GOT KUSUDAMA?

I have been seeing the Japanese art of paper folding called Kusudama quite a bit lately. The word Kusudama is taken from two Japanese words kusuri which means Medicine and tama which means Ball or Medicine Ball. Originally the medicine balls were sewed or woven together and used for incense or herbs. They may or may not have some sort of decoration hanging from the bottom.


I almost always try something like this when I see it. It is my passion for paper I guess. This is the first one I did. I have done one other one, but gave it to my neighbor Paul across the street who is Korean and does origami as a hobby. We trade gifts of our paper art with each other - the last being a large, graceful origami swan he had given to me. I do find these very relaxing to make and think they will make great gifts!

My next step is to order some red foil paper to see if these might be great Christmas gifts. I will let you know how that turns out when the paper arrives. Each Kusudama takes 63 square pieces of paper. The one in the picture is made from simple, green copy paper cut to 3x3 inch squares with pearls in the center of each flower. The larger the square the larger the Kusudama. Putting Kusudama in any search engine on the internet will give you quite a number of videos and/or instructions with pictures to make one. There are also many different flower styles that can be used which changes the look of the "Medicine Ball."

I hope you enjoyed this post. If you would like to leave any feedback or have questions, please leave me a comment. Blessings,