Fast confession – Radka Křivánková: She wrapped gifts for Princess Diana and all the presidents

Radka, where did you get the idea to wrap gifts, and how did you turn it into a business?

Well, as it tends to be in life, it was pure coincidence. Twenty-three years ago I was on maternity leave and without a job. Nobody wanted to hire me with two little children. At the time, I was an arranger, and they were already downsizing, so I lost my job. I decided to rent a stand at the shopping centre and try wrapping gifts. At the time, they were only wrapped in corporate paper in the classic method, like candy boxes – and tied with an ugly ordinary ribbon. I started doing things differently. More and more customers started coming, they started telling each other about it. At the time, I was the first person here doing it, so word got out and people started coming.

You say you were the first, but where did you get the idea?

Gifts have always been wrapped. Shopping centres used to wrap customers gifts in paper with the shopping centre’s brand name before Christmas. When I started, there were not many customers, so I had a lot of time behind the counter. I tried new methods, invented them… this is how it started. I sought inspiration all around me – even at restaurants with uniquely folded napkins.

Were you always this creative?

I think so, since childhood. I liked it.

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Back then there were no social networks. You had to rely on word of mouth…

But I also trust word of mouth. When my neighbour tells me that she went to a hairdresser’s where she was satisfied, then I’d rather go there than to some salon I’ve seen in an advertisement.

A lot has changed in these twenty-three years…

I have to say that when I stated, I had no idea I would be starting a big business. I was happy to have any kind of work that would earn a living, and the main idea was to do something I enjoy. I remember thinking back then that I would only do it for as long as I enjoyed it. I thought I would last about two or three years, but then I started discovering that new doors and new opportunities kept opening before me.

For instance, I discovered that there were not enough boxes on the market, so I started making them. I realised that there is a vast range of possibilities. Thanks to this work, I could try out other professions, from photographer to writer, illustrator, manager, moderator – when I hosted the christenings of my books. I still see a path to keep moving forward…

Did you make a lot of money for the time?

Whatever I earned I invested back into the company. I kept expanding and expanding it… I had eleven branches in Prague. It was a good living. I was not a millionaire, but I could live without questioning whether I cold afford food for the children and clothing. Considering that I was doing it alone, I have a fairly decent income.

When people have this kind of know-how, they generally want to keep it to themselves, but you share it…!

(laughs) Yes, at the start I had this idea. When other companies started copying me. Because there was an article about me in a newspaper fairly early on, and lots of companies caught on and started wrapping the same way I do. At the time I had employees and they started telling me that others use the same technique, and that I should have it patented… So I went to the patent office and found out that I cannot have my ideas patented of course, because I would have to pay five thousand for every idea, it would take nine months to assess and then they would give me the patent… but it occurred to me to ask whether if somebody copies the same idea but wraps it in different paper… then it’s considered to be a different idea! So I quickly understood that this road leads nowhere. I couldn’t have all my ideas patented. I already had about fifty, and having the patented for every colour and type of paper was nonsense…

So I decided to do the opposite. I told myself that if there are already a few people doing it like me, why not everybody. So I published a book with all my ideas. Many people dissuaded me from it at the time, even my parents. My employees were afraid to lose their jobs when the book came out. Not even I knew what to expect, but we often follow our intuition and I had the vision of publishing a large, beautiful, colourful book. I told myself that they are lots of great cookbooks, but if a restaurant is good, it is always full anyway. It wasn’t like people were going to buy the book and never come to us again.

When I published it, it gave me a lot more than keeping the ideas under wraps. Suddenly, people from all over the Czech Republic and then Slovakia started contacting me. In the end, my books made it all the way to Iceland, where they invited me to organise a course, and to Canada, America, even Japan. I am delighted about this. Thanks to the books, people know about me all over the pace, not just in Prague where I would have stayed if I had kept the ideas to myself. It would have gone nowhere.

How many books do you have already?

Five in total. They contain more than 300 various ideas. In any case, I enjoy sharing. I recently received accreditation from the Ministry of Education, so I can teach teachers to share these ideas with children. And what delighted me the most is when I found out that children do their final exams using my books at certain business schools. They use them as textbooks and take a final practical exam on the topic.

You are known for having wrapped gifts for celebrities… what about Princess Diana?

(laughs) No, it wasn’t the princess herself. But when Prince Charles was visiting Prague, somebody from the Castle or somewhere came and brought a gift saying that it was for Princess Diana and if I could wrap it in some exclusive way.

What was it?

Some crystal… I don’t recall exactly, it was a long time ago

What else is there?

I wrapped a clock for Mikhail Gorbachev. I made a special paper-lined box for it and I have to say that when I later found out that the clock was worth several hundreds of thousands, my knees started shaking. But I managed.

Also President Zeman, he came in person… about fifteen years ago. At the time, I wrapped some toy for his daughter.

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Did he tell you how he found out about you?

