Over the past few weeks as I've been pinning holiday inspiration on my Pinterest board, I came across this beautiful Japanese gift wrapping method called Furoshiki.
It's December and I am pretty excited about Christmas. I'm still riding high on that Peruvian chicken I made for Thanksgiving and I'm finding myself optimistic about December and the beginning of a new year. There are two things that have always, always excited me the most about Christmas - decorating the tree and wrapping the gifts. I gave up trying to creative direct and color coordinate the kids' tree decorating long ago but, I have been able to maintain control over the gift wrapping.
Over the past few weeks as I've been pinning holiday inspiration on my Pinterest board, I came across this beautiful Japanese gift wrapping method called Furoshiki. As usual, I'm late to the party but from my additional research, I learned that Furoshiki is a 1200 year old Japanese art that uses fabric to wrap and transport valuable items and has become very popular in other cultures around the world as a beautiful, sustainable alternative to traditional gift wrapping.
As I've slowly been working towards a more sustainable lifestyle, and as a designer with never-ending shelves of fabric, I decided to incorporate this ancient technique into this year's gift wrapping activities.
Furoshiki doesn't only refer to the wrapping technique but it also refers to the fabric itself, which is usually a square piece of cotton cloth with decorative prints and designs. I know that everyone loves a beautifully wrapped gift, however, we also know that gift wrap is a huge waste of money and isn't recyclable if it's printed with foil or glitter. As I've slowly been working towards a more sustainable lifestyle, and as a designer with never-ending shelves of fabric, I decided to incorporate this ancient technique into this year's gift wrapping activities.
So, if you're looking to create beautifully wrapped gifts and be more mindful of waste and sustainability this holiday season, here is a little inspo for you:
WHAT YOU'LL NEED:
Your item plus a linen, cotton or silk square piece of fabric. The fabric can be anything from a leftover cutting to a tea towel or a printed scarf. The idea is that not only is the gifting beautiful, but the linens or scarves that were used for the wrapping can be used afterwards by the person receiving the gift. I plan on using a set of linen napkins and a few fabric remnants that I have on hand for some of my gifts this year.
HOW TO TIE FUROSHIKI:
I've done some version of Furoshiki in the past, however, I never knew what it was actually called, but I realized that it really is an art because there are at least a dozen different fabric wrapping techniques that can be used depending on the size of the item you're wrapping. So, I decided to dig deeper and among other resources, I found this really helpful blog post that explained Furoshiki very plainly and demonstrated the different wrapping techniques step by step.
Here's my very novice video demonstrating one of the easier, more straightforward techniques.
All in all, I'm super excited about this for the holidays. This year has been a huge opportunity for me to challenge myself to think an do a lot of things differently and to create new experiences and traditions - year round. It's something that I talk to my girls about all of the time as well. This small change to how we approach gift giving in one of the most unusual years of our lives is a step in the right direction...and it's beautiful and sustainable.
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