Japanese Origami Baubles

Each year, Japan has a festival - Tanabata - the Star Festival. Children all around the country get out their origami paper and glue and whip up these Japanese paper decorations to hang up.

What you’ll need
6 pieces origami paper
1 gluestick
Twine
1 shank button

We are making 6 Fortune Teller units - so if you already know how to do that, go ahead and do it! If not, read on…

Step 1. Fold your paper in half diagonally. Unfold and repeat for the other side.

Step 2. With the coloured side facing up, fold the corners into the centre.

Step 3. Turn the paper over and fold the corners into the centre.

Step 4. Fold in half one way, unfold, and repeat for the other way.

Step 5. Stick your fingers into the flaps and spread them out like the photo above. And your fortune teller unit is done! Make 5 more.

Step 6. Take 2 fortune teller units and glue two sides together, like the above photo.

Step 7. Turn the glued unit to the side to create a “V” of 4 sections. Glue the corresponding sections of a third fortune teller to these sections.

Step 8. Repeat for the remaining fortune teller units - the final fortune teller will be glued to 8 sections.

Step 9. Thread the button onto the string, and thread the string through the middle of the origami bauble. Knot the string on the button and thread the other end of the string back through the origami bauble.

And you’re done! If only I had known how to make these when I was a kid obsessed with making fortune tellers…

Alyce (32 Posts)

Living in Japan for 3 years, Alyce spends her days mothering 2 little monkeys, quilting, blogging at Blossom Heart Quilts, and revelling in the fabrics of Japan!

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the RSS feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader.