Tatcha is a Japanese skin care company that approached Taro’s Origami Studio in the Summer of 2017 with an exciting inquiry.  They were interested in an advertising campaign based around some spectacular origami kusadamas and modulars.  Kusadamas are origami models that use a certain number of identical units and then tie them all up together to create a ball or origami sphere.  Origami modulars are similar, but a little different.  They are models that use similar units and then they weave together like pieces of a puzzle to create the external skeleton of a shape.  These models were all designed with the needs of Tatcha in mind and then created in both smaller and larger sizes so that they could photograph them for their campaign.

The Modulars:

These two modulars were designed for the Tatcha project and they do a good job of showing the difference between different kinds of modulars.  The white model for example is a series of 30 different bars of paper that interlock to create the outer points of a ball.  Taro’s them also created a total of 60 origami hearts to attach to each side of the bars in order to finish off the model.  The hearts then do a nice job or fanning out to create the look of an origami flower.

The purple modular on the other hand is a complicated adaptation of a traditional sonobe unit that fully locks in itself.  This entire model is connected without the use of any glue or adhesive, because it is strong enough to hold together without it!  The paper from this model is also specially ordered for this project and is a cross between professional construction paper and professional origami paper, so that you can have the strength and fold-ability needed for the model.

The Kusadamas:

This lighter purple kusadama was created by incorporating a unique and custom designed origami dove model.  These doves were then added to the traditional kusadama ball.  Kusadamas are connected using a complex process of threading them together in sections using string and then tying all of them together using a series of knots. This model has 60 separate origami parts to it.

This is the kusadama that took the longest and was the most complicated to create.  That is because not only was it created using paper with enough glitter to cover your hands, it also needed 3 different models fit inside each other to create.  That means that this model had a total of 90, yes 90! origami units to create the finished product.  I think you will agree though, that the final look is pretty spectacular!

Here is a great photo of the amount of glitter used in the model.