Origami Kusudama Is Interesting and Fun Craft Project

This is my second origami kusudama.

It is a bit flat on one side, shown in the photo below right. I did not understand how to glue together the five-petalled flowers to form half the globe.

I started paper crafting a few years ago. I focused on modular flowers and stars. I tried to make a kusudama, but it got all sticky.



I did not have proper glue, so I used a collage finishing coat. This is a liquid and less precise than the mini glue gun I used this time.

I also was using proper origami paper, which is thin. So the combination of the liquid and thin paper turned into rather a sticky mess.

For this , I used heavier card stock and a glue gun. The flowers also were larger than those of my first effort.

This kusudama is made of 60 folded units. It is not particularly hard, but it takes some patience. The directions are located at Folding Trees.

I love the tactile feel of paper and the wonderful colors. I am taken aback at the expensive prices for many of the pretty gilded print Japanese origami papers. I will have to find wrapping papers and other substitutes.

I’ve bought my first book about origami folding by one of the best-known artists, Origami Inspirations.

Artists take great care to figure out patterns, often using their knowledge of mathematics. So the folding instructions are copyrighted and not necessarily available free on the internet.

I also bought a day calendar, Easy Origami Fold-a-Day: 2011 Day-to-Day Calendar

So far, the folds are too simple to be interesting. Some of the models require coloring in eyes and noses or wheels and so forth to make the ambiguous folds look like something.



On the other hand the Mukeriji book is beautiful even if all I do is look at the wonderful color photos of her work.

Grocery Totes: Arty, Handcrafted, Colorful, Practical or Frugal -- Your Choice

Once upon a time in Baltimore, in a distant century, a health foods store was run by the 3HO Society, followers of Yogi Bhajan’s kundalini yoga. The store was on Charles Street, in the neighborhood where I lived, and I shopped there often.

I brought bottles and filled them with honey. I brought canisters and filled them with whole wheat flour, unbleached white flour for pastry, rice, nuts, raisins and other dried foods. We weighed the container before filling it, and weighed it again after it was filled.

I have been doing my part this past year to use the many cloth bags that I’ve received from colleges and universities where I’ve worked, as well as one from a chiropractor and another from a grand opening of The Whole Foods Market.

Sometimes, I have to run back out to the car, because I forgot to bring them in with me. Bronwen Davies at her Flights of Fab Fashion Fancy blog published the perfect solution last year – completely foldable fashionable totes that fit into their own small carrying pouch.

The pouch shown at the top. $37.95, holds the five colorful bags in the Retro series. The tan bag with the circles, right, is from that series. You can purchase one bag for $8.50. Davies likes the black-and-white bag from the Monochronmatic series. I agree. You can see them at the Envirosax website.


I thought I might find something ultra high-style at New York's Museum of Modern Art (MOMA). I was disappointed with this tote is priced at $55.00 for the largest size (14 x 20 inches). The leather handles probably discourage purse snatchers with the standard operating procedure (SOP) of snapping the strap.

Project for the Old American Century has advertising exhortations that evoke early 20th century advertising.



Speaking of frugal, I was fascinated to discover that more enterprising people than I are making a beautiful buck from an idea I had some time ago. My kitchen is far too small for typical recycling containers, so I turned a nice burlap mall bag with a plastic laminated interior to purpose as a garbage container. Another free-standing bag, a plastic shopping tote from a take-out place, stores my bottles until I have time to carry them to the apartment building’s floor containers.

This set of four colorful bags are made of waterproof tarpaulin. The bright colors make it easy to sort recyclables. My Oceanside burlap shopping bag cost me a buck or two at a thrift store and the Pei Wei bag was free. The matched bags here will set you back $22.

In sum, there's plenty of choice -- far more than I can show. If you are tired of plastic bags spilling out of your cupboard, take a moment to save the environment, bring your own bag, and tote in style.

Walterboro, South Carolina

A stop in Walterboro, South Carolina, was one highlight of my trip in July to the Hope Institute of National Communication Association. It was held at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Virginia. (You can enlarge any photo by clicking on it.)

I ate the lunch I'd packed at this pleasant rest stop on I-95, just south of the Georgia border. The arches are a nice rendition of the Spanish influence on south Florida architecture. I was fascinated by the clean Zen lines of these water fountain.

I stopped in Walterboro, South Carolina, a charming old town that is little more than some hotels along the highway. I found my way to the old town center and a nice restaurant. A car show was happening on the street outside. The next photos are of the vintage vehicles that have been lovingly restored. The last photo in the group is a Colby Cobra. Unfortunately, there was small sign in the plaza that prevented me from getting a good picture. Behind it was a large modernist waterfall wall that has not photographed well, either.

For car enthusiasts, the green chevy is a 1934.

