Book Appreciation, part 2

During the past month I was given two wonderful books by friends, and want to post about my process of appreciation here.

The first one I was given was the newly published book by Kathleen Loomis, who had been writing about the process of making the book frequently on her blog, and which I have recently written about here.. The second one is by The Pixeladies, whom I have taken the photo editing online class from earlier this year, and whom I finally met in person when they came to teach in France this past month.

Their book is called “Furoshiki Fabric Wraps” and the Pixeladies sent it by mail, after I had returned home, it arrived last week. The book itself was wrapped in a piece of silk. Due to complete ignorance on my side and lack of understanding as to what grand addition to my life it was I was getting there, I thought ‘that’s a good idea’, unwrapped the thing and never took a photo of what it looked like before I opened the present.

This is the book, and what it was wrapped in:

And this is a close-up of what the book looks like, unwrapped (alas):

When I finally started leafing through the book in more detail last Sunday morning as I was having breakfast, I was immediately captivated. And sooooooooooooo regretful that I had not taken a photo of the stage it arrived in... but I managed to remember enough about the process of unpacking that I think the type of wrapping must have been the "Two Knot Wrap" as featured on the front of the book cover (and explained in more detail on page 45). Nobody was home, so even during breakfast I started thinking about what I could wrap to try out some of these wonderful ways of creating packages. (I've always been a fan of Jeanne-Claude and Christo, but this is closer to my own sphere of competence!)

Reusing the silk scarf the book itself had come in was the easiest way of getting hold of a Furoshiki, and as it was a bit too small to do a ‘Two Bottle Wrap’ with two fully-sized water bottles I thought two empty marmelade jars which were sitting on the kitchen counter waiting to be finally taken down to the cellar would do just as well.

waiting to be wrapped...

roll ...

and wriggle, and tie a knot - finished!

Reading the instructions gives you  the feeling that at least one of the Pixeladies is sitting next to you in their distinct manner of explaining – a Furoshiki is easy to do! Once you’ve done one, you want to try more. At least that happened with me. 
Here’s my last piece of shibori dyeing (as in both meanings of the word – my most recent, and the last one I will do, as I have resolved that, as much as I adore the results of good shibori dyeing, making it is just not for me – but that really is another story), 

Practice makes perfect, but that's not for me+shibori.

which seemed a qualified candidate, large enough for two books, to try out the “Two Book Wrap”. As both Pixeladies and I are members of SAQA (Kris being the curren president, too) I figured two issuses of SAQA’s annual portfolio of Juried Artist Members could take some wrapping.

And this is what they look like wrapped:

What a fun and interesting book. Reduces waste, may transform the wrapping into the gift, and they are so easy to do! This is a joint picture of my first two Furoshikis (hope that’s a correct enough way of forming a plural as my knowledge of Japanes is rather limited...):

Certainly a wonderful present to receive, and wrapped in a Furoshiki, that is in itself, in a way! Thank you very much to the Pixeladies – and won’t you need a great gift for a fabric-loving friend any time soon?