We love making things and giving things so we made some gift boxes for special presents. This is another ‘pre-christmas’ post, but since this workshop this group have made lots of boxes, with lots of different functions (more to come soon)..!

To get started we had some help from Tarō Gomi, one of Japan’s most prolific children’s book illustrators and writers. Gomi is a graduate of the Kuwazawa Design Institute and has published over 400 books in Japan.

We used the activity book “Play all Day”, a Really Giant Book of Punch-Out-and-Play Games, Toys, Finger Puppets, Boxes, and more!

Of course we concentrated on the boxes, which required Viola, Francesca, Ludovico, Matteo, Viola and Ruben to punch out the box shape and fold until the flat sheet became three-dimensional. Tarō Gomi’s illustrations are abstract and practical, attractive and intriguing, so we all enjoyed talking about them and building our boxes.

All Tarō Gomi’s books are highly interactive and leave lots of space for the imagination to run wild. Thank you Mr Gomi!

We ended with some teatime magic: bread and chocolate spread, yum!