The Walterboro crafts center had closed by the time I at dusk on the drive north. I made a special stop on my way back home to photograph this blue bottle tree, a modernist interpretation of an old Southern folk art. You can learn more about this uniquely southtern tradition at Bottletree.com. I would have bought this if I could have afforded it. The crafts center brings together the work of numerous South Carolina artists and artisans working in many media -- jewelry, painting, and fiber art among them. Behind the antebellum home are several slaves' cabins. This reminder of the past is never far away in the southern states. One appeared to be in service as artists' studios, and it appeared that others will be remodelled. The first cabin below was just room, with a very small stove and a bare bulb hanging from uncertain wire strung across the ceiling. I couldn't see into the second, but it probably has two rooms.Walterboro is a wonderful place to stop if you making a long trip north or south on I-95. Don't be content with the fast food joints at the on-off ramps. Take the time to drive into town and sample the sights and crafts.

Handy Baskets Organize, Add Texture

Baskets are an inexpensive way to add texture to a room, as well as providing storage. Often, they can be found for a buck or two at a thrift store, rather than buying them new.

I use baskets on my wall unit of shelves.

These two baskets are larger than they look. The wicker basket, right, is a lunch box with a lid with clever handles that lock shut -- perfect for a quiet lunch alone in a park. A subtle diamond pattern woven into the front of it is too subtle to capture on camera. It holds computer program CDs and instruction booklets for computer electronics, such as this camera.

The red one hides an entire Leggoes box that I use for a classroom demonstration activity. There is a close-up below.







The next basket on the wall shelves holds music CDs. Lighter and darker reeds are interwoven to create an interesting pattern.


These three baskets, below, are grouped against a small wall for the time being.
The very large picnic hamper holds my sewing supplies. I've placed a tray on top of it -- you can see the blond wood rim -- to create a flat surface, so the other baskets don't sit askew. The square basket and pale reed basket with a graceful kidney-shaped top edge are being re-purposed as I reorganize my living space.




This use of a basket as a lampshade, below right, never worked out; it always sits lopsidedly. It currently resides in a corner behind my recliner that is a holding pen as I decide what to put where in my clean-up. I'd forgotten about the large round basket until I noticed it in the background. As you can see, it is a trash basket. It is not usually overfilled and serves more discreetly as my circular file. It is roughly brushed with white paint in a shabby-cottage effect.





I also forgot about this nifty harlequin basket, below, until I wrote about the other trash basket. I keep dashing off to take more photos as I write. This jaunty harlequin serves as a petite trash container in the jungle room half-bath. It cost a buck at the dollar store and is one of the few that I purchased new.










The little rope basket, below, holds extra hand towels in the jungle room. The two sides with their scallops resemble seashells. The spokes and handle are wicker.






The next two photos show my file-tray basket. In a one-bedroom apartment, I hide my printer behind a lamp in a dark corner of the room. Even the "end table" on which it sits serves a storage purpose; it is my cedar chest for woolens that we so rarely wear here in Florida.





















Baskets are great for stashing paper -- bills, receipts, and mail offers about which I'm undecided. Two are shown below and in close-ups. I like the way rattan has been twisted to form a rope that was woven to create the round basket.



Notice how a rough brown twine has been woven into the center section of the long, thin basket, below.


























This rustic basket is a refugee from Christmases past. It is woven of a flat bark or reed about an inch wide to form a diamond weave. These have been faintly brushed with red and green that does not show unless you are very close. It is a brittle wood, so I can understand why the maker didn't get the bottom quite flat. It must have been hard to work with this material. It holds everything I need next to my recliner -- eyeglasses, nail kit and hand cream, calculator, bookmarks, you name it.




Spray-painted gold years ago, this basket belongs in storage until the winter holidays. I threw a modular kusudama in for the picture, but the pink and yellow paper is too light to photograph well. Notice how the graceful rounded bottom is centered with a flat coaster-like circle that is woven right into the work so that it will sit right. How clever and practical!



This little basket is the right size to hide a small plastic flower pot. It has a large handle (extends out of the photo), and once hung from a wire plant hook on my patio, until the plant died. Plain rough brown twine forms the X pattern on the body and gold twine accents the top and bottom rims.


This wide variety of baskets adds (I hope) texture yet unity to my main living area. Wait, we're not quite done. There are still the scullery maids in the kitchen.

Once upon a time this lime-green basket accented a tiny bathroom trimmed in that color. Now it holds vitamin pills in the kitchen. Perhaps it's time to repaint it.

Last, these hanging copper wire baskets cost a few dollars at Wal-Mart. Every kitchen should have some, don't you think?


I almost forgot this pair, below. Set on an angle to each other, they contain bathroom clutter in a minuscule space with no storage. Less than four inches wide and 13 inches long, they are a tough rope fiber on wire frames.














In conclusion, you can see that I love baskets. They help keep my clutter in control. I like the way they look, and the price is right.