Furoshikis are usually a square piece of cloth transformed by a few knots into a diverse collection of containers. The knots involved are pretty much limited to overhand and reef, but it’s still knot tying, right? 8)
Furoshikis are getting a push in the media as a substitute for wrapping paper (this works especially well for family gifts where you don’t have to worry about retrieving or not your beautiful imported-all-the-way-from-Japan fabric 8)
In Japan the gifts are presented to the recipient and the wrapping taken away by the giver. Elsewhere this is not so practical such as gifts delivered to be placed under the tree and only unwrapped at a later date, so Western givers should generally consider the fabric as part of the gift and plan accordingly. Buying bargain fabrics is then a useful activity (holiday themed fabrics after the holiday is over are often deeply discounted, especially at craft stores vs fabric stores).
What’s great about furoshikis is that they can be used for more than just gift-wrapping. Obviously they can be used as hankerchiefs/scarves/shawls.
Depending on the size and how nice the pattern on the fabric is, they can be used as tablecloths or wall-hangings. They can also be used for general carrying of things from your grocery bag to school books to…
WOW! Very interesting - thanks so much Carol! Now how would you have ever thought to look this up? The stuff about scarves is interesting sociologically I think - men whom I know do not currently seem to care to take such a simple accessory and decorate with it - why do women find it so - any ideas?
5 years ago or there abouts, I was at a weaving conference and they had a small demo called “making a furoshiki” which sounded interesting. I missed the demo and wondered what I had missed, so I researched the topic on the 'net and discovered something I thought to be very cool.
As I said, furoshikis seem to be getting a push in the media. There were 3-4 substantive articles in magazines and human interest type news on the TV, so I thought I would make sure the guild knew what else people might be doing with knots. 8) 8)
As for scarves, it’s not like men don’t fuss with their neckties just as much. 8)
Not quite the same and not half as pretty, but on the subject of alternative wrappings I wrapped up my pressies this year just using brown wrapping paper and parcel string.
for the past couple of years I have been using the brown paper and tape but the tape just looked out of place, so this time around I took someparcel string, some ideas from Ashley, added a few extra crossing knots and strung everything up.
Like I said not as pretty as the Furoshikis but interesting for me all the same.
