cassolotl:

Last night I made two matching furoshiki to wrap two gifts for my mum.

She is getting more into reducing her plastic waste and persuading supermarkets to do the same, so I’m hoping she’ll be into the non-disposable culture aspect and maybe she will reuse these.

If you’re into environmental whatever you might be familiar with the Five Rs of Environmental Responsibility, which come in order of priority:

  • Refuse – wrapping paper and plastic tape.
  • Reduce – I suspect this one isn’t relevant in this case? But it is great that they are rectangular – the only waste was cutting off the tiny corners and the endy bits of cotton, both of which will be recycled.
  • Reuse – these are completely reusable.
  • Recycle – fabric is recyclable at many recycling centres, but it’s also possible to unpick the hems and turn them into something else.
  • Rot – the fabric is 100% cotton and therefore biodegradable and compostable (though I think it would take a couple of years).

I’m probably going to make more – these two were made from fat quarters, and all I did was roll the hems so it’d be pretty easy to get some “furoshiki – please reuse” labels made and then sew them into the hems.

Okay, so it was actually pretty involved and took me several hours, but it was very easy. If I make several at once and get a shedload more pins I could definitely save a lot of time by doing each step to like 10 pieces at once.

HOW TO MAKE FUROSHIKI

  1. Find a good rectangle of fabric. You want something thin but not transparent, so cotton is ideal. Using something that would otherwise go to waste is extremely compatible. If it has two good sides that’s a plus. You can often find fat quarters in batches in fabric shops, tied with a ribbon.
  2. Iron it.
  3. Cut off the corners a tiny bit, maybe a centimetre, to make your corners tidier when you sew the hems.
  4. Fold and pin your hems. Go around the whole rectangle, folding the edges in once and then again, and pinning in place. Pin perpendicular to the fabric – it makes machine sewing much easier! My hems were about 1cm. Be warned that blocking pins for pinning out knitwear as it dries are too big and make holes in the fabric, not that I have ever done that.
  5. Iron the hems as flat as possible, being careful not to melt the pin heads, not that I have ever done that.
  6. Sew around your hems with either very matching thread or something contrasting. I’m really pleased with how the blue one came out – I used blue thread that ended up basically invisible (perfect!) and white to match the cornflower pattern, because I couldn’t be bothered to change the thread on a bobbin.

That’s why I LOVE Packaging Design

her-felicity:

  • I’ve got to learn new crafting and gift wrapping ideas.
  • Our professor, Ma’am Fe, is one of the best prof. I’ve ever met.
  • I love these kind of work. Whenever we have a plate in Packaging, I always feel alive.
  • Hand-crafted works are the best.
  • I’m saving the Earth in some way, like using eco-friendly materials. Recycling.
  • Being more creative. I can make my own bags, boxes and paper bags.
  • Making packaging designs just simply makes me happy.
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This is the Furoshiki 🙂 A Japanese method of gift wrapping. Furoshiki can be appiled on bottles and books. It can also be a bag. I enjoyed Furoshiki because it is easy and soooo convenient. I only need 1x1yard of cloth/bandana. This is our midterm practical exam in Packaging design. Ma’am Fe tested all of our works. The first one on the photo above is mine. I wrapped 2 bottles in it. The second is Pat’s. It is called the samurai Furoshiki. The others are our friends’ works. We all passed. 🙂

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These are our vintage soap boxes! They are all cute and lovely! I loved most of them! It’s so fun to be surrounded with creative friends. I am inspired by their works. Feels like I want to design more vintage boxes someday. Vintage stuff are undeniably cuuuute! ♥ ♥

pattipogodzinski:

I made a few patterns inspired by traditions celebrated in the month of december. These will be printed on silky fabric and sold as Furoshiki. The goat pattern is based off of the Scandinavian Christmas tradition of Yule, which comes from a pagan festival celebrating Odin. The heads were inspired by Saturnalia. It celebrates the mythological god Saturn and it was a time of equality, lights, gift giving and madness. 

fromrusttoroadtrip:

Rain, rain… Maybe we just have an affinity for it because we’re British. Maybe we’ve learned to embrace the inevitable. But there’s something about a rainy night or even a rainy day that makes you feel snug, safe, comforted. That particularly familiar sound of droplets on a fibreglass roof, splashing on panes of single-glazed glass, forming ephemeral circles on our porthole as we watch. Watching it collect on the windows in frozen powdered white, watching it melt back into rain again. It enshrouds us like a cocoon, keeping us safe, leaking in through the holes and exposing the cracks but we don’t care.

