Date: 12/18/2025
From: PrwOrigami YouTube channel
By: Prw
Model: Florarium
Paper: 7.5cm x 13cm red, orange, green, blue, and purple kraft paper (30 sheets)

Just a fun, colorful origami ball. The center connections at each pentagonal face create a star-shaped flower.

Date: 3/9/2026
From: The Greatest Dream Origami - 究極の夢折り紙
By: Toshikazu Kawasaki - 川崎敏和
Model: Polyhedron with Flowers
Paper: 15cm pastel kami (30 sheets)

The origami world was devastated to learn that Toshikaze Kawasaki, creator of the 1-minute rose (Kawasaki rose) among other influential works, along with numerous mathematical theorems related to origami, passed away in early March. I broke out my copy of Greatest Dream Origami to find a model to fold in his honor, and landed on this kusudama that uses a spiral shape to lock the the units together.

Date: 10/10/2025
From: 幾何学的で美しいユニット折り紙 (Beautiful Geometric Unit Origami)
By: 竹内ケイ (Takeuchi Kei)
Models: プリズムブルーム (Prism Bloom)
Paper: 15cm diameter hexagons (20 blue and 12 yellow kami)

This icosohedron uses one pattern for the structure and another for the faces. The hexagons are converted into pentagons (for the faces) and triangles (for the structure).

Date: 10/03/2025
From: 幾何学的で美しいユニット折り紙 (Beautiful Geometric Unit Origami)
By: 竹内ケイ (Takeuchi Kei)
Models: ブロックノット (Block Note), サザナミ (Layer Lock), サザナミ (Ripples)
Paper: 7.5cm kami (various colors)

These cubes use a variety of different assemblies to create interesting patterns on their sides.

Date: 10/03/2025
From: Kawaii Pastime YouTube channel
By: Kawaii Pastime
Model: Star Window Kusudama
Paper: 7.5cm kami (30 sheets, double sided)

I liked the open star shape in this kusudama so I decided to put it together.

Date: 08/2025
Original

Delta-hex units are equilateral triangle units with a central hexagon twist which can be shaped into a variety of patterns. The units can be used to construct many different deltahedra.

Refer to the folding instructions for details on all the variations possible with this unit.

Date: 05/13/2025
From: Hojo Origami YouTube channel
By: Hojo Origami
Model: でこばこ (Jaggy)
Paper: 15cm clear plastic film (2 x 6 colors)

I wanted to use some of these colorful clear plastic sheets again, and found this wacky cubist construction that reminded me of the Nakagin Capsule Building. Due to the slipperiness of the film, paperclips are shown keeping the modules together; long term it will require tape or glue.

Date: 04/01/2025
From: Khin Hooi YouTube channel
By: Khin Hooi
Model: Ong Lai (Pineapple) kusudama
Paper: 10.4cm x 15cm (silver ratio) pastel printed origami paper (5 gradient patterns, 6 sheets each)

These units use water bomb bases to create a texture like a pineapple. The pastel paper could be arranged into a rainbow gradient for two faces, although the other faces had the colors in more mixed setups.

This was folded as a complement to the Pineapple Tessellation, which also uses water bomb bases to create the texture but has a different connection setup.

Date: 03/26/2025
From: PrwOrigami YouTube channel
By: Prw
Model: Dart
Paper: 7.5cm tant (10 different blues, 3 sheets each)

This geometric model uses an unusal 54° angle at the connectors, creating a sharp and striking profile.

Date: 02/22/2025
By: Lavender Home
Model: Origami Flower Ball
Paper: 7.5cm pastel origami paper (6 units, 12 units)

The pastel paper I bought had several different sheets with color gradients that covered most of the rainbow. I tried to get the gradient to work in the 12-unit ball, although only partly successful (the transition between pink to yellow to green did not blend as well as the others). I had some extra units so I tried to make a smaller 6-unit ball, but the model doesn't quite fit the geometry of it, leaving slight gaps between units unless you press them together.

Date: 01/19/2025
From: Searching For New Origami Expressions - 表現を探求する新しい折り紙
By: Yutaka Naito - 内藤優
Model: フレックス (Flex)
Paper: 15cm dual-sided origami paper (floral/solid color, 4 each of 6 patterns)

The units that make up this kusudama can collapse, allowing for the entire ball to collapse into a flat structure; hence the name. Structurally, it is a cube, with 4 crossed units creating each side. The double-sided paper allowed for some fun variation in patterns.

