Bellflowers Ball, by Yuri Shumukov
As a gift, I got this new origami book called Origami Kusudama Garden: Delightful Paper Spheres. But when I looked inside, I was dismayed. This isn’t modular origami! The flowers are all glued together, or sewn together. Call me a traditionalist, but I prefer my origami to just have folding.
Of course, it turns out I was wrong. Using sewing to make floral balls is in fact an old tradition, and modular origami is the modern innovation. Well, okay, it’s worth a try, I thought. I was also briefly tickled by the idea of assembling a dodecahedron using squares.
My impression from making this model? Sewing is hard! It’s even harder with paper than it is with cloth, because there tends to be hardly any paper/thread friction. I particularly had issues tying a knot at the end. I want the flowers to be tightly held together, but then the knot needs to be inside that floral ball. I wish that the authors would have put in some instructions for how to sew properly, because instructions for sewing online are simply not targeted at origamists.
A brief note on the colors. This floral ball uses what I think of as the “movie poster” color scheme, orange and blue. It’s actually a lovely color scheme, very color-blind friendly.
Small glass beads. Very useful when you need to make a knotty situation knottier. I’ve used them when making kusudama to hang up.
Consider the tri-cord knotter. I’ve found them very handy for stringing pearls or other beads where you want a knot between every two sequential beads, but I’d think it would help with tying knots inside your floral balls.