Variable-weight optical orthogonal codes (OOCs) have application in multimedia optical code division multiple access (OCDMA) systems supporting multiple quality of services (QoS). In this paper, several combinatorial constructions for optimal variable-weight OOCs are presented explicitly. A useful recursive construction for optimal variable-weight OOCs is proposed as well. Based on these results, two new infinite classes of optimal variable-weight OOCs with Hamming weights 3 and 4 are obtained.