Flowers for the Holidays

​Do you have favorite holiday projects you return to every year? 

I sure do! This is the season when I can't wait to bring out my scrapbook, origami, and painted papers to start making paper origami ornaments. While I have my favorite go-to's, I also enjoy discovering and trying new models. 

This year I came across ornaments that were made from individual flowers from the Kusudama ball. It reminded me that I had made these flowers before and still had a few up on a shelf in my studio.
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​The traditional Japanese Kusudama origami flowers are made with five petals and twelve completed flowers are glued together to form a ball. Historically, these balls contained medicinal herbs and spices, believed to ward off evil spirits and disease.

​The flowers you see above, the ones from my shelf are made from repurposed maps. I originally intended to complete a full Kusudama ball but only managed half, plus an extra flower before I ran out of steam. Each petal is made from two pieces of paper and each flower has five petals Even for me who usually has a lot of patience for origami models that use many repeated folds it was a little much. That's why I loved the idea of making just one flower into a special ornament with the addition of ribbon and some embellishments. 
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​To make these ornaments I used six petals instead of five. This gives the flowers a fuller look and allows for using two different types of paper in one ornament. Depending on how they're hung, the ornament can either look like a flower or resemble a bell if suspended upside down.
 
I've included this year's ornament tutorial below. I hope you'll give it a try and make some Kusudama flowers too! Let me know how it goes—I’d love to see your creations!
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