What I should have realised is that unless you are naturally deft and spatially aware, it takes time and practice to acquire this skill. That's why this post is appearing now instead of last Christmas, which was when I enthusiastically set to with my sellotape and scissors - though you might find that hard to believe when you see the photos of the end results, below. I've always enjoyed wrapping presents and Christmas seemed the perfect opportunity to polish off this task. Well, I tried. And failed.
YouTube certainly has a wealth of videos on the subject and by the time the carol singers appeared, I felt as though I'd watched most of them. Who knew there were so many ways of tying bows, pleating paper, creating little envelopes in the surface of the paper to hold charming sprigs of yew or berries, etc? Double-sided sellotape seemed to be essential. Ditto wire edged, rather than ordinary, ribbon if you wanted it to hold its shape once you'd twisted it into a mass of frills or rosettes. Clearly a shopping trip was required.
Have you ever tried used double-sided sellotape? It's a menace. I ended up with bits in my hair, stuck to my clothing, and pretty much everywhere except where I wanted. I also discovered it won't stick to ribbon, nor take much pressure without suddenly losing its adhesive properties. Making a rosette out of little pieces of ribbon was a nightmare. As fast as I stuck them together, they pinged apart. I tried stapling the centre sections to provide a working base, but that only worked for the first layer. After that, the stapler simply squashed any additions. After two hours, I grimly chucked the whole lot in the bin and gave up on the idea of making rosettes - even though they looked so easy on the video clips.
My hairdresser strongly recommended paper pleating - much beloved of the Japanese, apparently - so I thought I'd give that a go. She assured me it was a doddle, once you'd got the hang of it. The main problem I found, which applied to most of my efforts with this particular challenge, was that I couldn't find a way of pausing the YouTube video to allow me to absorb the information and try it out, before moving on to the next stage. Nor could I get it to rewind without going right back to the beginning. As a result there were three that I must have watched literally scores of times, and still without being able to retain the key images in my mind. It was interesting realising how poor my visual memory is, but not helpful.
Eventually I produced two wrapped gifts that I thought passed muster. I'd decided I should produce at least 3 decent samples using different techniques - originally I'd envisaged more, until I realised it was much more challenging than I'd expected - and at least now I was two-thirds of the way through. One I asked Peter to photograph for me (I don't have a camera, apart from the one on my phone). It looked quite striking, with the central section in pleated blue and gold paper and a small gold bow at the top right. The other I gave to a friend without remembering to take a photo first, so that was a write-off from the point of view of the blog. Time to give it a rest and turn to something else.
When we returned from South Africa at the end of March, I thought I should unearth the sellotape and renew my efforts. To remind myself that I had already accomplished a third of this task, I decided to write up the beginning of the blog post. I needed the photograph Peter had taken, but couldn't find it anywhere. It turned out he'd had a major clear-out of his camera, to release more memory, and my photo was no more. So I was back to square one, with nothing to show for all those hours of frustration.
As the pleating had been moderately successful, I had another go at that and was reasonably happy with the result:
Perhaps a box would be a good idea, using tissue paper and ribbon inside? From the video it looked almost childishly simple. All I had to do was measure the ribbon, place it inside the box with the ends hanging over the sides, scrunch up some paper to line the base, lay some folded tissue paper over the top with the ends flowing over the sides of the box, place my gift on top, fold the ends of the paper over the top, pick up the two ends of ribbon and tie a bow, and put the lid on. Easy. Except it wasn't.
The presenter had commented, almost as an aside, that she folded the tissue paper so that it was only slightly narrower than the box. That seemed entirely sensible but not at all easy to do, without leaving marks in the paper as I kept trying to get the measurement right - and also bearing in mind that it looks neater if you don't have any raw edges. The scrunched up paper took up too much space, so I had to keep removing bits. When it came to folding the tissue paper over the top of the gift, it wouldn't lie flat (not surprisingly, as - unlike the object in the video - the gift was bobbly). Finally when it came to tying the ribbon, I found it wasn't long enough, even though I'd taken the precaution of allowing quite a bit more than the 10cm that the presenter had said would be enough for tying the bow. There was nothing for it but to dismantle the whole thing and start again.
In the end it looked quite pretty but nothing like the effortlessly elegant gift featured in the video:
For my third offering, I thought I should try tackling an awkwardly shaped object. A hexagonally shaped jar of marmalade seemed ideal. Unfortunately I couldn't find a video that addressed this (and now I know why). Still, I reckoned it would work if I combined the instruction on wrapping cylinders with the one on dealing with pentangles. Both of these were covered in a Japanese video on YouTube. All I had to do was measure the paper accurately, fold over any raw edges, make a series of interweaving pleats at the top and base of the jar, and tuck in the final flap of paper without needing any sellotape.
I think it might have been less of a failure if I'd taken more care with the measurements. They really do need to be spot on, and mine weren't, so the pleats didn't all meet in the centre. Also if you're going to rely on making crisp triangular pleats with one hand while holding and slowly rotating the jar in the other, you need paper that has some body. Mine was from IKEA and it didn't. It couldn't tolerate that degree of manipulation without wrinkling and creasing. The end result was a complete mess, even with the addition of some sellotape to stop the pleats unravelling. Fortunately the friend I gave it to is someone with a zest for life who rips presents open without pausing to notice the packaging:
One upside of this experience was that I decided to invest in some decent quality wrapping paper. I spent a happy hour or so browsing in John Lewis and came home equipped with two rolls of paper, two rolls of coloured raffia, some wire-edged ribbon and funky gift tags. Now I was ready for business.
My birthday present for Pauline was a nest of Joseph measuring cups in a box - she's an accomplished cook who loves baking - and I was keen to show her what I'd learned, especially as it had been her idea in the first place. I knew she liked the Japanese style of wrapping, so I decided to opt for that but with the extra challenge of creating a diagonal "envelope pouch" on the top, into which you can tuck a gift tag - or a sprig of herbs or something similar. The John Lewis paper was a vast improvement and at last I'd worked out how to use the pause and rewind facilities on my iPad. It was going reasonably well until the very last stage, and I'd even managed not to use any sellotape, but then the instructions rather petered out and the video finished in a whirl of dexterous Japanese fingers twisting the box this way and that, tucking in stray angles of paper and producing a perfect package. No matter how often I replayed that section, I couldn't see how it was done.
I did my best, which wasn't good enough, but the attractive paper helped take the eye away from the flaws and it did feature a diagonal envelope, as planned. Earlier in the year I'd had a go at the potato printing challenge and although I hadn't produced anything suitable for a painting, I'd kept the leaf shapes as I thought I might be able to do something with them. It occurred to me that I could cut one out and use it as a gift tag, with a twist of the raffia. Pauline generously awarded me 9 out of 10 - she's a kind friend - and we were both happy:
Despite the frustrations, I enjoyed this challenge and would be interested in attending a present wrapping workshop - or better still, having a session with a patient friend who has the skill and can teach me. I used to think it was the object itself that mattered, not how it was presented, but I now believe it really does make a difference if it looks visually appealing and tempting. There's so much scope for creativity once you've mastered the various techniques - and then it can be fun.
No comments:
Post a Comment