Justin West, Senior Teacher in San Diego, CA

Justin was first mesmerized by folded paper when his grandfather folded him a glider plane that could really fly. At 4 years of age, he learned how to fold the plane himself. Later that year, a woman from Japan brought origami into his preschool, and he was astounded that people could fold things that were not airplanes. He went on to find library books on origami and memorize every model in the book. He was obsessed with finding more interesting and difficult things to fold.

Nowadays, Justin’s favorite things to fold are super-complex animals and fantasy creatures. Although he did not enjoy modular origami and tessellations as a child, he has found a new joy in discovering beautiful decorative modular origami pieces and intricate tessellation patterns. He has been teaching origami for about 10 years, mostly as a volunteer at after-school programs, and for friends and family. In the spring of 2013 he found Taro’s Origami Studio and became an instructor, and later became the co-manager of the Studio. At the end of 2014, Justin decided to leave New York for sunny California.

In addition to folding models designed by other artists, Justin has been designing his own models since the summer of 2013 and hopes to begin publishing diagrams for his own work.