Discovering a hobby: Furoshiki

Let's take a break from flashy or dangerous past times for this post, and focus on something more zen: the art of furoshiki.

Furoshiki is the Japanese art of wrapping things in simple squares of cloth, be it for transport, protection, decoration or as a gift.

Like many things Japanese, this is both very simple in essence,yet precise and nice to the eye. There are countless techniques to wrap differently sized or shaped object in the most aesthetically pleasant and practical way, while only using standard squares of decorative cloth.

You can use those techniques in your everyday life, to make bags, carry things, pack you lunch, or use this decorative wrapping form as a gift wrap.

It can also be useful if you're into camping, backpacking or survival, as it provides a nice way to store, carry or segregate items, without needing you to pack additional containers. The cloth itself you'll probably already have with you, and it will serve many other purposes while not in it's packaging form.

Getting started

There's not much you need to get started in furoshiki.
A simple square piece of cloth of reasonable dimensions is all that's necessary.
You can practice with big handkerchiefs, bandannas, or scarves. Even various rags might be used for your unformal tries.
Just keep in mind that thinner and softer material will probably be better, as knotting stiff fabrics can take away much of the useable surface.
Size will depend on what you're trying to wrap essentially. I've used anything from handkerchief sized scarves for small items, to 1,20m side squares of fabric as grocery/sports bags. So pick various sizes of cloth or various sizes and shapes of items to experiment with.

The wraps themselves are usually straightforward, and simple square knots are what are mostly used.
The real trick is in getting everything neat, even ,and pleasing to the eye.

Try some of those basic wraps first :

 

My favorites

The following are some of my favourites ones.

The "Teardrop" bag/purse.

I've used this one for years as an improvised grocery bag, and as a sports bag.

The "two books wrap".

All right, this one is probably a bit specific and you probably won't use it everyday.
But as with knotting, there is great pleasure in knowing the exact best way to do something for a given specific purpose. It's a practical way to carry a pair or more of book shaped items. I've mostly used this one to carry around hard drives (What? Don't you daily need to carry naked pairs of hard drives ?!?)

The laptop bag

Ok , this one isn't pure traditionnal furoshiki, but shares a similar inspiration.
I'm not sure I'd trust it to carry my favourite laptop, but it helped me a couple of times for carrying big books

Purpose designed furoshiki

Given the recent interest in furoshiki, some purpose designed things started to pop up around the place.I won't consider those crappy "furoshiki bags , rings or shoes" , that are specifically shaped pieces of cloth with various incorporated features such as handles, sewn or cut parts, or soles. To me they totally defeat the whole purpose and polyvalence of being able to make up very specific solution from a simple and generic item.

Furoshiki inspired crap, that isn't furoshiki.

On the other hand however, there are pieces of cloth where the colors and prints are specifically arranged to be used as furoshiki wraps. Those can add interesting features to your furoshiki gifts.

The lush cosmetics store has furoshikis that look like Christmas puddings or penguins once tied:

Other sources also have such decorative purpose designed prints.

I hope you enjoyed discovering this relatively unknown hobby. And will find a place to incorporate it into your daily life.
If not, maybe one of the upcoming articles will have you covered.
Stay tuned !