Kusudama Origami Flower Ball

Looking for something entirely different on YouTube today, suddenly a German video suggestion popped up entitled Kusudama Origami Flower Ball.  Oh goodie, a German video for a change!, and of course I clicked on it.  The lady in the video used oval shapes to create her flower pieces, but then I saw a Hispanic video where a girl made just flower heads she then painted with square pieces of paper.  So I decided to combine the two and see what I'd come up with.

Well, here is the flower ball.

And here is the tutorial on how to make it.  It is quite simple, but you must start out with perfectly square pieces of lightweight paper (20-24lb recommended. Printer paper usually is 20lb weight, to give you an idea.).  Medium weight card stock will be too hard to fold.  I hope you like folding paper, because you'll be doing a LOT of it!

As for glue, I used Aleene's Fast Grab Tacky Glue which is cheap and readily available in different sizes at craft stores.  It grabs hold quickly so you don't sit there twirling your thumb...

How to make a Kusudama Origami Flower Ball

1.  Cut a true square piece of paper.  For the flower ball you will need to cut 60 pieces total. My ball was made with 3.5" square paper, but you can make it larger or even smaller if you wish.  .

2.  Fold point up to form a triangle.

3.  Fold outer points in to meet center

4.  Again, fold outer points in to center as shown.

5.  Open the folds and form a pocket, then, staying in the fold lines, fold down.  That is called an inverted fold.  See next picture to see what it looks like.

6.  This is what it looks like after you have reverse folded the pockets.

7. Fold tips of wings down as shown and make them flush.  

8. Again, fold outer edges in as shown.

9. This is what it looks like when you're done.

10. Curve the piece as shown.

11. Apply glue on inner edge as shown.






12. Glue the two edge pieces together and hold until set.







 13. Make the next pedal and glue into place as shown.

14. The other side of the joint pieces.  make three more pedals until you have one five pedal flower.   This is one section.





You need 12 sections for the flower ball.  Take a look at the picture:  They are glued together at the point lines and form a nice ball as you go. If you keep the tips nicely together you will have no trouble finishing a tidy ball.