When designer Matt Dick wraps presents, there is no wrapping paper in sight. At a recent workshop in his San Francisco studio, the founder of Small Trade Company demonstrated how to use bits of newsprint, flyers, and fabric scraps?in his words, “very pedestrian” materials?to create one-of-a-kind holiday packages.
N.B.: Matt will host a “Wanderlust Winter Market” from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. tomorrow and Sunday at his showroom at 550 Florida Street, Studio D, in San Francisco. On offer will be furniture, art, bags, jewelry, Japanese soaps, and more “to raise the holiday vibration for everyone,” he says. (This weekend we’ll be downstairs at Heath Ceramics at our annual Remodelista Holiday Market, so come by to see us, too.) Photography by Kassie Borreson for Remodelista.

Above: “Japan is a great place to start for inspiration,” says Matt. “The design is very elemental.”

Above: Matt does not shy away from wrapping awkwardly shaped objects such as wine bottles or ceramic bowls. “Take it as a design challenge and figure it out,” he says.
Tips and Tools

Above: Matt encouraged the class to pore over his first edition of How to Wrap Five Eggs by Hideyuki Oka, a visual dictionary that describes how common things were once wrapped at Japanese markets.

Above: Matt uses his studio tools, some of which he’s repurposed, to wrap gifts?a woodworking tool comes in handy to carve leather straps, f...