Date: 12/xx/2024
From: Searching For New Origami Expressions - 表現を探求する新しい折り紙
By: Yutaka Naito - 内藤優
Model: 寄木ユニット (Marquetry)
Paper: 7.5cm x 10.6cm teal/lavendar/gold/black textured paper (3 sheets each), red/yellow/green tant (4 sheets each)

The units that make up this ball are triangular pillars, and the assembly is more like putting together a wooden puzzle box than a kusudama (hence the model's name). Since it is a 12-unit model, I tried with both a 3-color and 4-color construction, which creates different patterns on the sides.

Date: 11/30/2024
From: PrwOrigami YouTube channel
By: Prw
Model: Lotus Crown
Paper: 30 7.5cm patterned chiyogami paper (blue/purple focused)

This beautiful model uses chevron-shaped units to create open star faces that show off the variety of traditional Japanese patterns in the paper I got from a chiyogami collection.

Date: 11/29/2024
From: 模様や形を楽しむ くす玉おりがみ (Enjoyable kusudama origami patterns and shapes)
By: 布施 知子 (Tomoko Fuse)
Model: 朝日 (Morning sun)
Paper: 2" x 4" pastel yellow origami paper; 2" x 4" double-sided origami paper (tan with mixed colors hexagonal design / dark blue) (30 sheets each)

For this model, the base was actually folded with the patterned paper instead of the face, as that is where the major color shift happens, producing a neat patchwork effect.

Date: 11/28/2024
From: 模様や形を楽しむ くす玉おりがみ (Enjoyable kusudama origami patterns and shapes)
By: 布施 知子 (Tomoko Fuse)
Model: 松葉 (Pine needles)
Paper: 2" x 4" pastel green origami paper; 2" x 4" double-sided origami paper (black with light brown bamboo pattern / light brown) (30 sheets each)

This also uses an L-type base to place the solid base color in the middle of each face instead of at the edges. There's a little bit of awkwardness in fold the "Pine needle" model with the bamboo print, when the previous light green/black/gold print actually had pine motifs. In the end, the color schemes are still pretty similar.

Date: 11/11/2024
From: 模様や形を楽しむ くす玉おりがみ (Enjoyable kusudama origami patterns and shapes)
By: 布施 知子 (Tomoko Fuse)
Model: 瓜縞 (Melon stripes)
Paper: 2" x 4" pastel blue origami paper; 2" x 4" double-sided origami paper (purple with dashed circles / dark red) (30 sheets each)

I used an L-type base to get a different pattern for the solids, which produced a continuous star shape within each face. It contrasts nicely with the red and purple paper.

Date: 11/8/2024
From: 模様や形を楽しむ くす玉おりがみ (Enjoyable kusudama origami patterns and shapes)
By: 布施 知子 (Tomoko Fuse)
Model: ネッシー (Nessie)
Paper: 2" x 4" cream origami paper; 2" x 4" double-sided origami paper (dark red with grey flowers / dark red) (30 sheets each)

This mostly has two colors: red and cream. The deepness of the red reminds me of adzuki (red bean paste). The angles of the folds matched the angles of the hexagonal borders on the floral pattern, a pleasant coincedence.

Date: 11/1/2024
From: 模様や形を楽しむ くす玉おりがみ (Enjoyable kusudama origami patterns and shapes)
By: 布施 知子 (Tomoko Fuse)
Model: 脇染め菱 (Offset diamond)
Paper: 2" x 4" light blue origami paper; 2" x 4" double-sided origami paper (dark blue with white dashed squares / bright purple) (30 sheets each)

The dark blue contrasts well with the light blue base, with just a small amount of purple peeking out to create a nice pop of color on each face.

Date: 10/30/2024
From: 模様や形を楽しむ くす玉おりがみ (Enjoyable kusudama origami patterns and shapes)
By: 布施 知子 (Tomoko Fuse)
Model: 細雪 (Small snowflakes)
Paper: 2" x 4" light green origami paper; 2" x 4" double-sided origami paper (lime green with grey and red umbrellas / lime green) (30 sheets each)

The mixture of green, along with the radial open umbrella pattern resembling lime slices, led to only one dessert choice. This uses the open border-style unit type, which makes the "snowflake" (despite being 5-armed) more apparent.

