A Wrap Artist

When I was a young girl I was obsessed with paper and stationery. I loved my ballerina paper dolls so much that I still have them, but graduated to hand made cards, postage stamps, ephemera, and any beautiful pieces of paper I could collect and treasure. The colors, the artwork, and the textures all enraptured me. In my grown up life, I still can't resist wandering luxuriously through an authentic stationery store finding irresistible cards or paper so soft you'd think it's fabric! And of course I was later bitten by the scrapbooking craze, mostly in paper, but also in digital form--whew, the infinite designs.

Christmas wrapping was the most divine time for me, so after helping my mother as much as allowed with the gifts we were giving, I would volunteer my labor to aunts and friends who were dreading a task they called a chore. Can you imagine? Give me a cup of hot cocoa, the right tools, everyone else in bed, and let me create! That's Christmas! This continued when I went to college and afterwards; I always seemed to know women who found Christmastime wrapping a burden, and I could swoop in and be a hero while having the time of my life doing it for them! Store markdowns of wrapping paper after the holiday became my addiction, and I grew a marvelous collection of fabulous wraps and ribbons.

So it's not really a surprise that in a moment of clarity I thought to ask a friend if she thought her cousin, who had no time, but lots of children and lots of money, would hire me to "do her Christmas" with my extraordinary collection and expertise. Her response was that not only was that a GREAT idea, but one she would would put her money into and join me in a business of going to people's homes and businesses and wrapping their holiday gifts for them! And Voila, we made it happen.

I wanted to name our company, The Artful Wrapper, but her cool teen daughter suggested the name, Wrap Artists, and we went with that. We sent out press releases and got ourselves in Daily Candy, and on NYC tv news and radio for several appearances. Our phones rang off the hook so much that we barely had a chance to tell each other who had just booked us, or what media wanted us to appear--we laughed that one day we would tell Oprah our story, hung up with each other, and kept answering the calls. Some very savvy NYC women booked us straight through Christmas Eve that first holiday season. They would actually fib about how many gifts they had, thinking we wouldn't come if there were too many, and then they would surprise us by having 33 items, instead of 11--a huge difference in gift wrapping time.

We smartened up after that, and organized our wrapping gear very precisely with sturdy canvas Rubbermaid giftwrapping totes to carry rolls of high-quality foil wrap in traditional holiday colors. I insisted we purchase only Fiskars scissors for precision cutting, and bought enough pairs that we could label them (as you can see in the picture above) specifically for paper, ribbon, or tape only to keep them pristinely sharp. We got large 3" core tape dispensers and 36-yard rolls of Scotch double-sided tape, bone folders for professional creases, and spools of actual double-face satin for perfect bows. We brought everything with us, wrapped all their gifts, and cleaned the mess. They handed us their cash, often included tips and/or holiday ornaments, and whispered in our ears, "this is the best money I've ever spent," or "don't tell my husband." We had some corporate clients too, including a law firm the following spring that spent a small fortune for their 150th anniversary gala event. We knew we were onto something in our first meeting with them when we were still trying to land the gig by showing them our meticulous wrapping sample, and they were like, "you're already hired."

After that spring, we wanted to pursue different directions so we parted as business partners, but stayed dearest of friends--smiley face. I became giftgirlnyc.com, set up my own website, and took a retail job at Kate's Paperie in NYC to supplement my income. I thought I was going to work in a city-famed store that sold beautiful paper and ribbon for $10/hour. Instead, I got a master's education about the most exquisite and handmade papers from around the world--so many like jewels it was dazzling. And lo and behold, didn't my dream come true? They taught us how to gift wrap in the traditional Tsutsumi Japanese art of packaging, specifically Origata, which involves intricate folding and pleating of paper into elaborate designs such as fans and tuxedo pleats elevated into off-the-charts elegance and imagination. To see it is to be awed by it, I kid you not.

I worked on the paper wall, helping customers choose large 20 x 30 sheets of the most unusual papers you've ever seen. The store was grand and many celebrities shopped or had gifts wrapped at Kate's. A colleague gift-wrapped a Picasso sketch Steve Martin was presenting to some lucky recipient, adorable Anne Hathaway shopped for invitations, Michael Keaton stopped by my paper wall when he was trying to evade paparazzi, and Ty Pennington had all the girls swooning after his designer's eye chose an eclectic collection of our papers, but my highlight was that I once assisted Michael Emerson (Ben from Lost, when he was still Fake Henry on the show...fav line: 'You guys got any milk?'), although he recommended a children's book, I Took The Moon For A Walk, that is profound and now my most fav children's book, so I'm not sure who helped who in that case. It was a blast working there--like some sort of magical dollhouse of arts and crafts. Retail is hard on the human body, especially in a NYC space, but for the mind it was all creativity and beauty--sort of like getting lost in some gorgeous, timeless paper store in Paris...at least it was that for me.

I only spent a year there because Aleve found my website and called me for a real-people holiday commercial shoot they were filming in NYC. While the casting agent was interviewing me on the phone, I thought she was someone who needed someone to gift wrap/decorate a set, but no, she wanted me to be in a commercial as myself, wrapping gifts--I almost exploded from happiness! So long story, short, I tested in the Starbucks next door to Kate's on my lunch break, and they decided I was a "natural" and cast me. I shot the commercial on one of the best days of my life. They picked me up and brought me back home afterwards, (union rules), hunky men carried things for me because I was "the talent", an artist did my makeup, and the director interviewed me for about 2 hours while I laughed and performed gift wraps on camera. No wonder movie stars are happy! The final commercial is 30 seconds--LOL! (You can watch it and my other news appearances on You Tube under my name). A couple weeks later, the first paycheck arrived, then the one-time cable tv purchase around $2,500, (I literally cried because I thought I was opening a check for $468), and then bountiful royalty checks arrived because my commercial was a smash! I got signed on for a third year, (the limit they are allowed to use), and for the first time in my working life, I was financially flush. It was super fun when my friends would see my commercial and call me up and tell me how they were pointing at the tv saying out loud, "I know her. I know her." Then my doctor did that to me in person after he saw it--What a Trip!

Before the commercial aired, I had to say goodbye to Kate's Paperie, as it was a conflict of interest to work there and have a similar company of my own. Luckily for me, in my final days, an executive assistant walked in and was buying such a random mish-mash of paper and ribbon, I decided to question what she was doing. She explained that her boss gives over 300 gifts every holiday, so...you guessed it, I asked, "who's going to wrap them?" I told her I was soon to be a free agent with my own gift wrapping business and she happily took my number. And that's how Ralph Lauren became my first celebrity client. I wrapped for him and his partner for 13 years including two holiday years that I drove cross-country back to NYC from Monterey, CA with my transgender partner, who counts origami among her many artistic talents. Unfortunately, the Covid-19 disaster ended our long run, yet, I hope to return to create a magical Santa's Workshop once again in the hallowed halls of America's most singular designer.

It's hard to grow this type of business where you are the main labor, so in addition to launching a commercial website, I'm going to relocate to southern California later this year to open my very own bricks and mortar paperie, giftgirlca, where I will offer exclusively designed, empowering and inclusive artwork on giftwrap, cards, notebooks and journals, desktop items, tabletop home accessories, clothing and other items, along with beautiful handmade papers and gorgeously created ribbons from around this artistic world of ours for other treasure seekers like myself to adorn their lives. To have the financial assistance of Fiskars, the tools which have helped me elevate my art to it's highest perfection, would be an honor. And hey, do what you love, and you'll never work a day in your life!