This gorgeous gift was given to me by my dear friend Page, who has an absolutely splendid sensitivity to proportion—what I call design. The great thing about piling lots and lots of odds and ends is that if one part of the design is out of balance it's easy enough to keep adding another bow there or a ribbon here until the thing more or less looks cohesive and balanced—at least, until one runs out of package top on which to stick stuff, which I admit to doing a time or two!

But to ensure that a mere three or four elements co-ordinate perfectly with each other requires a good deal more careful planning. Let be also said that Page doesn't really care to fill her basement with squashed bows and bright orange ribbons that match nothing else; instead, she actually (gasp) goes out purchases ribbons and bows, in the quantity she needs, and that match the paper.

But the results, as you see, are spectacular.

Pleated & metallic ribbon, metallic paper, matching bows. For wrapping Page did in 2001, see below: click on the images for a 500 pixel wide version.

Page definitely belongs to the school that believes all that glitters is golden...I just love the many variations—matte, shiny, smooth, crinkled.

These samples were photographed long after the gift was unwrapped—so the less than crisp corners are a fault of a photographer too lazy to insert suitable supports. Again, Page explores what I think of the perfect rich, traditional Christmas decorating schemes—the ones that make you think of wonderful feasts in Victorian England: burgundy velvet, gold, pine cones from a yule log.

If the example above screams ‘Country Manor’, then this one has all the sensibilities of the art deco 20s, with a bit of entirely appropriate modernity thrown in: the holographic dots (again, my camera doesn't do justice.) It should be obvious by now that my friend really plans her wrapping projects, rather than just rootling around a bunch of stuff and hoping it will all gel. I mean look at how perfectly that bow matches the tulle.

Three gifts, Dec 2001, designs copyright L. Page Kaczynski.

Unless otherwise noted, text, image and objects depicted therein copyright 1996--present sylvus tarn.