Perhaps this isn’t the best day to make the New Year Star Kusudama, but there might be time during the next week to complete it and have it ready for your New Year celebrations.
The New Year Star Kusudama is an adaptation of something I saw on YouTube. The link I saved no longer works, and I have been unable to relocate the original to give credit to the designer of the origami version. My version works from measurements allowing for the heavier weight of copier paper.
The cutting and assembly are solo jobs, but the folding of sixty rectangles might well be a group activity. (If you are doing all the folding yourself, you might want to do it in several short sessions rather than all at once.)
Begin by printing out the New Year Star Kusudama pdf. Any standard copier paper will do. You will need three copies of Sheet One. If you have yellow copier paper, use it for printing out three copies of Sheet Two.
If you only have white paper, use it to print three copies of Sheet Three.
Note: if you printed Sheet Two on yellow paper, the non-printed side is the ‘right’ side. If you printed Sheet Three on white paper, the printed side is the ‘right’ side.
Cut out all your rectangles along the outlines: you should have thirty blue rectangles and thirty rectangles that are at least partly yellow. Begin folding with the yellow rectangles.
Place a strip of paper on your work surface with the long sides oriented horizontally. You want the ‘right’ side facing down. (See note above.) Fold in half by bringing the bottom edge up to match the top edge.
Fold the bottom left corner up to the top edge to form a triangle. (The former left end should match the top edge.)
Flip your paper over vertically and fold the point at the left over to the right. All your bottom edges should match.
Rotate your paper 180º, then fold the new bottom left corner up to the top edge.
Flip vertically, then fold the left point over to the right.
Do this set of folds twenty-nine more times with the remaining yellow rectangles.
Take a blue rectangle and place it ‘good’ side down with the long measurement vertical. Fold the bottom edge up to meet the top edge.
Open flat, then fold the bottom edge up to the middle fold line.
Rotate your paper 180º, and fold the new bottom edge up to the fold line in the middle. Repeat twenty-nine more times with the remaining blue rectangles.
Open out a yellow rectangle and wrap a blue rectangle around its middle. Fold closed again while pushing the two indicated points towards the middle.
Your unit should look like this. There is a yellow petal in the middle and a tab/point at the side at both ends.
Repeat to make twenty-nine more units. Here are a few of mine.
Next comes the assembly. To connect two units, slide the tab/point of one unit into the gap between the blue wrapper and the yellow layer on the petal side. I found it necessary to glue my units together. The image below shows a tab/point almost in position with the glue area indicated by a brighter yellow patch.
Attach five units (A), then add five units (B) as connectors between the open ends. Repeat so that you have a second dome-shaped group. Connect two units (C) to form a V-shape and connect it to the outer edge of one of your dome shapes as shown. Repeat around the edge until you have added five V-shapes.
A note on connecting: sliding the tab/points into place is relatively easy until you reach the fifth one. Don’t be afraid to bend or fold your tab to get it into place. Any creases or folds will be hidden when it is finally in position.
Here is a picture of one of the dome shapes with the V-shapes added.
The final ring of connections is a bit difficult as you have to connect in two places at once. I found it easiest if I got both tab/points part way in, applied the glue, then slid them both the rest of the way. (Try it without the glue first. You can slide them a little way back out again to put on the glue.)
And here’s a finished New Year Star Kusudama!
Wishing all of you a happy and healthy holiday season!
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