One of my favorite moments in the shop is when a customer walks up to the washi tape display and says "what's this?". Introducing folks to the excitement of washi tape and all of its uses is so satisfying. Their eyes light up when they start to imagine the possibilities as they peruse the selection.
Today's blog is dedicated to this magical tape, it's history, and it's many uses. So sit tight and enjoy the read if you want to learn a little bit more about why we love washi tape so much.
Washi tape can be found almost anywhere these days from little shops like mine to big box stores. However, not all washi tape is made alike and I tend to prefer the washi tape that is made in Japan. That should not come as a surprise as not only do we often have an expectation for Japan to create fabulous well made things but washi tape as we know it today actually originated in Japan where it is most commonly referred to as masking tape.
So what is it? Washi tape is a decorative, removable, water repellent, durable, tearable, and biodegradable tape. It comes in so many colors and patterns and as mentioned has an endless amount of uses. Basically, anything you use tape for in your daily life you can use washi tape for. The great thing about switching to washi tape instead of clear plastic tape is that washi tape is biodegradable so it will break down and never end up in the great pacific garbage patch.
When made in Japan, washi tape is made from paper (washi paper that is made from mulberry tress) and a natural rubber adhesive. Although I should say that there are many transparent washi tapes on the market at the moment and those in fact are not biodegradable. Here at Pink Moon Goods we are always striving to keep plastic out of the ocean and waterways so we are committed to only selling the paper based washi tape.
Washi tape is similar to masking tape which originated in 1925 by 3M employee, Richard Drew. Drew was inspired to create a tape that had a gentler adhesive than the common tapes being used in the a variety of industries that 3M served. There was a growing frustration among the autobody workers when the tape they were using was ripping off the freshly applied car paint. Masking tape was born.
Kamoi Kakoshi, a Japanese company that started as “Kamoi’s Haitori Paper Mill” in 1923 eventually made the move to manufacturing paper adhesive tape in 1961. As time went on they began to turn their focus from really aggressive tapes that clung to everything for deal life towards a that could be removed easily. In 2006, the company was approached by three women from Tokyo who wanted to show how they used their industrial tapes in craft projects. This inspired the company that we all have to come to know and love, MT! To this day I admit they have the best product on the market. They work with lots of artists and have a huge variety of different types of patterns, prints, sizes, and surface textures. All thanks to those ladies!
Although the tape is beloved amongst crafters (as it should be) here at Pink Moon Goods we are very fond of using washi tape for many practical and helpful purposes, as well as crafting. We use it to hang signs, decorate packages, make signs, decorate display containers, repair boxes or other paper objects like the holes on paper, and of course to decorate with as bunting (our favorite washi tape craft). It is a fun way to label jars at home, hangup signs for your housemates, seal envelopes, and mark things that are yours (like lighters) so that no one can walk off with them.
