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.
Tea bag folding is a paper craft that originated in Holland, where many tea bags come wrapped individually in paper packets. By cutting each bag down to a square, the bags can be folded and then combined into a geometric shape, just like in 2D modular origami. These medallions can be used to decorate handmade greeting cards, embellish your wrapped gifts, or you could try adding a hanging loop (glue the units together first!) to make an unusual Christmas decoration.
Don’t let the name ‘tea bag folding’ put you off - you can perform this craft with any small squares of coloured paper. To give a more authentic result, the squares should be patterned, and each square should have the same pattern. There are manyonlineresources that provide printable sheets of repeating patterns to cut into squares, and folddiagrams to produce different shapes. Google ‘tea bag folding’ and you will find many more links than I have provided here.
I’m going to demonstrate one fold pattern here to give you an idea of the method - hopefully it will inspire you to look more closely at this fairly obscure papercraft…
Use the magical effect of candlelight to turn a papercut template:
…into a striking shadow decoration:
In the following tutorial I will show you how to make a stylish decoration like the one I made above, using only cardstock and a simple tealight candle… (more…)
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