Paper is the heart of the studio. We buy uncoated stock in warm neutrals because it takes ink and pencil without glare, and we keep a stock of heavier board for tags, dividers and archive lids. Cloth bands and twine are selected for how they lie against a corner rather than for how they photograph, and every new material is folded on the bench before it enters the library.
Boxes are chosen for structure first. A lid should lift with a small hush, a base should hold its shape when the contents are heavy, and the whole parcel should survive a courier van without a seam opening. Where a box is not strong enough, we line it rather than hide the weakness under a bow.
What we keep in the workshop
Uncoated wrap paper in neutral tones, cloth bands and cotton twine, greyboard and heavy card, tissue in two weights, brass tag punches, a cutting mat that is already scarred, linen tape, sash spools sorted by width, and a drawer of small seals. None of it is exotic, and all of it is chosen so the finished parcel looks calm from a metre away and rewards a closer look.
The advantage of working this way is that a client can visit the studio in Orem and handle the actual materials before a run is approved. If you are arranging a gift from another state, we photograph the bench samples in natural light and send them for review, which has proved close enough to a studio visit for most projects.