This is a more sustainable and beautiful packaging method.
The moment I was sure that Santa Claus was not real was when I was 9 years old, when I heard my mother's squeak of running out of tape, packing gifts into the night. Fortunately, you can avoid this obvious holiday exposure through packaging traditions, which is also a beautiful way to reduce the waste of disposable wrapping paper. Japanese furoshiki gift packaging-wrapping gifts with reusable fabrics-has been popular in Japan since the Edo period. It can help reduce the 540 tons of non-recyclable packaging materials made of plastic that Canadians discard every year. The most sustainable (and cheapest) way to wrap the furoshiki style is to reuse old fabrics or frugal vintage silk or polyester scarves.
Although originally used for furoshiki and bojagi fabrics, similar to the Korean tradition of wrapping cloth, it can represent a large amount of labor to manufacture, and the spirit of both is to use what you have, respecting the workmanship and practicality of the fabric. I tried it-this is the method.
To wrap the gift in furoshiki style, choose a piece of cloth with a diagonal length of about three times the length of the gift. It doesn't need to be precise; this ratio just gives you enough fabric to cover the entire gift without too many extra wrinkles on the sides. I start with the simplest packaging method, otsukai tsutsumi, which is basically carried with me as a small gift. The patterned square scarf for women fits this size just right. Ayano Hasui, international sales and printing manager at Musubi, a furoshiki specialty store in Kyoto, suggests that you can use any cloth that is “not too thin nor too thick, and soft enough to tie [two knots”. Corner]". Her shop uses silk, cotton, organic cotton, rayon, polyester, linen and wool. The vintage scarf I use is polyester with a sea foam green pattern and a cream background. It costs about three dollars . Other options may be a square tablecloth or a piece of unused fabric. (If you are using something purchased second-hand, I suggest you put the cloth in the wash.)
I laid the scarf flat on a large table, diagonally, and placed the gift in the middle, with the sharp edge of the square facing me. I tried to think of the long end as a handle tied to the top of the gift. It's a bit like origami for beginners, or neatly wrapping a book in paper. I took the corner in front of me, put it on top of the present, and stuffed the extra corner of cloth underneath. The same with the opposite underside. It's okay if the extra fabric in the corner is loose. At first, I was worried about wrapping gifts in the correct traditional way. But Hasui assured me that the most important part is "learning how to tie square knots—called ma-musubi in Japanese—because when you carry an object, it’s not safe to tie it together in a different way." In other words, the exact folding is not as important as ensuring that the gift is indeed safe.
If you have ever made a paper airplane, the principle is the same. Orient the edges of each side toward the center to make them more like small handles. Ideally, the edges of each side will intersect in the middle, with a line pointing to the corner of each side. The fabric will move; if these shapes won't stay completely straight, don't worry, because you are about to tie them together.
Finally, I took the left and right handles, put them together on the top of the gift, and tied them into a double knot, which is a square knot. If you carry wine bottles or watermelon in furoshiki, ma-musubi or square knot is important. It is actually exactly the same as the square knot taught in Scouts and Lace-the two rings intersect so that it can bear weight. The trick is to tie two knots with the same side. The loose end should point in the direction it came from. As far as I am concerned, this knot does not have to be load-bearing. It fits snugly, but it is not too tight to untie. The extra ends fall on both sides. The result impressed me. It is so cute and it wraps up so fast. The result was a small package wrapped in a beautiful checkered fabric, ready to be given to my friend.
Some styles of furoshiki use only one piece of cloth: other styles also use elastic bands or ribbons to fix the top folds together, like a flower-like pattern. You can also stuff a real flower in the top knot, which is not traditional, but very interesting. Different items and uses have different packaging styles, such as covering tea sets, carrying wine bottles, and so on.
This process is much easier than estimating the size of the wrapping paper, cutting it straight, and trying to get more scotch tape on the gift than on my fingers. In the rest of the time before the holiday, I will look for a square to match the gift in my mind. Fortunately for me, it is mainly books! I have several other vintage scarves of similar size, and some extra-length calicos. The thrift store near me often sells old linen tablecloths, but any cloth I can cut into a square will do. Furoshiki or bojagi packaging-using very similar packaging techniques-is useful for anyone traveling with holiday gifts, because I hope it will happen this year. I can do all the packaging work in advance without worrying about tearing the wrapping paper during transportation or stuffing the gifts into bulky, non-recyclable gift bags.
(Hand-stitched bojagi, from etsy.com)
Furoshiki was originally used to carry clothes, towels and belongings in and out of the bathhouse. It allows you to wrap everything up, keep it clean and separate from other people's belongings. Furoshiki showcases innovative fabric production techniques that are also used in silk kimonos, such as Yuzen dyeing, which allows multiple different colors to be used on the same piece of fabric, presenting complex patterns or scenes that appear to be hand-painted. If low cost is not a priority for furoshiki packaging, there are also very beautiful furoshiki cloths in Canada, such as Chideno in Vancouver, Lunchporter in Montreal and Nanao Kimono in Calgary.
Furoshiki originated in an era when fabrics were highly valued. The fabrics commonly used for furoshiki or bojagi are silk, cotton and ramie (although polyester can be used today). At that time, the labor of raising silkworms and mulberry trees, or planting ramie plants (these plants can be made into fabrics such as linen) and processing fibers and dyeing and weaving of cloth could all be done in manual processes that required a lot of labor and skills. . Therefore, it is expected that the fabric will be used until it is worn: first to wear new clothes, to participate in special events, or to wear on the first day of the new year, and then to other forms such as bojagi and furoshiki.
Furoshiki and bojagi cloths are carefully crafted, usually hand-embroidered or quilted with symbolic designs or knots, such as Japanese family crests or Korean wedding knots. Korean textile artist and bojagi teacher Youngmin Lee explained that patchwork bojagi is sometimes made from scraps of dresses and suits. Unlike kimono, Hanbok uses curves in its design. Therefore, bojagi will reflect important events in family life: weddings, births, funerals. The big bojagi can be hung on the window, and the dyed silk will color the sun like a stained glass window, or hung at the door like a breezy door. Beautiful examples of patchwork bojagi can now be found in museums around the world, such as the Metropolitan Museum in New York and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
Today, the fashion industry is one of the most polluting industries after the petroleum industry. Since learning about the many traditional uses of cloth wrapping, I have noticed that other times I can use cloth instead of plastic. Plastic will end up in landfills, oceans, and animals like us. I can wrap the tea I drink in the morning and keep it hot, or wrap my summer quilt for storage, so that the cat sleeping on it will not mean an annoying round of washing next spring. I like to wrap my lunch box to prevent it from spilling in my bag. This kind of disaster has happened dozens of times. When I try new zero-waste alternatives, I appreciate that I use more things. I'm more hesitant to buy things I don't need or will throw away. My personal choice may not be able to save the planet, but for the government to have enough pressure to legislate, and for companies to reduce carbon emissions, a large-scale cultural change that everyone contributes is needed.
If you feel a little melancholy about the carnivals discarded during the holidays, or are troubled by all the cumbersomeness of paper packaging, then furoshiki gift packaging is a good choice. As Canada moves away from disposable plastic products, you may even find yourself considering other furoshiki or bojagi-style cloths around the house. It's great when "doing good" the environment is so simple; ecological alternatives are a pleasure in themselves. And you won't hear any squeaks of tape reels.
Get more ideas on how to wrap gifts without wrapping paper here.