And it didn’t half rain on our week away, but we were in England after all. Every day and every night it rained, although it didn’t dampen our spirits. Not sheltered by the ancient pine trees of the New Forest swaying over us. Not tucked up in bed with a cup of tea starting the morning slowly, appreciatively. Not splashing through puddles and fording floods and trekking over damp Autumn leaves.

You see we don’t mind the rain, because it never stays for long, as we never stay in place for long too. It’s fleeting, and transient, like our lives on the road. And it’s comforting, soothing, the soundtrack to so many days and nights spent in our humble little van.


Follow the hashtag #Fromrusttoroadtrip to follow our van conversion project and our travels around Europe! 🌍 

soliloquyjewelry:

Garnet, tourmaline, citrine, moldavite, and onyx moons. Which would you choose? 🌙 The Crowning Moon Ring is an ode to the moon, to be worn as a guide through the dark, a talisman of feminine power, an amulet of protection for travels through the shadows. These five (sizes 5 to 5 ¼, 8 ¾, 6, 7, and 8 ¾ from top to bottom) will be available 11/28 at 8pm est, in my Autumn Idyll Collection release. ✨ #soliloquyjewelry #moonchild

teufelskunst:

Watching the honeyed November moon rise in a purple blue evening sky, while uploading this original art mini-series…. This is the first work in the “Sigilla Magica” series representing an ‘animal’ spirit. In this sigil I combine mythology and folklore connected to the honey bee and pollinators in general.

In ancient Cretan civilization the honey bee was part of religious worship and priestesses, the “melissae” were named after it. There are depictions of half human, half bee-shaped spirits and fertility goddesses, hinting at an ancient bee and honey cult. The art of bee keeping was viewed as sacred. Bees were believed to have fed the infant Zeus in the Diktaean cave on Crete. On the other hand bees were also connected to the underworld and the dead, since bees would inhabit crevices in rocks and caves and the bodies of kings and other important persons were embalmed in honey. In Asia existed the practice of preserving the dead in honey for a year and then eating the honey. One superstition holds, bees were (along with lizards and snakes) carriers of ill omen and the evil eye. Hence amulets with beheaded bees were worn to ward off the evil eye.

Since I foster an own witch garden, it was only logical to create an atavistic artwork for the spiritual essence that connects all the insects, which pollinate my plants. After a visit to Crete and the archaeological museum in Iraklion, as well as reading Hilda M. Ransoms book “The Sacred Bee”, I felt all the more inspired to create small talismanic works with my own take on the topic. The sigil itself though is already a few years old and I originally titled it “Regina Bombina”, a reference to the divine and royal nature of the bee.

In 2018 I created 4 drawings with ink on a coffee- and honey infused paper. The paper sigils are signed and dated on the back. They are mounted on a black cardboard passe-partout and come in a black cardboard box, which is signed and numbered. Along with the artwork you also receive a 30 ml bag of “Necroneiromancy” incense.

Artwork size: ca. 9 x 10 cm, passe-partout size: ca. 12 x 12 cm, 4 available
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bqcvp91Hd1d/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1b3pp2lo322sy

It all matters. That someone turns out the lamp, picks up the windblown wrapper, says hello to the invalid, pays at the unattended lot, listens to the repeated tale, folds the abandoned laundry, plays the game fairly, tells the story honestly, acknowledges help, gives credit, says good night, resists temptation, wipes the counter, waits at the yellow, makes the bed, tips the maid, remembers the illness, congratulates the victor, accepts the consequences, takes a stand, steps up, offers a hand, goes first, goes last, chooses the small portion, teaches the child, tends to the dying, comforts the grieving, removes the splinter, wipes the tear, directs the lost, touches the lonely, is the whole thing. What is most beautiful is least acknowledged. What is worth dying for is barely noticed.

Laura McBride, We Are Called to Rise  (via h-o-r-n-g-r-y)
Source: quoted-books