HEART FLOWER 2 -- KUSUDAMA

Here is a cubic kusudama folded from the heart flower variation.

There are some pluses and some minuses. The flower petals are longer and wider. This hides the connecting pieces quite well. On the other hand, this is a difficult model to put together. At first the connections between flowers were folded into pockets on the back/inside of the model. This became more problematic as the model neared completion. The last five folds were folded from and into pockets on the front.

THE CARUSO CUBE

A few posts back I dedicated an origami quilt to Paul Bachman, a presenter on Serius XM Pops radio. The other presenter is Vincent Caruso. Just so the two boys don't fight, I have dedicated this kusudama to Vincent.

Since the kusudama flower ball shape is cubic I have dubbed it the Caruso Cube. When I make a kusudama version of the Bachman Quilt I guess it will become the Bachman Ball. Alliteration is such fun, isn't it?


Like a number of things I have been designing lately, the Caruso Cube uses the same connection idea that I have been using for models using a carrier box method. In this case the flower itself is the "carrier". It is a little weaker than the full method but works just fine for light balls, especially when the intersecting angles are relatively sharp.

The leaves are formed by increasing the size of the basic connector piece so that there is enough paper to form leaflets at the ends. These form a pleasing triple leaf arrangement at the intersection points of the flowers.


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The flowers are a variant of the classic twist fold.

The stamens begin life as a variant of the classic frog base.







The blue flower is my first model I made in this series. The stamens in this model are relatively short, something which required that the paper for this piece be cut to a size which was not a natural factor of the other pieces used in the model.


In the next models I decided to make the stamens a little larger in order to keep the paper sizes relative to each other.




The Curuso Cube was made from 6 flower modules: 2 metallic cream, 2 metallic blue and 2 metallic navy. The stamens were made from similar colors with the addition of a paler blue.


The hanging method is different from the one used in traditional models. I used a small metal ring, the kind used in lampshade construction, as a way to attach hanging cords without straining the glueless connection points of the ball. First three threads were tied onto it. The threads were tensioned by tying another piece of thread around the cords about three or four times until it formed a ring. I then pushed this yarn ring down until it pulled the three cords to a point in the center of the metal ring. The completed cord and ring construction was inserted into the model just before the last couple of flowers were connected together.


The resulting model hangs well without undue strain on its connecting creases.

THE PAUL BACHMAN QUILT

I made this paper quilt while listening the FM Serious Music program. I have named it after the host who happened to be presenting the program when I finished it: Paul Bachman. Perhaps his colleague, Vincent Caruso will have one named after him next time.

What appropriate names these guys have. Caruso was a famous singer. There were several Bachs. Johann Sebastian Bach had two wives and 22 children. CPE Bach was one of that multitude. PDQ Bach, on the other hand, is advertised by his promoter Peter Shicklee as being the "last and also the least of Bach's sons". In spite of his exceptional pieces for four handed organists and his extraordinary compositions for rarely heard instuments, such as the left-handed sewer flue and the American Police Horn, his works are rarely heard on the FM classical music programs. A pity.

This is not any indication of favoritism on my part: they are both excellent presenters. I have had the pleasure of being entertained by the two of them while I traveled from San Francisco to Los Angeles last weekend for my annual "pilgramage" the Origami Teach-in at the Japanese Gardens in the grounds of the Long Beach campus of the University of California.

It was a very long drive since I went the scenic route: along the 101 Interstate and some back roads between it and the I5 as it came into Los Angeles over the mountains. The I5 is a much quicker road but it is rather boring for most of the way. The San Joaquin Vally, being an ancient sea bed, is quite flat. I swapped speed for beauty, and enjoyed a great deal of classical music along the way as an added bonus, thanks to Paul and Vincent. Thanks guys.

There are similarities between this paper quilt and the previous quilt and between them the flower ball kusudamas I have been creating lately. They all have "carrier" units which hold decorative units as well as provide a firm link with the connecting pieces.


