Origami Flower Ball Thingy

As I've mentioned in a previous post, one of my goals was to make an origami flower ball thing just because it's badass.  I was inspired by the above YouTube video made by Chloe Dao.

There's no way I have the space for a ginormous flower ball made from whole construction paper sheets as Chloe had done, so I used pre-cut origami paper.  I cut those squares down to four even pieces, because a) I had in mind that it would make a cute ornament for Christmas (which I totally didn't finish it in time for) and b) it's only for fun to see how long it would take to do.

I've been working on it off an on at my desk at work during lunch.  As you can see, I have two of the 12 flowers completed.  Each flower uses up 5 squares, so you need a total of 60 squares per ball.  I cut up 15 sheets of the full sized pre-cut squares into 60 sheets of 1/4 sized squares.  I pretty much followed the video above to make the cones.  Once I had five cones, I taped them together with tiny pieces of scotch tape (which was not visible at all).  I'm going to wait until I have all 12 flowers completed before I start assembling.

Close up of my beauties

Why I'm so inexplicably enamored with these origami flower balls:

1:  They are gorgeous

2:  I'm thinking somehow I can engineer a lamp from these balls using vellum paper (I have to research on how to make it not catch fire first)

3)  They make great ornaments

4)  You don't even have to make a ball out of these flowers.   You can either have a bunch of them on display in a basket as a centerpiece or attach stems to them for a permanent flower arrangement.  The possibilities are ENDLESS!!!

5)  I have a history of working on projects requiring lots and lots of origami folding and attaching the pieces together, i.e. two wreaths of 1000 cranes as a gift for loved ones who has had someone in their lives pass away and crane ornaments to be used as a party favor for my wedding last year.  Don't they sound like future posts?  (gasp)

One more thing.....

I'm aware that the official name of this craft is not origami flower ball thingies.  I just talk like that normally.  This amazing craft is actually called kusudama.  Traditionally, the different units are attached with needle and thread.  A lot of the times, tassels and other decorations are attached.  For more kusudama ideas and tutorials, there's a rad site you can visit:

www.kusudama.me/

Stay tuned for the finished origami flower ball thingy!