No. He didn’t speak very much. But I wrapped gifts for all the presidents – Václav Havel and Václav Klaus, even for George Bush. Somebody is always calling me from the Castle that they need a gift wrapped, for instance for state visitors and so on. Recently, I even got a call from a superior representative of the United Arab Emirates. He spoke Czech and told me he came from Dubai by car. I didn’t believe him but it was true. He needed some crystal vases to be wrapped on short notice for their president, so I did it overnight.

You have been entered in the Guinness Book of World Records twice. What masterpiece did you perform?

One day, it just occurred to me to ask if any record in gift-wrapping has ever appeared. They told me that not yet, so I tried to wrap the smallest gift ever. It was about 1 centimetre large, but I said I would keep trying smaller and smaller ones. In the end I wrapped a 3 mm opal. I had to make a box for it to wrap it nicely. The box was 3 x 4 x 2 millimetres, Then I wrapped it in thin silk paper and I created a little fan which I decorated with a feather, and I also made a tiny gold bow. I had to do it all with tweezers.

I can’t even imagine it. And the largest gift?

It’s on display at the Museum of Records and Curiosities. The smallest one. I think the largest one wouldn’t fit. It was a truck and measured 8 x 4 x 3 metres. I wrapped it on a town square in the rain, it was windy. I wrapped it in foil which I stuck together the evening before at the local gymnasium. Altogether it was 120 square metres. People often ask me if it’s possible to get a paper that big. It’s not. (laughs) Again, I wrapped it with a decorative fan and beads, which were actually gilded ping pong balls. From a distance they looked like beads.

Did you ever see the recipient’s expression?

In fact, I don’t very often, unless I could my family and friends. But other than that, no. I have seen some celebrities carrying gifts I wrapped on television or in a magazine occasionally, but never the moment when the recipient unwraps the gift. But often on Christmas Eve I think about how many people are unwrapping presents wrapped by me, and I wonder how happy they are about them...

You said you had many branches… what is the situation now?

As soon as I discovered that it’s growing over my head, that I have stopped doing the work that I enjoy and instead was spending time visiting branches, checking and controlling employees, that my profession had become the extinguisher of emergencies because I was constantly dealing with various problems, then after fifteen years of work with employees I realised that I can be responsible only for myself, and not for fifty other people. I cannot take on responsibility for others. So I decided that I want to work alone again, and stand behind my own work, rather than apologising for a colleague for wrapping a gift poorly or being unpleasant to a customer.

And because life is so unforeseeable, then the moment I got rid of all my employees and branches was the moment I got pregnant. Unplanned, but wanted. Today, I think that if I hadn’t got rid of it all, I would hardly have managed with a little baby. Things in life always happen as they should.

I started doing more courses and presentations, and above all I returned to what I enjoy – creating, inventing. And I plan to publish another book. I am working on various new projects. My daughter is now seven and she is also very creative. Sometimes she has a great idea and I really use it.

Nowadays there is a vast selection of paper, ribbons… do you travel for inspiration?

I have to say that the situation has improved greatly even here in the Czech Republic, but it used to be awful. I used to travel for paper even to India, where they have hand-made paper embroidered or decorated with gold. For instance, I’ve had boxes covered with this paper for ten years and they are still intact. It is difficult to do business with Indians, which is why it’s not available here much. If at all, then via Germany, but this raises the price considerably.

I am also thrilled to have recently been contacted by a French company to become their ambassador, to create and present ideas using their materials. They have gorgeous papers, ribbons, and I am delighted.

The price is my next question. There are gift wrapping services at shopping centres, but the price is often higher than that of the actual gift, which I find absurd.

Unfortunately, businesses are pushed to raise prices nowadays. Yet the cost for wrapping, if you don’t use hand-made or special paper, is a few dozen crowns. It often makes me sad when I see how much some companies are willing to ask for ordinary wrapping. But I understand that they have to pay the rent.

Tell me about your latest project.

Every year, they want me to invent an interesting project for the trade fair in Letňany. This time it occurred to me, I don’t even know how, that an awful lot of paper is thrown away. There is an awful lot of waste in general, of course, but I don’t want to get immersed in plastics; that is not my field. I started researching, and discovered that an astronomical amount of paper is thrown away every year, and the number keeps growing. People in the Czech Republic have learned to sort waste, which is great, but they often feel that by sorting, their duty towards the planet ends. But once it gets thrown into the sorted waste bin then there has to be somebody to come and collected, and this costs money, then it has to be sorted further and processed, which costs more money…

… so I came up with this idea: You don’t have to just sort, you can also create. The idea is to show people all the things we can do with paper that would otherwise be thrown out. If you buy food in the supermarket, you might also buy a paper which doesn’t have to be thrown away later. I show people how to use it to make a beautiful decoration, ornament or wall frame, or how to wrap a gift in this type of paper. It can be used to make many things.

Tell me. You’re always wrapping gifts for others, but do you also like getting them?

Of course I like getting gifts, but I don’t insist on it. I like surprises. The best presents are from the heart.

Thank you for the interview. I wish you many more satisfied customers.