The back of the quilt is interesting in its own right.

This kind of paper connection can be used to paint a picture or write a message with "paper pixels". This kind of project takes a lot of pieces and demands quite an investment of time. I have a project of this nature in mind for next November's Pacific Coast Origami Convention (PCOC). With some enlisted help from folding groups in LA, SF and San Jose, I hope to finish it before this event.

As luck will have it, PCOC is in my home city this year. It is close enough to drive there and back each day. I may need sedatives, though. The parking in SF is almost non-existent which is a problem for someone like me who cannot walk great distances. Then there is the peak period traffic density between the city of SF and the city of Danville, in the East Bay. Still, that is probably the better option than trying to take the BART there and back with a suitcase of display items accompanying me.

PASSION FLOWER: 1

My next entry in the origami flowers section is the development of a flower which I shall call the Passion Flower because of the emphasis on radiating stamens. This grew out of the Fragrant Flower of earlier postings.

I began experimenting with the fawn and green example. It has eight petals with alternating colors. Some of the most beautiful of Passion Flowers have alternating petals.

The model was folded while I a finger of my left hand in a splint so it is a little sloppy. At the time I was more concerned with the question of whether the idea was going to work than I was with how well I was folding the model. It is presented "as is" and I hope no-one will be rude enough to use it as an example of my folding prowess.

Instead of a separate petal connector, each petal is slotted into the side of its neighbor. It changes the look of the flower quite dramatically.


Since the Passion Flower has ten petals I created the pink version.




After this I progressed to the bi-color example which is made from sheets of paper with a different color on each side. There is a very limited range of double color papers in folding weight. How I wish the card weight tone-plus-darker-tone range was available in a text weight paper.


The purple/orange combination seemed to be the best choice at the time but the flower has turned out rather darker than I would have liked.

It is not difficult to fold but it helps to have a good supply of cushioned hair pins to hold the pieces together while folding.

Here is the crease pattern for this flower. This is a Model 1.2 version Crease Pattern so it includes a couple of additional creases that were not part of the pre-creasing process of the purple-orange model shown here. (They were added in a less precise manner late in the folding process.)

These additional creases in the inner petals (the ones that are not mirrored on the other side of the diagonal) help to more sharply define and separate the inner petals from their sheaths. They also help to pull the stamen parts together more firmly. The result is a crisper looking flower.




This flower worked well until I tried to connect it to another one. The first examples fell apart too easily, looked ugly, were excessively complicated or pushed the petals apart in a way which spoiled the overall effect. I finally found a sturdy and good looking connection. It requires a "male" and "female" petal - one on one flower and the other on its adjoining flower.

The connection has one drawback: it cannot be accomplished between the petals of finished flowers. Each connecting petal (every alternate one of the ten) has to be connected to a neighbor before being put together with the rest of the petals in its flower head.

Rather than undoing the completed flowers and refolding them I have decided to make new flowers. This time I will alternate the purple-orange double petals with single petals of a contrasting color. I am waiting for a roll of lilac/white craft paper to coordinate with the slighlty garish color-scheme of my precut paper. By the way, I am using 5-1/2" squares for this model. The flowers end up 4" wide and should make a reasonably sized kusudama when 12 of them are connected. The unattached alternate petals should poke out to fill in the small gap between these 12 petal flowers.

In the next posting I will upload CPs for the male and female connecting petals together with pictures of the kusudama as it is put together.

As usual, I am folding/designing more than one model at a time.

Much to my disgust, I STILL haven't completed the last section of the display quality Tier Box I started waaaaayyy back in these postings.

FRAGRANT FLOWER: 5

I have begun to put Type 2 flowers together to form a kusudama. I have three together so far. The leaf connectors, when pulled out sideways, nicely fill in the gaps between the flowers. (See the center of this photo).

I am starting to wonder, however, how I am going to get the last flowers into position. The connectors, you see, are at the bottom of the petals. This will pose some challenges.

