The latest addition to our range of paper twines: a bulky, striped paper cord in red and white that is perfect for gift wrappings, bows and garlands – just in time for the holiday season!

The cord has a naturally crinkled texture and can be untwisted to a stunning 4 1/2 inch (11cm) wide heavy creped ribbon. The ribbon has a great body and can be easily formed into bows that will maintain their shape nicely.

Comes as a hank with 25 yards (about 22,8m) – and in case there is some of this gorgeous paper cord left after the Christmas holidays you’ll also love it to decorate garden parties, children’s birthday parties (think about those bows and garlands!) and to use for gift wrapping the whole year round!

Now availabe in the PaperPhine etsy store.

For some reason the studio has recently been obsessed with paper stars. Yes indeed – springtime is coming in Vienna but who says that paper stars are only suitable for the darker winter months and the time around Christmas? After all stars can be seen all year round (weather conditions allowing) and they’re a very basic and classical shape – so nothing can go wrong as long as you choose non-Christmasy colors for your decorations and gift wrappings.

Today we’re sharing some pictures from our good friend Helle who runs Stjernestunder and who is folding paper stars (nearly) every day of the year. Her new and elegant gift wrappings with small hand-folded paper stars in all colors and some of our paper twines are really divine.

Foldbags by Ilvy Jacobs (Photography by Igor Kruter) – part of her graduation project and designed to “give a new view on everyday luxury “

Looking at my latest blog entries I just figured out that I provided a perfect gift-guide in what to put under the Christmas tree for me! So in case you’re the significant other reading this – you had your chances! The paper bags by Dutch designer Ilvy Jacobs are definitely a want-have.

Crunchbags by Ilvy Jacobs

The Foldbags take a new look at the everyday object of the plain, brown paper bag and make a piece to keep rather than a piece to be thrown away – or perhaps even a collector’s piece. The Crunchbags are made of made of cardboard laminated with fabric what makes them more sustainable. Their forms quite obviously derive from sports’ bags and the functional factor is clearly more important than the sculptural approach.

Paper-Taped Bag by Ilvy Jacobs

I’m not completly sure what the idea behind Ilvy Jacobs’ Paper-Taped Bag might be. But playful me loves the crumbling-up of one’s sports’ bag – just imagine a whole locker room full with crumbled-up bags. On the other hand this might also prove to be the weak point of these designs – trying to sell a product that is meant to last for months if not years out of a material that people don’t trust when it comes to sustainability. The Foldbags on the other get it perfectly right and don’t propose anything except making our lives a bit more beautiful.

The Workshop and Atelier here resembles more and more the Workshop on North Pole – or the Christkindl’s Workhop for those who rather believe in a not-to-be-seen Angle-like gift bringer (Austrians do!).

So we still amuse ourselves with fine paper and paper twines and can only recommend it to all of you who are still looking for some ideas to wrap up their presents and add a personal touch. More Paper Yarns and Twines can be found here

The other topic we’re still playing around with is a bit more personal – the perfect table top for a great Christmas evening with the family… but we’re getting there and luckily there is still some time left.

So many lovely things to add some charm this year’s Christmas table… in the end it will be perfect!

The serious gift wrapping season has started – one of the favourite times during the year here at the PaperPhine studio. Working with paper and paper twines makes us happy – so this season makes us really happy as you can imagine. And what wonderful excuse to feast in papers and paper twines, to wrap, coil, wind, glue and to just enjoy simple yet beautiful materials.

With our new classical Selection of Thick Paper Twines in Red, White and Black and a roll of kraft paper it’s to create some stylishly wrapped presents. For the curls just wind the paper twine tightly around a knitting needle or a thin, round pencil – et la voilà, paper twine curls. The curls are also great if you need a little extra to quickly turn a bottle of wine into a fabulous present.

The Thick Paper Twines in Red, White and Black are strong by themselves and easy to curl – but even more so if you braid them. The resulting string will be even stronger and easy to form. It’s also fun to braid these paper twines with kids because the twines are thick enough to be hold in small hands. Recycle your gift wrappings after Christmas and turn them into bracelets – or, since the paper twines are ecologically friendly and biodegradable, reuse them in your garden to keep your tomatoes straight… and watch this blog to see some tomato-pictures with cool bows next summer!

