it's almost christmas!

hello all, i hope you are wrapped up warm!

today we will be thinking of some different gift wrapping ideas, in the form of our furoshiki, and sharing with you our new studio-cum-shop layout that we have made in Greenwich, London. we hope it inspires you to have a different approach to gift giving this year!

you may remember a while ago our 'tying project' that we made when we launched our range of furoshiki at 100% Design in 2010. we want to remind you again of it as the season for exchanging presents and visiting friends and family arrives- instead of carrying food to a house for a party in a paper bag, why not wrap it in a cloth or one of our furoshiki? there are many different ways of tying the furoshiki to hold wine bottles, presents, food gifts and more! you can see all those ways in the various furoshiki blog posts we have done (here, here and here) telling you how you can tie your own.

our charity furoshiki using the 'bin tstutsumi' method- literally 'bottle folding'!

we think that it's nice to give a friend, family member or loved one something a little different- wrapping paper can be beautiful but it's often thrown away after one use, and can't be used for much else. but if you give somebody a gift wrapped nicely in a special furoshiki, the gift becomes more special and what is on the outside can be treasured just as much as the gift within. all of our furoshiki come with a sheet of folding instructions and presented in a small cardboard box, so if you want to give the gift of a furoshiki on its own, that can easily be done too. there is also the added touch of the furoshiki having been made for charity towards japan- you will be doing a good deed as well as brightening up someone's gift!

we have some good news to bring you about our studio space in Greenwich, London, too- now, as well as having a studio space to work in, we also have a small area in front of our workstations that we are using as a showroom for our lampshades, wallpapers and home accessories.

a few shots of the space, which we hope you can come and visit!

we thought it was about time to have some space to show off our products since launching the wallpapers and cushions that make up our studio collection. now that we are being lent the beautiful 1951 Ernest Race Rocker made for the Festival of Britain, a collaboration piece between ourselves and the lovely people at Firefly House, we want to be able to show it off in a nice way. so we worked with the small display space we had to make a little shop where people are able to come in and browse our products or look through our wallpaper book. we have our studio space to work in, behind the shop area, so we can quietly get on with designing and making nice things for you.

and of course we have teddy to keep an eye on us in his custom-built-by-kei doggy house...

if you are interested in visiting us, please do drop by. you can find our address and a map to follow if you want to find us, on our website! please give us a call if you do want to see us, as we aren't always in. sometimes we have to drop things off or take out our little Teddy monster. if you have any comments or questions please feel free to email me at kimika@yukarisweeneydesign.com, or leave one below, so we can reply to you. of course we also have a twitter, website and facebook for you to follow, so please don't hesitate to get in contact with us! until next time!