Some personal news and context – I moved house! I finally got out of a flat and into a house. Moving is stressful, but on the positive side, this new place would need decorations. I think I’m good at making stuff, so this was the last thing I made in that flat!

I bought this pack of origami paper a long time ago from a culture store. It has 10 pretty patterns based on festivals and kimonos. Paired with some coloured flat-back pearls, I would make a new eye-catching bouquet! The best type of paper bouquets with mixed colours is a kusudama flower in my opinion, so this is my flower of choice.

So there’s a standard way to fold a kusudama petal, but I learnt of a different way to do this. What you want to do is fold the triangular flap so that it’s hidden inside the unit. In the below image, the left unit is how you’d normally fold a unit (valley fold), and the right is when it’s mountain folded.

When you assembled the kusudama flower, you’ll notice that the flower looks different. Instead of the multiple stamens that you would normally get, there is just the one this time. It looks very clean and refined! I used hot glue to add a florist’s wire and a flat-back pearl of a similar colour.

The assembled bouquet makes for a very good decoration! There’s enough variety in the colours and patterns, but you don’t have to put it into the same bouquet like I have. I’ve put it on a shelf in the living room currently.

All the flowers in this bouquet have been folded the same way, but I’m sure you can mix and match the different flower types, it doesn’t always have to be kusudama!

Materials needed:
– 30 15cm origami squares in 10 different patterns cut to 7.5cm squares
– florist’s wires
– 20 flat-back pearls
– dark green satin ribbon
– tall glass vase

Tools needed:
– hot glue gun
– PVA glue
– craft knife and cutting mat