Date: 10/27/2024
From: 模様や形を楽しむ くす玉おりがみ (Enjoyable kusudama origami patterns and shapes)
By: 布施 知子 (Tomoko Fuse)
Model: 熨斗 (Gift Wrap)
Paper: 2" x 4" light yellow origami paper; 2" x 4" double-sided origami paper (bright blue with orange, black, and white umbrellas / bright blue) (30 sheets each)

Continuing with the dessert theme, the yellow base and blue patterned paper bring to mind yellow birthday cake with layers of frosting.

Date: 10/25/2024
From: 模様や形を楽しむ くす玉おりがみ (Enjoyable kusudama origami patterns and shapes)
By: 布施 知子 (Tomoko Fuse)
Model: 菱Bカール (Diamond B Curl)
Paper: 2" x 4" light pink origami paper; 2" x 4" double-sided origami paper (pink and cream flowers / dark pink) (30 sheets each)

Continuing with the dessert theme, this has numerous shades of pink. The curl variant of the model was chosen to add a second floral theme to the ball.

Date: 10/23/2024
From: 模様や形を楽しむ くす玉おりがみ (Enjoyable kusudama origami patterns and shapes)
By: 布施 知子 (Tomoko Fuse)
Model: ラインB (Line B)
Paper: 2" x 4" light green origami paper; 2" x 4" double-sided origami paper (black and bronze pine / bronze) (30 sheets each)

I initially chose light green to go with the pine illustrations on the patterned side of this origami paper, but its contrast with both the black and brown was even neater than I expected. A friend commented it looked like mint chocolate chip (ice cream).

Date: 10/19/2024
From: SakuB YouTube channel
By: さくB (SakuB)
Model: Truncated Icosahedron (切頂二十面体)
Paper: 30 3.75cm x 7.5cm tant (6 sheets each of red, orange, yellow, green, brown)

Although only using 30 units (like pentakis dodecahedron models), the units use a clever mix of equilateral triangles and rhombuses to create a buckyball (truncated icosahedron), mixing sunken pentagon faces and flat hexagon faces.

Date: 10/19/2024
From: SakuB YouTube channel
By: さくB (SakuB)
Model: Icosidodecahedron (二十・十二面体)
Paper: 15cm light green tant (3 different greens, 2 sheets each)

This model looks similar to 30-unit pentakis dodecahedrons, but is, in fact, made of only 6 units (hence the 'cube' title). Each unit includes 2 pentagonal faces and 2 triangular faces, and when fully assembled, introduce 8 additional gap triangle faces. The original instructions adds caps to these faces, but I left them open as it more clearly shows the construction.

Date: 10/06/2024
From: SakuB YouTube channel
By: さくB (SakuB)
Model: Small Stellated Dodecahedron (小星型十二面体)
Paper: 7.5cm x 3.75 origami paper (6 sheets each of pastel blue, pastel light blue, pastel green, pastel light green), 3.75cm x 1.25cm pastel yellow origami paper (30 sheets)

This fun star unit includes a little accent color strip along the center, creating an extra diamond pattern within each face.

Date: 07/12/2024
From: Kankichi YouTube channel
By: Kankichi
Model: New Sakura Ball (新桜玉)
Paper: 5cm light green, light teal origami paper (15 sheets each)

A tiny sakura ball to use up some small paper I had lying around. Although the petal shape retains the roundness of other sakura-based kusudama, it's the first where the petals are not directly connected to each other.

Date: 08/27/2024
From: The Art of Modular Origami
By: Joseph Hwang
Model: Dimension
Paper: 7.5cm patterned chiyogami (3 patterns x 10 sheets)

The flat triangles and inset pentagons of this model give it a much difference appearance from your more common spiky 30-unit kusudama.

Date: 08/22/2024
From: The Art of Modular Origami
By: Joseph Hwang
Model: Eternity
Paper: 7.5cm patterned chiyogami (6 patterns x 5 sheets)

The long, thin pattern of this model makes the ball look more like it's crafted from yarn than from paper, similar to Japanese toy temari. To achieve the final model, you even need to weave the strips together. 

Date: 08/20/2024
From: The Art of Modular Origami
By: Joseph Hwang
Model: Magma
Paper: 7.5cm dark red tant (3 shades x 10 sheets)

I was instantly drawn to this model, which inclues a flattened hexagon on each face, a contrast to the otherwise 3/5 geometry of a standard 30-unit kusudama. They aren't quite the hex twists I make in tesselations, but they are very close.