The fall back position may be to leave out the top most flower and use the opening as an entry/exit for string and power cords. I intend to poke LED lights through the central hole in each flower, as I did in the earlier photos of this model (in orange and yellow on that occasion.)

MY FIRST KUSUDAMA: 2

The kusudama has been hung in my origami nook. I managed to get a photo of it which was not against a background on labeled boxes containing samples and instructions for my various creations. Here it is.











Perhaps all that effort was worth it. It does look rather good. And it's only made from cheap copy paper!

MY FIRST KUSUDAMA

The collection of loose paper flowers has eventually been battered into a ball. There were several glitches along the way.

First it went together like this.




This left triangular holes to fill which posed somewhat of a challenge.

After some considerable experimentation I came up with this filler. The elements are derived from the ones used for the square sections but a quarter of the paper has been "folded out" of the model. This caused some bulkiness.



Unfortunately it proved impossible to add these elements to the constructed ball. The minute the triangle became stretched and stressed the white flower popped out. This may have been the result of the thickness of the paper (copy paper). I reluctantly resorted to gluing the flower flaps into the pockets of the triangle.

This did not entirely fix the problem. This time I could not easily connect the surrounding flowers to the triangle. The angle made this difficult. Then when I succeeded in doing so they popped out when the ball was handled.

I experimented with different ways of connecting the two elements and came up with one which did not put as much pressure on the connection points. It was extremely difficult to achieve it "in the round".

There seemed no alternative but to pull the ball apart (after all that work) and reconstruct it, starting with the triangular sections and temporarily leaving out (or leaving unconnected) those square flowers which were only connected to other square flowers. This would remove some of the tension created by the model stretching into a curved shape. The square flowers were relatively easy to connect together via their "leaves" and I hypothesized that I could add them in at the end.

That worked. It involved propping the final stages up on overturned bowls and wide tall fruit juice bottles. The square connecting flowers were added in the final stages without too much drama. First I added all the leaf connectors to the surrounding flowers. Then I connected a flower to one of each of these points, except for the two polar points. After I had fully connected the four flowers around the circumference I supported the model and added the bottom flower. After removing the supports I upended the model and added the last flower.

Just to be on the safe side, I resorted to adding a little glue to part of the triangle/square flower connections. Not only did I feel guilty for transgressing the traditional commandments of the art form, but the process was a minor nightmare. I had to hold the glued spots with clips until dry. This was both awkward and time consuming.



Finally I had what I wanted. Now I need to find a place to hang it up. That assumes that I can figure out where and how to connect the hanging thread to the flower ball.

FLORAL DIVERSIONS

I find it hard to keep focused on one thing, especially if its development or production takes some time.

I still have not completed a display model of the Bounce and Tier Box. I have one section still to complete. Perhaps next week. Perhaps not.

I find myself easily distracted by other interesting design challenges or ideas which just have to be tried out before I forget them (damn my aging memory) or I get distracted from them, too (damn my ADD).

This week I found myself designing flowers with the intention of making a kusudama.

Never mind the fact that the Quad Lily is still waiting to be put together in this way and I have already designed the connector for it. But no! I find myself designing other things instead. It is slightly annoying. If my mind would just stop having fresh ideas I might get to complete those it has already produced. (Insert sighing sound here.)

So, back to this week's flowers.


I discovered that I could turn a double square twist into a variety of interesting flowers.

The original flower has a four-petal star-like center. It's the mauve one.



The next version has a central curled twist. It's the lilac one.




The third version has four raised points in the center. It's the peach colored one. It's also the one used for the collection.





The fourth version arranges the petals differently and looks something like a four-petaled rose. It's the shiny red one made from Stardream paper.




I found a way to provide them with connectors which double as leaves. All that remains to be done before they can be properly connected into a polyhedron is to design a triangular connector with bigger leaves. Undaunted by this unfinished task I have folded a box full of color coordinated copy paper flowers in readiness. Today's job is to begin folding the straight connectors.