When I first learned origami, I mostly did figural-type origami, like the common animals and boats. In one origami book I bought, I found a design of a kusudama that looked quite interesting, and I eventually decided to try it out on some printer paper. I liked the design, but not the paper, so I decided to go out the local art store and bought a few 50-packs of origami paper and began folding. The first one I made was the grey star kusudama, followed by a white greater stellated dodecahedron. The white one was quite fragile, so I eventually thought to hang them from the ceiling. So, I got some sticky-backed zip-tie holders, and stuck them to the ceiling in my dorm room, and tied some fishing line onto them. Originally, I pierced the pieces with a needle to make holes to attach the line. After the first two, I made the the grey dodecahedron frame, then the pointy star (actually a skeletal lesser stellated dodecahedron), next the three-color cube, and then the five intersecting tetrahedra (another lesser stellated dodecahedron). After that, I attempted to make a few more kusudama for my kusudama lamp, which introduced me to the sonobe module, and the same design used in the other grey and white kusudama (another lesser stellated dodecahedron). The cube kusudama didn't fit in with the other ones, so I took it down and replaced it with this new one.

In 2004 I had to move rooms for the summer, and so I had to take them down. When I moved back in, I decided to use key rings tied to the fishing line to hang the pieces instead, so as not to damage them. After the white one broke after being blow off of its ring by the wind, I had an empty spot, so I decided to go buy some lime-green vellum that I had seen at the art store, and make another star dodecahedron (it's my favorite of the designs I've been able to find). The kusudama in purple and blues I made over the 2004 Christmas break for my girlfriend (now wife) Beth. I've made a few others, but they haven't turned out, so I don't have pictures of them. Interestingly, except for the cube, the pieces are all made of 30 pieces of paper (although each leg of the five intersecting tetrahedra is technically only a third of a sheet), which is because they're all based on dodecahedrons, which have 30 edges. Each piece takes between three and eight hours, depending on whether I've made that particular model before, and how complicated the units and construction are. The star kusudama is the hardest to construct and fold, because all the connections are on the inside and thus the last piece must sort of put itself into place, while the sonobe is the easiest, because everything is exterior and visible. Now that I'm in an apartment they live in a china hutch.