Date: 08/19/2024
From: Khin Hooi YouTube channel
By: Khin Hooi
Model: 90 Units Buckyball
Paper: 3" x 2" (60 sheets) / 3" x 1.91" (30 sheets) white sketch paper

This is a classic Buckminsterfullerene, with 12 pentagon faces / 20 hexagon faces. The construction has many similarities to the Dandelion ball, with the main difference being instead of long spokes and small connectors, most of the units are similar size/shape, with just the angles on the pentagonal faces being slightly different than the angles on the hexagonal ones.

Date: 08/13/2024
From: Khin Hooi YouTube channel
By: Khin Hooi
Model: 150 Units Pentagonal Hexecontahedron
Paper: 5.25cm x 4.5cm yellow tant (90 sheets) / 5.25cm x 4.7cm green tant (60 sheets)

A complex ball, with central longer spokes in a pentagonal arrangement connected by smaller pieces. As part of the video tutorial, the A units were a brighter color than the B units, which I found to be striking, and wanted to have something similar. The lighter yellows contrasted sharply with the darker greens, making me think of dandelions or daffodils. The variety of yellows adds some interesting diversity to the final ball.

Date: 07/12/2024
From: Kankichi YouTube channel
By: Kankichi
Model: Hikeshi (火消し)
Paper: 7cm origami paper (10 x red, blue, green)

The problem with the Pride Kusudama is that the solid paper didn't show off the star ribbon pattern cleanly, so I made a second kusudama with standard origami paper. I didn't have enough of certain colors for a 5 color x 6 paper pattern, so I settled for a 3 color x 10 paper pattern, which turned out really well.

Date: 06/26/2024
From: Kankichi YouTube channel
By: Kankichi
Model: Hikeshi (火消し)
Paper: 7.5cm craft paper in red / orange / yellow / green/ blue / purple (5 sheets each)

For the end of pride month, the office had an origami display with an assortment of rainbow papers, so I put together this kusudama to celebrate.

Date: 06/21/2024
From: Kawaii Pastime YouTube channel
By: Kawaii Pastime
Model: Hydrangea Kusudama
Paper: 7cm green origami paper (base) and 7cm dark blue origami paper (flower) (12 sheets each)

This is an amalgamation of Kawaii Pastime's hydrangea kusudama unit, using a more standard Shuzo Fujimoto hydrangea flower (2 layers) on the Kawaii Pastime base. This is also a simpler 12-unit cube assembly than the suggested 16-unit setup. Tape was used to keep the pieces together.

Date: 05/07/2024
From: Mind-Blowing Kusudama Origami
By: Byriah Loper
Model: Ituria
Paper: 7.5cm green patterned origami paper (30 sheets)

The way the units are designed with a hinge in the center instead of at the ends (where the flaps are) means this model curves into a round, ball shape. The green patterned paper I used reminds me of a watermelon.

Date: 04/19/2024
From: Kankichi YouTube channel
By: Kankichi
Paper: 7cm orange origami paper (30 sheets)

A fun little ball with curved petals and a neat bi-color design.

Date: 03/21/2024
From: Kankichi YouTube channel
By: Kankichi
Paper: 8.5" square kraft paper (30 sheets)

Don't let me into the printer supply closet. I will take some of the cool paper left in there and make stuff out of it.

This model was a lot floppier than I expected, potentially due to the large size of the starting paper.

Date: 03/09/2024
From: Khin Hooi YouTube channel
By: Khin Hooi
Paper: 30 sheets of A7 notepad paper, 7.5cm x 5.3cm (~silver ratio) origami paper

Another kusudama built off of silver ratio paper, this inverts the standard orientation of kusudama - the faces collapse inward instead of bulge outward, allowing you to fully visualize the base shape of the pentakis dodecahedron.

I had extra notepad paper available so I made one in white, too.

Date: 03/04/2024
From: Khin Hooi YouTube channel
By: Khin Hooi
Paper: A7 notepad paper (30 sheets)

The Miura fold (Miura-Ori) is a type of tesselation that allows for only 1 direction of expansion/contraction, making it useful in packing and other industrial applications. This modal takes the concept and translates it into a pleated model full of sharp, pleasing angles.

Date: 03/xx/2024
From: Kawaii Pastime YouTube channel
By: Kawaii Pastime
Paper: 7.5cm floral pattern origami paper / 7cm white origami paper (60 sheets each)

A more complex polyhedron than I normally make, these 60-unit balls follow the buckyball (soccer ball) configuration.

Date: 02/02/2024
From: Kankichi Origami YouTube channel
By: Kankichi
Paper: 7cm origami paper (various blues, 30 sheets)

A variety of blue papers contrasts well with the white backsides to create a striking pattern in this kusudama.