Art Shipping Q's

MOO

I need to ship a painting and a pastel drawing (separate packages.)

Pastel drawing (18 X24) I have the pastel between two pieces of chipboard with a piece of newsprint between the artwork and the top piece of chipboard. I'm shipping from CA to MN. I am also sending 5 thin paperback books with it. The books are in big envelopes and I was going to tape them down to the chipboard but wondering ..maybe I should ship them separately? They're only about an inch thick stacked. I'm not so worried about that but, will the pastels smudge with newsprint enroute?

The next one is an acrylic canvas (about 24 X 36") and goes from CA to TN to my niece. I looked up packaging of art and it said to get glassine to cover it..well, I really don't want to buy a whole roll of $45.00 glassine because I'm moving and I don't usually ship art or use pastels anyway. I have parchment paper. Would it work to protect it from here to TN? I'm thinking she will be hanging it right away. If I wrap it in bubble wrap so it can't shift and put it in a thick box and reinforce the corners, I think it will be okay. For some reason this is causing me a little stress and I keep putiing it off but...need to get it done.

Thank you!

Pam Boutilier

Hey @Marsha-Kay-Ottum-Owen, I hope someone with more knowledge than me pipes up because it's been years since I worked in Pastel, but I can give you my 2 cents for what it's worth. Shipping pastels was always nerve-wracking for me, which is honestly part of why I moved away from that medium!

In my experience the surface makes a huge difference - when I worked on a less toothy paper like Canson the pigment stayed on tighter and I was able to pack those in a variety of ways. When working on a super toothy surface like Colorfix the pigment would come loose and I ended up only shipping those ones framed under glass with spacers. So if you haven't packaged and shipped one in this way before, maybe try out a test wrap before you ship your finished work? Package up a little 5x5" with some crisp lines and edges and toss it around, stack it, throw it.. all the things that are going to happen to it during shipping, to see if the pigment moves on you.

I think if you aren't using a spacer/glass then the biggest thing is that ANY movement of the material against the surface of your artwork can lift and smudge the pigment. I've used glassine for this a couple of times (never used newsprint so I can't comment on that), but it always made me nervous. I think that if the boards holding the pastel work are secure enough, shipping something else with them (if also well secured) would probably be okay.. but if you want to err on the side of caution just ship the books separately.

I don't know if that helps at all, but there you go!
~ Pam

MOO

@pam-boutilier Good idea to wrap and toss something around. That is very helpful. I did have a poster-type plastic sheet over it but I took it and used it for something else Maybe I'll try a few different methods and toss them around. Thanks! It is very helpful. I don't use pastels anymore either. They're fun but I don't like breathing in the dust Thanks again!

Actually, can you buy just a sheet of glassine? That would work for me...maybe I'll try and see if I can find it. I only saw rolls and I don't need that much.

BichonBistro

@marsha-kay-ottum-owen definitely glassine is the first choice between a pastel and anything else if it has not been framed with spacers between the glass and the paper.
Working in pastel is my first choice, but storage, scanning and shipping problems keep me away from the medium too. Narothkean on Instagram has managed to digitally capture the feel of pastel in some illustrations.

MOO

@bichonbistro The picture isn't framed at all. Just sandwhiched between chipboard with a newsprint cover. I'm going to do as Pam suggested and wrap a sample up aand toss it around to see what becomes of it Thank you so much for your input!