Deciding what to get someone is the hard part; wrapping them up is usually easy… unless you’re trying to disguise a hockey stick. But don’t overlook the creative opportunities available to you in the wrapping process.
I’ve done some pretty crazy wrapping jobs in the past – some just awesome, others tacky but definitely fun. This year, I came up with the idea of using wooden ribbons and bows. I started with a 4′ board of straight-grained poplar. From this, I took a relatively coarse shaving from my low-angle jack with a 25-degree blade for the ribbons. I found that the low cutting angle was best for cutting ribbons without excessive spiralling though they still did end up looping. I was able to push the plane with one hand and receive the shaving with the other to keep them relatively straight. I wrapped them around the packages concave side in and cut and taped the ends to the underside.
For the ribbons I used the same material but switched to a bevel-down bench plane. My #4 is usually set to take a really thin shaving for final smoothing, however, I wanted the bow to have a little more substance to it so I increased the depth.
To produce the tight, wavy shavings I needed for the bow I modified my grip. My right hand pushed, but instead of holding the front knob with my left hand I cupped it over the mouth of the plane to restrict the escapement of the chips. Trapped, they had no choice to fold over on themselves. I found that skewing the plane at different angles also affected the shape of the shavings.
I took four passes for each bow and selected the three best shavings. Towards the end of each shaving it ended up zig-zagging back and forth. I cut off this part with scissors. Then, I gently tucked one end of each shaving under the ribbon and carefully twisted them together to make a homogenous bow. A couple snips here and there with a pair of scissors cleaned up the bow.
I wish you a Merry Christmas and lots of time to spend with those whom you love!
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After posting this, someone sent me this video, perhaps implying that I should wrap my presents with this next year.
Sculptural Woodwork by Chris Wong 
Very creative idea! I have a few to wrap Christmas morning and I have a stick of Poplar; hmm… I might give it a go!
I’ve seen ribbons made of walnut stock, but your use of poplar definitely suited the season’s spirit. Nice gift wrapping idea!
An excellent way to present you workshop creations. Too bad all of our gifts are wrapped already.
Benjamen,
One of these packages contained this puzzle (can you guess which one?). https://flairwoodworks.wordpress.com/2011/04/12/diamond-challenge/
I will be posting some of the gifts that have been made in my workshop this year after Christmas so the surprises aren’t ruined.
Chris
Dude. Super sweet! I still have a couple to wrap…. Maybe give this a try. Cool!