kusudama: arabesque

This one is currently my favorite kusudama (along with the mosaic box). Very pretty and delicate, no glue required. The only troublesome thing is the assembly. It requires some patience: the last units were devastating but the overall result made me forget all the trouble I had.

The above picture is before curling. Or to be more accurate after trying to curl and failed because all my pens were to large. Bellow it’s the curled version with the brush I used to curl it. It’s a number 0 (zero) brush from da vinci and since it’s slightly conical it’s still a bit troublesome to curl the stamens with it.

I will definitively do the arabesque bigger and in other colors and will also try the other arrangements. But I’m so short of time now :( between cutting the paper for the kusudamas, folding and assembling it’s generally a month or more.

Here it is, the last photo. Since it’s my first try you can notice some mistakes in assembling. But it’s still very cute! :D
This kusudama was made with 30 units of origami paper, 7.5×7.5 cm, and when assembled has a diameter of approximately 10 cm. If you use origami paper, wrapping paper or kraft paper 7.5×7.5 cm is a good paper size but if you plan using heavier paper, like colored copy paper, I advice you to try with 12 or 15 cm square paper.

kusudama: mosaic box

Another diagram from The kusudama and today’s last post. I’ve just remembered that I have 3 more kusudamas waiting for their share of attention… I have to make a tassel to hang them… Oh, so much to do, so much to fold and so little time :(

This one was also made last night and after the dance of the star. Thanks to this little gem I went to bed later than expected but the result is just so cute :) I just love the way it ended. The photo is too dark but believe my word when I say the result is cute!
This モザイクボックス　was made from regular wrapping paper (printed on the other side). The paper was 14×14 cm and this kusudama is 6.5×6.5 tip to tip, the cube is 4×4x4 cm. For this kusudama you need 6 square sheets: 12×12 and bigger sizes are good to fold.

kusudama: dance of the star

Once again diagrams from The kusudama. I have assembled the arabesque however since it’s a bit small I don’t know how, or with what, I’m going to curl it; so last night I attacked the neglected paper I had and voilá! :) Even though it’s a bit too much blueish it’s still very cute in my opinion.

Here it is… Paper was 15×15 cm and the light and smaller one 7.4×7.4 cm. Ends up a cube of 5.5 cm with 2.5 cm tips. Easy to fold, easy to assemble, it’s impossible not to like it! Thank you Puupuu for this diagram :)

kusudama: easy unit

Wow, today it’s a posting day! lol But since these are all already done I can upload the pictures and serve it with some text… All the diagrams come from Mio TSUGAWA site: the kusudama.

Twelve units glued together to form a cube. The bigger one was made from 9×9 cm paper and the smaller one (on top of the big one) from 3×3 cm. It was really fun to assemble, especially the small one since you can’t figure out what’s the inside or outside units. These are the second version of my first try since in the first time the paper seemed to be allergic to glue :( the first try is on the upper left corner… Or at least a lil bit of it…

Again twelve units but assembled diferently. This one no longer resemble a cube. I’m never going to use this paper again. It’s really hard to fold neatly and if make a mistake it’s bye bye unit!

This one really has a nice round shape. The big was my first and the small my second. The bigger was made with 6×6 cm paper and ended with a 12 cm diameter. The smaller one has a diameter of 8cm (paper of 4×4 cm).

flowers: sakura/ cherry blossom

A sakura, or cherry blossom, is always a nice view :) It’s very simple to make even if you choose to do it with small paper. You need glue to join the petals. Go check the diagram at Style of Japan.

traditional: water lily/ lotus flower

Between the plants known as “lotus” there are basically three:
Nuphar Japonica (family: Nymphaeaceae, from Japan)
Nymphaea lotus (zenkeri) (family: Nymphaeaceae, from West Africa)
and
Nymphaea pubescens (family: Nymphaeaceae, from South-east Asia)

As you can see they all belong to the same family however they diverge in origin, flower and leaves shape and color. Having an aquarium comes in handy sometimes :)
That’s also why there are various names and different diagrams, although similar, for just one flower.

lotus’ flowers | 蓮の花/ はすのはな. Diagram in portuguese and japanese (translated from jp by me). Quite understandable even if you don’t understand japanese.
The diagram for these flowers is from a gift to a friend of mine. There’s a little secret in how to make these flowers: you have to hold and adjust the paper while pulling the petals. If you don’t the paper tears. My first flower had only two petals in one piece the rest was all thorned up but at least i understood how to make them :) This trick also applies to the water lily.

Water lily | 睡蓮/ スイレン.
The diagram is from a MOMOTANI Yoshihide (桃谷好英) book. If you don’t open the petals all the way (yellow water lily) it becomes even prettier in my opinion. The leaves also came from this book.

basics: crane and flapping bird

cranes | 鶴.
These are some small cranes and flapping birds. The three on bottom are flapping birds. I had some bigger ones in blue, one with curved wings and one with straigh ones but they were ofered to a friend. The two on top are cranes. These cranes and birds teach you two basic things in origami: the bird base and the petal fold.
If you have enough time you can do 千羽鶴! A senbazuru/ 1000 cranes is mostly used as a gift for a wedding or for a sick friend. Whatever your case it greatly shows that you care about that someone. There are lots of available kits for senbazuru. You can also Google for Sadako’s story and her relation to 1000 cranes.

You can learn how to fold them in a senbazuru kit. For basic folds go to Origami Club basic folds and tecniques. At Origami Club you can find a traditional crane diagram (don’t flap wings) as well as some color variants such as two white and red cranes: one with one side red and the other white and one with it’s tail white and a red head. For a flapping bird try Origami for Everyone. You can also fold a cube (waterbomb base). Good luck with your folds!

what’s paper unlimited?

paper unlimited is a blog mainly about origami or paper folding. Why paper unlimited? With origami paper transforms into a dream. It also becomes unlimited as the number of creations you can do with just one simple sheet! This blog is the english origami alias of croquis (my other blog) since not so many people understand portuguese and I really want to brag about my origami foldings :) after all is not fair to keep the good stuff just to ourselves, right?

I’ve first met origami 8 years ago however I stopped. I don’t even remember why, but I just stopped. That is, aside for one little box that I kept folding again and again because it was useful, and the only box I knew how to fold.

Recently a friend received an origami kit and was really excited. And that revived my interest for origami. Since I knew the basic folds and have done the basic of the basic such as cranes, jumping frogs and hearts among some others I tried kusudama. I just wanted to show him that origami could be more than just animals and stars… It could be more fun and challenging and still simple. Now both him and me are just in love with modular origami and kusudama! I still love “simple” origami but modular origami & kusudama have come to stay ;)

This is a sakuradama (model by KAWASAKI Toshikazu) a nice example of modular origami and kusudamas. Folded by yours truly ;)

By early or mid February expect life in the blog: I’ll have some free time which means new posts!