said Shannon Sutliff, Marketing Assistant at the Max Chambers Library. 

 The Innovation Studio’s open houses are open to the general public and are most frequently attended by UCO students, with 5-15 attendees normally showing up, according to Siewert.

These events typically take place on the third Wednesday of every month during the fall and spring semesters, but because spring break occurs on the third week of March, it will be held on the fourth Wednesday instead.

The themes of these events differ in each month they’re held, Sutliff said. 

The most recent open house event held allowed participants to create Zines, which are small, personalized magazines, and add them to a collection display in the Library, said Siewert. 

“Students could create a zine about whatever they wanted using the kits we have in the studio. After that, they could display them for the public if they chose to near the stairs in the Library,” Siewert said. 

At another previous event, attendees could learn to put pockets on clothing items that didn’t already have them, Brown said. 

These events are entirely sponsored and funded by the Max Chambers Library’s Innovation Studio. Snacks will be provided to everyone who attends the open house, said Brown. April’s event will be making wristlet keychains with the sewing machine in the studio.