Many curious traditions originate in Japanese culture. For example, the technique of folding volumetric paper figures is origami. One of the most important components of this ancient art is kusudama. It is often compared to modular origami. However, the elements of the kusudama are not nested within each other, but are stitched or glued together.
Kusudama is a medicine ball that was used in ancient Japan for incense and healing collection. It was a storage vessel hanging by the patient's bed. The diffusion of ethereal odors helped the recovery, and the airy modular structure of the balloon contributed to this effect in the best possible way.
Making a flower for kusudama
Modern kusudama is a decorative piece that takes very little time and materials to create. To make a composition, you will need: 60 paper squares of the same size, for example 7 * 7 cm, paper glue. First make the base - the base part of the flower. Bend one square so that you have a triangle. Repeat the action with the left and right corners of the resulting triangle. You should get a rhombus. The resulting flaps must be folded in half, then opened and smoothed. Bend the upper corners of the flaps so that they line up with the edges of the rhombus. Next, fold the triangles along the fold that was made at the very beginning. Glue the folded flaps together. For one flower, five volumetric petals are required. To make a flower, they need to be glued together in a circle, with the shutters to the middle.
For one kusudama, 12 quintuple leafs are required. As jewelry, you can take a lace or ribbon, as well as various beads. Flowers can be collected from multi-colored paper, so it will be easier to understand how the ball is folded. For example, make one quintuple leaf from blue paper and five other flowers from red paper. Glue the kusudama flowers together, carefully aligning the convex part of the petals with glue. Be careful, wait for the glue to set, only then apply it to the next element.
Assembling kusudama from paper flowers
Assemble one kusudama hemisphere from the central blue flower and five side red elements. The other hemisphere can be assembled from one red and five blue elements. Take a ribbon or string that you can string the beads on. To secure, apply glue in the center of one hemisphere. Attach a string or tape to the place where the glue is applied, wait until the part is fixed. Glue the second half of the ball to the resulting semi-finished product.
Exclusive decorations will be suitable for decorating a New Year's holiday, any party or even a romantic dinner. Along with the classic kusudama, dozens of new original models are used in modern origami - polyhedra, bouquets, and other elements. Most of the new designs are based on the main module, invented in ancient Japan.
