Decorated Bamboo Gift Boxes - A Far East Alternative!

Bamboo grows relatively swiftly and requires little water or fertilizer, so is now marketed around the world as an environmentally friendly material.

Bamboo, as an alternative to solid wood, can be used to make stunning gift boxes and / or storage boxes. They are lightweight, durable and sturdy and can be used to package or contain anything from stationery to beauty products.

However, unlike timber which can be easily sawn into planks, the hollow bamboo stalks are usually cut into narrow strips, planed flat then boiled to remove any pest-attracting starches.

Making a gift box out of bamboo is relatively simple and straightforward and requires only a basic knowledge of the material, some woodworking skill and access to common hand tools.

Decorated Bamboo Gift Boxes

Bamboo can be used to make traditional rectangular, or square gift boxes, with decorative metal hinges and catches, or if you're feeling particularly you can create unusual shapes with imaginative hinge and fastening mechanisms.

Traditionally, bamboo can be decorated by hand painting with a wide variety of vibrant gloss colour paints and stains, or even decorated with delicately embroidered fabrics. However, before painting the bamboo may need to be sanded to remove it's natural, outer wax layer.

There are some 1,400 species of bamboo that grow worldwide but Moso bamboo is the most widely used which is grown in China and elsewhere in the Far East.

Bamboo is the fastest-growing plant in the world and can grow as much as 0.9m in a single day. Moso bamboo can grow to a staggering height of 23m and a diameter of 20cm. which means bamboo fields can truly be described as 'bamboo forests'

The strips of bamboo are kiln dried to remove excess moisture, glued into flat bundles, and then formed into sheets. The shreds can be treated with adhesive and pressed into panels or blocks ready to be made into beautifully decorated bamboo gift boxes.

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Decorated Ceramic Tile Boxes Make Stunning Gifts!

Plain, undecorated wooden boxes (box blanks) can be transformed using a variety of traditional decorative techniques into functional and artistic gifts. The visual effects these decorative techniques can provide are limited only by your own imagination.

Traditional methods of decorating wooden boxes include painting, with acrylic craft paints, emulsion, oil based paints and wood stains, with natural wood and / or colour stains.

Polmac (UK) Ltd Decorated Ceramic Tile Boxes

You can use small pieces of coloured tissue paper to decoupage your wood boxes, if you prefer a more random, vibrant finish.

The sea glass you've collected from a recent visit to the beach can be glued to your wooden boxes, to create stunning mosaics.

You can also create more complex or basic designs using pyrography (wood burning) and traditional wood carving techniques.

However, one of the most unusual and interesting methods of embellishing wooden boxes is to use decorative ceramic tiles, glued onto the surface.

You can create your own ceramic tile designs, if you have access to a kiln, by hand decorating, or using decorative transfers. If not, you can use decorated tiles from your local tile shop.

When fixing ceramic tiles onto your wood boxes, bear in mind that wood 'moves' due to moisture content, whereas ceramic tiles and glass are static. This means the glue needs to provide separation as well as adhesion.

So, a good choice would be silicone, as it's relatively inexpensive and easy to use.

However, if you're using plywood, you'll need to seal it first, then use a flexible, cement based adhesive, rather than a pre-mixed tub adhesive.

These two gluing methods assume the substrate, whether it's wood, mdf, or plywood, is reasonably rigid and doesn't flex or bow with variations in temperature.

Wood boxes decorated with ceramic tiles and mosaic, are perfect for displaying your tile and mosaic artwork.

They offer unusual design opportunities that can wow and impress your friends and / or clients.

These decorated, ceramic tile boxes make stunning gifts to store treasured mementos and photos in, or to use as elegant gift packages!

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Presentation Packaging & Sustainability!

Lots of people believe that presentation packaging and the more robust transit packaging, although commercially necessary, isn't really something they need to think about too much!

They consider a box, even a wooden box as an inconsequential container. It's what you must open to access what really matters - the product inside.

Well, many consumers today do care about packaging in the broadest sense, particularly when it concerns attitudes about sustainability.

Packing Polmac Wood Presentation Boxes

Of course, I'm biased. Polmac (UK) Ltd is a 20 year plus business specializing in supplying customized, wood presentation boxes and we believe that it really does matter.

Why? - Because many people think that an item's packaging, tells them something about how much the company cares about them.

Furthermore, they think that packaging solutions in general, should reflect the environmental values of the company they're buying from and the role it plays in protecting the products they purchased!

Consumers care about sustainable packaging practices and this is not just about them being biodegradable or recyclable. It's also about the wider economy and the use of scarce natural resources.

For instance, many delivery systems and packaging solutions are inadequate in terms of meeting today's packaging challenges!

The result is damage and damaged products have to be re- delivered using packing materials that will have to be reused, recycled and / or disposed of in landfill, using up more and more valuable resources.

Naturally, the delivery systems have to be fit for purpose, as does the outer transit packaging! If the packaging materials are also re-usable and recyclable, then so much the better.

That's why Polmac (UK) Ltd takes great care to ensure we use only materials from sustainable and managed sources and our wood boxes are packaged in a sustainable way, prior to despatch to the customer.

Polmac wooden boxes are first individually wrapped in white paper to prevent scuff marks on boxes during transit. In certain circumstances, single - layer, cardboard sleeves (outers) are used instead of white paper, to make doubly sure there are no scuff marks during transit.

Finally, they're packed and sealed in 6-ply corrugated, impact resistant, cardboard boxes, palleted and shrink wrapped. This minimizes any transit damage and the sustainability issues this may cause.

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