PaperPhine’s Strong Natural Paper Yarn on a Vintage Bobbin – available online

The first technology to industrially produce paper yarns were developed in the late 19th century in Germany. Even though the processes have been refined over the time the initial technology is still in use today.

Cellulose fibres under the microsope. This is the raw material for a lot of paper yarns even though the fibres are not always as finely dissolved and “separated” as shown on this picture.

The paper used for making yarns (so-called spinning papers or Spinnpapiere) has to have long fibres therefore sulphate-papers (Sulfatpapiere) were mostly used. In those papers the cellulose fibres are not completly dissolved therefore the paper is stronger. The thickness of spinning papers can vary – the thinnest are like tissue paper, the thicker ones like thin printing paper. The thickness of the paper together with the breadth of the paper strips later determines the thickness of the paper yarn.

In the early 20th century there were still quite a few companies suppling the paper yarn industry with the necessary machines. This advert is for a German Paper-Strip-Cutter patented by Ferd. Emil Jagenberg.

In the early times of paper yarn production it was common that fine strips of paper were made with the help of special devices on the paper machine instead of cutting the paper later on. Up to about 1910 this kind of paper yarns were widely used and sought-after as an important subsitute for other yarns. Then the other variety – paper yarns spun out of dry-cut paper strips – became popular before disappearing into nearly complete oblivion in the 1950s.

During the years of the second World War it was also common to combine the paper with other materials. For these yarns (Textilosegarne) that were a necessity due to the lack of proper and sufficient raw materials, a fine layer of linen-, cotton- or flaxfibres was glued onto the paper before it was cut and spun. To my knowledge these yarns aren’t produced anywhere anymore.

PaperPhine’s Selection of Colored Paper Yarns in Reds and Yellow – available since today!

Today there are only very few paper yarn spinneries left in Europe that spin paper yarns out of rolls of papers coming from the big paper factories. Thicker yarns are then partially delivered to the dyeing mills where they are labouriously dyed. The thinnest yarns stay in the original color that is either white or a natural-brown.

The promised Short History of Handmade Shifu is not forgotten, only postponed a little. Also a description of the cutting- and spinning-process of industrial paper yarns is in work (too many interesting facts to collect and too little time, sorry). This is just a short summary of the whole history and development of industrial paper yarns. Due to its importance at certain times there are quite a few processes that were used etc. so the whole history is quite complex.

Most of my reference material is in German, therefore you find some German technical expressions in the text. If you have or know of reference materials in English or French I would be really grateful if you could get in touch with me, thanks!

There are two achievements I’m currently proud of: I finally managed to buy myself a dress in Italy (a long quest finally rewarded) and I finished a Purely White Paper Yarn Necklace I really like. On the first picture the two are shown of together…

I was in Venice last November to see the Biennale but I’m living about 70km north of it at the moment so it seemed like a waste not to go and have a look at some art and great papers. Leaving the Palazzo Grassi that houses Pinault’s contemporary art collection I passed a small shop window – and there it was! MY dress. Vintage, a fine plissé, green with orange, one of a kind… and it fits perfectly with purely white necklaces.

And the question of how to pack bigger necklaces is also solved. The boxes come in all kinds of colours so my customers will always get a little, nice suprise receiving their pieces.

Looking at the picture above – what would you make to think that I got my package from UGUISU with all different colours of Japanese Paper Tape – and of course the famous balloons I blogged about before? Well, the packaging of course! Subtle, but it’s there and I just love the colours. Beside the products themselves the lovely thing about my package was that the rolls of tape were seperately wrapped in pretty paper – thanks Hiki!

The only problem there is: I also got this lovely shippment with pretty pretty Paper Yarn in black, orange, pink and turquoise that will also be available in my etsy store shortly. Therefore: what to use to wrapp up my stuff? (… both, I guess)

I’m still thinking about how to perfectly pack and present my rings made of paper yarn and therefore I was looking around for small boxes – and found these little Milk Cartons by Malaysia-based design studio Grass Studio over at one of my favourite package design websites The Dieline.

And the cool thing is that the cartons don’t come as cartons – but they are
die card postcards that can be made into the small Milk Cartons! It seems that by now they are collector’s pieces – what I fully understand because I would keep them on my shelf no matter what!

… just too many beautiful and cool possibilities to pack stuff in boxes (and to make boxes to begin with)!