DIY Wedding and Party Ideas Part 2 – Mizuhiki

The main purpose of Japanese mizuhiki is for decoration on things like cards, envelopes, and gifts. In most cases, they are tied into lovely bows and even animal shapes like butterflies.

Besides gifts and cards, mizuhiki may be used to decorate table settings by knotting them into coasters, utensil rests (in Japan, they can be used as chopsticks rests), tied around glasses as a decorative sleeve or charm dangling from the glass stem, knotted as a napkin ring, or even as little sculptures to display on the dinnerware.

It’s simple to use and tie Japanese style mizuhiki creations for small details, or they can become a theme throughout the wedding festivities.

Since it’s available in a wide variety of colours and colour combinations, the mizuhiki can be tied using simple Japanese knot tying techniques to create beautiful flowers, bows, animals (like cranes, koi, bears, butterfly etc…).

For the main party, the mizuhiki can be used to decorate the guestbook by dressing up the book itself, or to be used as a book mark. It can be wrapped around the pen for guests to use and even tied into a lovely holder for guest seating/name cards.

The cords can be secured into wide flat strips, and many different lengths that are perfect for larger creations or even sculptures for centrepieces or main hall decoration.

While it is becoming more and more popular for decoration of stationery and home decor, mizuhiki is quickly becoming a fan favourite as a fashion accessory, especially for clips, headbands, necklaces, earrings and bracelet decorations.

Play around with it, mix and match with origami, chiyogami and even Japanese fabrics to see what works best for the look you would like to achieve and see what kind of unique and creative uses you can think of for this ancient Japanese art.