even for the staple-less dudes:

when stripping some decorative areas, I found that a great way of holding thin strips in place was to staple-bridge over them so that they weren't touched on either side, but real close on the inside curve.(A couple secs practice and no(well, usually) wood bruising at all.) Like say every few inches or so(using a backer board for the difficult areas) along the curves. If using half strips or less, will work. When shape is ok(like you've played w/ it a bit)and ready to lay in next strips, shoot some staples on the opp side, cut the first bridging staples in half(like just the top in half) w/ wire cutters and pull the onside side of ea staple. Like you have little upside down 'L' shapes of each staple left holding the strip down and in line. Put in the adjacent strip, and if both are still narrow, bridge those w/ more staples or if larger just use spring clamps etc etc.

-mick