During my Plastic Free Christmas extravaganza last year, I struggled with a gift wrap dilemma because wrapping gifts (typically) requires tape, which is obviously made of plastic. My solution was reususing old gifts bags, as well as some very ineffectual origami. It wasn't pretty.
But this year, I'm going to make gift-wrapping into a cultural experience by using the Japanese art of Furoshiki to wrap my presents. If I do it correctly, my gifts will be beautifully surrounded by colorful pieces of cloth that I can reuse next year.
Interested in attempting Furoshiki yourself? Check out this helpful video.
Additional Resources
Wikipedia page on Furoshiki
An illustration of different Furoshiki methods
8 comments:
Nice!
I've received several simple cloth bags this year that are the "use it again" style. One person even did a simple kids one for a crayon gift for my kid's birthday!
I'm going to be excited to pass them along to friends for the holidays.
Excellent tricks, thanks for sharing ^_^, will try to do it for Xmas :)
Brown paper packages tied up with strings...(These are a few of my favorite things)
I use plain paper bags and doodle designs on them, if I have some, or the comic pages from the newspaper and use cotton twine string instead of tape.
Wow that video was well done. I think I could do that. Last year I sewed everyone fabric totes and put their gifts into them, but this wrapping method will work for this year's gifts.
Kel
It's wonderful work you're doing - enlightening the world about the dangers of plastic and offering such useful and creatives tips to help people to avoid it as much as possible! I would add, however, in regards to paper towels, that they are lifesavers for pet owners as cleaning up their various occasional excretions is no job for rags, unless you're willing to throw those rags away following use. Also, I don't mean to be critical, but if one truly wishes to save the environment, a tuna-free, dairy-free, meat-free diet would be the ideal. Keep up the great work - I'm a convert! I found you through Positively Green magazine.
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there is a nice diagram of all the different wrapping methods using furoshiki here
http://japansugoi.com/wordpress/do-you-know-how-to-use-traditional-japanese-furoshiki/
Nice gift idea. I was searching for idea to avoid plastic. The use of cloth can save our planet and also make the gift looking astonishingly brilliant.
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