Jul 172022
 
Petals, Type II Kusudama

With Tomoko Fuse’s lecture and workshop coming up this weekend, I decided to try out another of her popular designs – the Petals Kusudama (Type II). The kusudama is made from 30 units. Each unit has a base and an inset, which is folded into the base. The units are assembled like a sonobe. The kusudama holds well even without any glue, though, since I wanted to make it into a hanging ornament, I ended [Continued..]

Jan 212022
 
Chrysanthemum Globe

I am quite fascinated with Tomoko Fuse’s book ‘Floral Origami Globes’ and after completing the Butterfly Kusudama, I didn’t waste much time, working on the next kusudama. This kusudama is the Chrysanthemum Globe Kusudama, assembled from 60 rectangles. Each unit is assembled from 2 rectangles – a base and the chrysanthemum, inserted into the base. The kusudama assembly is the basic sonobe assembly for 30-unit icosahedrons, but with a small difference. While the sonobe assembly [Continued..]

Jan 172022
 
Butterfly Kusudama

It has been quite a while since I folded modular origami and even longer since I folded any of Tomoko Fuse’s amazing creations. This modular kusudama is the Butterfly Kusudama (Type III) and is from the book ‘Floral Origami Globes‘. The model is made from 30 units and each unit is made from 2 rectangles. The fan-like section is folded into a base section to form 1 unit. I have glued the two parts of [Continued..]

Jun 072022
 
Buckyball

The origami buckyball is the representation of the Buckminster Fullerene molecule – a stable form of carbon. The other 2 are, of course, diamond and graphite. Some interesting facts about the buckyball: The buckyball family is an allotrope (different forms of an element – here, carbon) of carbon, very different from diamond and graphite. The buckyball is made from 60 atoms of carbon (C60) The shape resembles a football – 20 hexagons and 12 pentagons [Continued..]

Mar 012021
 
Diagonally Folded Triangular Unit Solids

 The diagonally folded triangular unit solids is the last of the polyhedra described in Tomoko Fuse’s ‘Unit Polyhedra Origami’. The model I have folded is the 60 Unit Variant Cube star, consisting of 32 triangular pyramids and 6 square pyramids. The triangular pyramids are quite stable but the square ones are not quite that stable. But they are anyway, surrounding by the triangular pyramids, so the overall structure is very stable. I found that assembling [Continued..]