Happy Earth Day!!! I hope you’re enjoying Earth Week as much as I am.
On the kick-off post for Earth Week I gave you an idea for a quick and easy furoshiki. As I’ve said before, I love the furoshiki concept. I love the idea of reducing our waste caused by disposable packaging by using a reusable cloth. If you’ve never tried a wrapping cloth, you should! The possibilities and uses are endless.
I recently was introduced to Furochic, a line of reusable fabric gift wrap inspired by furoshiki, designed by Jenn Playford of Jenny Wren Paperie. I fell in love with her designs and ordered an Elephant Parade wrap (LOVE that color combo!) to add to my furoshiki collection.
I got the wrap in the mail a few days ago and it is gorgeous! The best part of this is Jenn has graciously donated FOUR of her beautiful wraps for me to give away to YOU!!!
I asked her to tell me a bit more about her business and how she started designing her wraps. She explained that she had the idea for fabrics wraps, unaware of the Japanese tradition of furoshiki. When she started doing her research on whether any other company was marketing the idea of wrapping gifts with reusable fabric wrap, she discovered the Japanese tradition. She was inspired by furoshiki and decided to make her wraps the standard 27″x27″ size and to call them Furochic. She is very inspired by Japanese art and design, particularly textile design, so it was a natural fit for her. She has been illustrating for over 10 years (you can see her work at www.magnetreps.com) and each wrap design is one of her own illustrated patterns. Some of her motifs are inspired by Japanese design, others by nature and by her extensive travels. She has a new collection coming out in Fall. Here’s a little sneak peak:
Jenn also just had a book come out called Wrapagami.
It will be available in shops starting in August (and is available for pre-order on Amazon.com), but you can order it as of yesterday on her website!
The book features 25 different wrapping techniques, ideas for reusing your wraps, tips for choosing or making a wrap, a history of Furochic and furoshiki, and gift tips to make your gifts special. I can’t wait to get my hands on it–it looks like a beautiful book! All of my furoshiki books are in Japanese, so it will be nice to add one in English to my collection.
Jenn also has a bunch of great video tutorials available for different wrapping methods (click here).
* The giveaway is now closed. Check back tomorrow to see the winners!!!*
To enter the giveaway I want you to leave me a comment telling me what you are going to do to be more Earth friendly during the coming year. For a second entry in the giveaway, just leave a second separate comment letting me know if you are a Follower or a Subscriber. Make sure you leave a way for me to contact you! I will keep the comments open until Tuesday, April 28th, 10 pm PST, and announce the winners (using a random number generator) on Wednesday, April 29th.
{ 178 comments… read them below or add one }
← Previous Comments
Great giveaway! In this coming year I have resolved not to use any more plastic bags….and have been working on making at least 20 fabric ones to take to the grocery store (with four children, we buy a lot of groceries). These little fabric wraps would help me out so much with my resolution!
Thanks again:)
<3 sarasophia
I am a follower ma'am!
<3 sarasophia
tout_est_des_roses@yahoo.com
I’m going to watch more movies on my laptop, which uses a fraction of the watts that my tv and dvd player do.
We are ordering a tabletop composter to have in our house for the winter months (we live in Wisconsin – its friggid!)
I am an avid follower!
We just installed a composter in our yard. In addition, we’re remodeling our bathroom with low-flow toilet and sink, no-VOC paint, and recycling all the old materials to a local reuse center.
…And I follow your blog through Google Reader.
lovely! I have never seen these before…they are so great-I plan to use more recycled items in my art, and to use a reusable tote for shopping, for starters-
thanks for the giveaway
Trish
I have recently decided to start carrying my own reusable water bottle and stop buying the enormous cases of Dasani.
Not only has this proven to be a great help cost wise but I love knowing that I am no longer wasting so much plastic.
:)
lolly_martin@yahoo.com
cutting down on heating and cooling. using glass instead of plastic. rinsing out plastic bags. using reusable shopping bags.
follower!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
:)
I take my own bags to the store. I recycle. I have a compost pile going for about a year now. I use earth friendly light bulb. I use reusable bottles – bake my bread, grow my vegetables. This year I am going to try to line dry my laundry and not use the dryer.
I compost, I recycle, I’ve used nothing but cloth bags for years now..and now my husband and I are planning to build a low-energy, grid-clear house out of recycled materials! Oh, we’re having to learn so much, but it’ll be worth it to have a cool living room in summer and know we aren’t generating more heat for it in a horrible ironic cycle!
In the meantime, can’t ever get enough bags…
Thanks for the awesome give-away… I have been trying to reduce my carbon footprint for a while now… but have only gotten a start by using re-usable bags for shopping, carrying bento boxes for lunch, and using aluminum water bottles for drinks. :) I hope to continue my endeavor by starting a worm bin and growing my own vegetable garden in the year to come! A little bit at a time… :)
Going to install a rain barrel. Using a Britta pitcher instead of plastic water bottles. Trying to get better at remembering to bring cloth bags to the store.
I am a follower!
We walk to the mailbox. I know that doesn’t sound like much, but you must understand our mailbox is .75 miles away from our house, so if we don’t drive it saves the earth, a little.
i’m going to start walking to work more often. good for the environment and saves you gas!
texan_michael(AT)yahoo(DOT)com
Our garden provides us with most of our vegetable needs. The next step is a small orchard.
hi i’m a new follower
mumay65@yahoo.com
i’m using reusable bag everytime.
recycling all the time
we stop buying bottled water instead we use reusable container.
this week we are signing up to join a organic community garden in out town.
by this small steps we are taking…we hope to raise our kids to be kinder ,aware about our environment.
thanks for this awesome giveaway…
I use reusable shopping bags and recycle every can that comes through our house. I also return my used HP ink cartridges to their return center. I’m going to start recycling more.
This year I’m going to try to make all my gift wraps usuable, whether they are reusable bags, baskets, or wraps like these instead of using paper or bags that will be thrown away.
I am going to try to focus on our garden more!
I’ve stopped using bottles of water, and am instead filtering my own and pouring it into reusable ones for my family!
pw0105(at)gmail(dot)com
I got my first re-usable tote, so I am excited to use it this coming year!
hockiemack@hotmail.com
What an exciting giveaway!
I want to do better with packing my sons lunches for school. I’m sewing up some reusable sandwich bags,cloth napkins,and have switched to non-plastic utensils.
I’m going to continue using my stainless steel water bottle.
I’m going to try and use my bike more instead of the car
I’m going to purchase/make some produce bags to go with my set of reusable grocery bags.
One thing we’re doing is growing some vegetables for the first time! Depending on what success we have, that will mean less waste in the landfill, less fuel used to transport our food, and a greener backyard with improved soil. Thanks for the giveaway!
emhagedon at gmail
← Previous Comments