It’s an age-old dilemma. Just how do you wrap odd shaped Christmas presents and make them look good? It’s a dilemma which has been frustrating the hell out of me all morning. For example, my grandmother asked me to buy her a very specific vase. It’s red, beautiful, glass, but also oval, like a rugby ball. I started wrapping it up and soon enough, when I got to either end, the vase almost slipped out of my hands twice, and I went through three attempts to neatly fold the ends of the paper without 1) a huge excess of folds and 2) all the paper scrunching with so many creases that I might as well have wrapped it in newspaper. What I ended up with is frankly not the gem of my collection. The present looks like a wrapped up over-sized potato. I attempted to hide my various folding faux-pas with ribbon, but this resulted in a merely trussed-up looking wrapped up potato. I soon gave up. It will have to do. Doesn’t all the paper end up swiftly in the bin anyway?
The dilemma of wrapping a Norm-shaped Christmas present (Pen on paper, 2011 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown)
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Richard III (2016 ©Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, acrylic on canvas)
Norms in Pisa (2012 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, pen and ink on paper)
While for Parisian Norms, it’s not unusual to see Egyptians wondering by.
The Nighthawk Norms (after Hopper) (2012 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, pen on paper)
Norms in Dubrovnik take the Cable Car (2014 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, pen and ink on paper)
While these Norm tourists are at the Musée Rodin.
Tube Norms (2012, © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, pen on paper)
Norms in Soller (2013, © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown)
Norms at La Pedrera (2014 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, pen and ink on paper)
Norms at the Halloween House of Horrors (2012 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, pen on paper)
Norms visit the C’an Joan de S’Aigo (2014 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, pen and ink on paper)
For Lisbon Norms this is a scene from every day life
Norms on Dubrovnik Beach (2014 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown, pen and ink on paper)
The Daily Norm 
Dec 14
The age-old dilemma of wrapping odd-shaped Christmas presents
It’s an age-old dilemma. Just how do you wrap odd shaped Christmas presents and make them look good? It’s a dilemma which has been frustrating the hell out of me all morning. For example, my grandmother asked me to buy her a very specific vase. It’s red, beautiful, glass, but also oval, like a rugby ball. I started wrapping it up and soon enough, when I got to either end, the vase almost slipped out of my hands twice, and I went through three attempts to neatly fold the ends of the paper without 1) a huge excess of folds and 2) all the paper scrunching with so many creases that I might as well have wrapped it in newspaper. What I ended up with is frankly not the gem of my collection. The present looks like a wrapped up over-sized potato. I attempted to hide my various folding faux-pas with ribbon, but this resulted in a merely trussed-up looking wrapped up potato. I soon gave up. It will have to do. Doesn’t all the paper end up swiftly in the bin anyway?
The dilemma of wrapping a Norm-shaped Christmas present (Pen on paper, 2011 © Nicholas de Lacy-Brown)
Read more