Onigiri Maker Workshop

April 25, 2026

A workshop with Paula Meier at auf weiter flur, a maker space in Augustusburg on 28 March 2026. In the workshop, we made Onigiri Maker with a CNC and a laser cutter, and Onigiri together.

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At the end of March 2026, I co-hosted an “Onigiri Maker Workshop” with Paula Meier, a fellow participant of the Chemnitz 2025 Maker Residency, at the makerspace auf weiter flur e.V. in Augustusburg. In this workshop, participants created their own onigiri makers and then used them to make onigiri.

The onigiri maker is a wooden kitchen tool designed to easily shape Japanese rice balls (Onigiri). While Onigiri makers are commonly made of plastic, I began developing a wooden version in 2017 during my time in the social entrepreneurship program at Social Impact Lab Leipzig, aiming for a more environmentally conscious and visually appealing alternative. I designed the product, and it is currently produced in collaboration with Lebenshilfe e.V. in Leipzig.

The first Onigiri Makers at Social Impact Lab Leipzig (2017)

The idea for this workshop came from an earlier event during the residency. Paula, who had difficulty finding vegan food at the time, discovered my onigiri and onigiri makers at my booth and became interested in them. This led to the collaboration and the realization of this workshop.

For the workshop, we used 0.6 mm thin wooden sheets donated to auf weiter flur and built the onigiri makers in a layered structure of 4–5 layers. The first layer was cut using the handheld CNC tool “Shaper,” allowing participants to experience the process themselves. The remaining layers were cut automatically with a laser cutter to speed up production.

Participants could either choose from a selection of pre-designed onigiri shapes or request custom shapes, which Paula was able to accommodate on the spot. In addition, participants engraved their preferred designs or text onto the surface of the onigiri makers using the laser cutter. The layers were then stacked and glued together to complete the tool.

After completion, participants used their onigiri makers to create actual onigiri. A wide variety of creative results emerged, and I also gained many new ideas and insights from the process.