Paper Floral Mobile Tutorial
What’s not to like about paper flowers? They have a sculptural quality that silk flowers lack, and you can make them yourself with the pretty paper of your choosing. Using the paper flowers from my kusudama origami ball tutorial, you can make a mobile that’s ready to hang in a nursery, a child’s room, or anywhere else for a splash of color.
Materials:
- 12 kusudama flowers
- 12″ metal hoop
- Green paper twine or green jute twine
- Plain jute twine
- Hot glue gun and scissors
1. Wrap the hoop with plain jute twine. This is easier to do in sections, and faster if you wrap two strands at once.
2. Cut 6ft lengths of twine, fold in half and hot-glue one end to the base of a kusudama flower. Repeat until all 12 flowers have twine attached.
3. For the central knot:
- Cut 4 jute strands, each one 24″ long
- Fold in half
- Knot at the folded end, leaving a small loop
- Divide the stands into 4 sections; tie around the circle evenly.
This leaves a loop in the middle to thread another piece of twine for hanging from a ceiling hook, which can be adjusted to the right height.
4. Tie the green flower strands to the hoop, spaced out evenly.
If you want the same spiral effect, cut the flower strands to these lengths and follow this order when tying them to the hoop, counter-clockwise. You should be able to work out the pattern: 27″ — 18″ — 24″ — 15″ — 21″ — 12″ — 18″ — 9″ — 15″ — 6″ — 12″ — 3″.
And that’s what the paper flower mobile looks like when it’s finished! I knotted the green strands because the paper twine I used wouldn’t hang very straight, but I like the effect – they look even more like flower vines.
I love the look of the hanging flowers, like floating little bursts of spring color. If you’d rather not go to the trouble of making a mobile, don’t forget that you can form a ball with these kusudama flowers too!