Valentine's Kusudama

You can say that I am late with my Valentine's Day post. But I can tell you that I am early with posting this lovely kusudama for the Dragobete's Day. Dragobete is a traditional Romanian holiday celebrated on February 24. It is known as a day for lovers, like Valentine's Day.
Since I last browsed Wikipedia about this holiday it was updated with new information, so I found out an interesting fact: "the day when the birds are betrothed".  The bird from my kusudama arrangement is waiting for her betrothed.
When we say love, we think at red hearts (or blue one, depends on the mood). But even though the bird is waiting, the mood is good, so all the hearts from the kusudama are red: the ones from the pattern of the paper and also the ones from the quilling parts. First, I wanted to make the quilling hearts green, to have a little bit of contrast, but after all I preferred to lose them into the kusudama Kiyoko's paper pattern.
Since a long time ago I missed folding kusudama Kiyoko (designed by Flaviane Koti) and its combination with Tornillo. I tried this combination in green and pink. It was a lovely fold, the biggest challenge being how to match the paper sizes. I had the same challenge now, because I wanted to make the model bigger so that the heart pattern of the paper to be visible. I used modules folded from square papers of 10 cm for Tornillo and rectangular modules of 15 cm x 5 cm size for Kiyoko.
I accessorized the kusudama with a Mandarin bird, as I lately do with almost all my models. The bird is sitting in a "nest" made from a Dinara flower.

Model: Tornillo
Designer: Paolo Bascetta
Tutorial: http://cridiana-origami.blogspot.com/2011/08/tutorial-tornillo.html

Model: Kusudama Kiyoko
Designer: Flaviane Koti
Diagram: http://terapiadopapel.blogspot.ro/2013/08/foto-diagrama-e-curiosidades-da.html  

Model: Dinara
Designer: Marcia Moura
Diagram: http://www.origamichile.cl/gui/diagramas/pdf/dinara.pdf

Model: Mandarin
Designer: Simon Anderson
Tutorial: https://www.paperkawaii.com/origami-bird-tutorial-mandarin-or-seagull-simon-anderson/

Birds and roses II

Remember my previous post? I said that I really liked the arrangement of the kusudama and I'll come back to it in the future. The future is here, in this post. Again, I abandoned my kusudama with cute little red hearts and I folded the same arrangement, but with 5 secondary paper balls and light-green birds. I like it with more kusudamas, but I prefer the red birds instead.
For each paper rose-ball I used another size for the modules. They gradually increased from 5 cm (the smallest one). I did the same with the birds, but I started from 7 cm.

Model: Le Rose Screziate
Designer: Tomoko Fuse and Kunihiko Kasahara
Modules: 30 or12
Tutorial: http://stranamasterov.ru/node/604745

Model: Mandarin
Designer: Simon Anderson
Tutorial: https://www.paperkawaii.com/origami-bird-tutorial-mandarin-or-seagull-simon-anderson/

Birds and roses

The roses are grey-ish, the birds are red, the paper is cute and the deadline is due...
Love is in the air, my Valentine kusudama is in work and I don't think it will be ready on time since I was distracted with this model. When I saw the black-grey paper with red-pink roses I just had to buy it, go home, cut it and start folding and folding and folding. After the kusudamas were ready I had to think of what paper I should use for the birds. It was pretty hard to decide but in the end, I went with a paper bought from Japan a long time ago. The contrast is pretty good. Also, I made for the first time this arrangement with 3 kusudamas being hanged on different points of the main kusudama, like a carousel, instead of just put them in sequence on the thread. I like how it looks and I want to try it again in the future.

Model: Le Rose Screziate
Author: Tomoko Fuse and Kunihiko Kasahara
Modules: 30 or12
Tutorial: http://stranamasterov.ru/node/604745

 

Model: Mandarin
 Author: Simon Anderson
Tutorial: https://www.paperkawaii.com/origami-bird-tutorial-mandarin-or-seagull-simon-anderson/

Blue Monday

This week was Blue Monday. I wanted to post this then, but I was too blue to do it.
Just kidding, I just didn't manage to find some time for my origami. I will be short... the model is one designed by Tomoko Fuse. It is from the book "Unit Polyhedron Origami" and it is made from 60 rhomboid units. I also made his friend (you can glimpse it in the back), the one with 30 rhomboid units, but I did not manage to close it without wrinkling the paper. In the end I had to put it in the recycle bin without taking any pictures.

Missing the seaside

My first post from 2020 is a melancholic one. In the middle of winter, I am thinking of summer and the blue of the sea. Don't get me wrong, I love winter but I am really missing the seaside. So I folded a couple of sea animals: horses and fishes. I folded ari jigoku kaaru kusudamas in order to mimic the waves of the sea.

Winter Wreath

Hi all! This is my last post of this year. I wish you luck and happy folding, free time to spend for your hobbies, health and happiness.

Christmas kusudama

Merry Christmas!