Kusudama Tutorial part 1

The Japanese kusudama is a paper ball made out of multiple identical origami shapes glued

together. They were traditionally used as a  ball for incense or potpourri but now we see them

more for decoration or as a gift.

Today I am showing you part 1 on how to make the Japanese traditional shape. There are many

different patterns to make a kusudama ball but I find this the easiest pattern to get started. This

is also the pattern I used to make the pink flowers on the tree in the banner.

What you need for this tutorial is:

60 pieces of paper cut into squares. The pieces are each 7 x 7 cm or 3

inches square.

Glue

Below I will show you how to make the basic shape, you need to make 60 of these. Every flower

will then have 5 of these shapes or petals glued together, making a total of 12 flowers. I will

explain how to glue them together in a tutorial later this week…, you can find part 2 here.

Fold the bottom corner to the top. This will make a triangle.

Fold the left and right corners up to the middle corner.  This makes a square.

Fold the same points down. The folded edge will line up exactly on top of the outside edge of the

square.

Open up the flaps you have just created and flatten them.

Fold the top triangles towards you so they are level with the edges of the paper. (This will result

in 3 little petals on the inside of your petal; if you fold the top triangles away from you, this will

result in only 1 petal on the inside of the petal – see variation on pattern below.)

 

Fold the triangles back using the crease you made earlier and glue the outside triangles

together.

Now make 5 more of these petals and glue them all together. Make sure you wait until the glue is

dry after every petal and take your time. You will need 12 flowers to complete the kusudama

ball; I will show you how to complete it later this week, you can find part 2 here. 

 

We would love to see what you made using this tutorial so please post a pic to the Folding

Trees Flickr group - it’s open to everybody. If you’d like to see some more original Folding

Trees tutorials by Eve or June have a look here.