How to Ship Two Together

Yesterday, I packaged up two small pastel paintings to ship USPS Priority Mail to the East Coast. If you sell your unframed pastels through DailyPaintworks (or similar site) you might be interested in knowing how I do this since it has been a successful shipping method for me for national and international sales.

1. Attach the painting in the center of an 10 x 8 inch backing board using a couple spots of ATG archival tape.

2. Carefully slide the painting into an 8-7/16 x 10-1/4 inch poly sleeve (Impact Images B108).

3. Cut two 9x12 inch pieces of foam core.

4. Remove the protective strip from the flap of the poly sleeve and attach the sleeve (with painting inside) to one piece of foam core. Not show here is a small piece of tape I apply at the bottom edge of the poly sleeve to secure it to the foam core.

5. Cut foam core strips that that will act as a mat (they won't touch the pasteled area) and attach them to the second piece of foam core. When this "lid" is flipped over onto the painting and secured with tape at all four sides, it makes a great protective package. Keep in mind that I work on relatively fine toothed sanded pastel paper and my paintings don't shed much pastel particles/dust. If you work on a coarser tooth with a heavier application of pastel, you may want to eliminate the poly sleeve so nothing touches your pastel in shipment.

To ship two paintings in the same USPS medium flat rate box, I place one painting package on top of the other and bind them together with Duck brand Stretch Wrap. Then bubble wrap for shock protection, then a plastic bag for waterproofing. Air filled "pillows" go into the Med flat rate box then the painting then more air pillows, seal it up, label and mail. Voila!

editorial time

These August mornings are beginning to feel like Fall though I hope we are in for an Indian summer. The activities of summer are winding down for me and it is time to get back to painting and the business of art.

For the past 18 months I have had the opportunity to contribute a quarterly editorial to the Northwest Pastel Society website. This month's editorial will be about framing pastels. I thought you might be interested in reading some of the past editorials. You can access them from the NWPS website.

On the homepage, look in the left column for this text and click "editorial." From there, you should be able to access any of the seven editorials that have been posted.

May 2011 Shipping Pastel Art
February 2011 Make Your Own Pastel Surface
November 2010 Commission Work
August 2010 My Workshop Experience
May 2010 Leap of Faith
February 2010 Business of Art
November 2009 Hello

shipping time

Spring is a busy shipping time. This is "The Tender Hour," snugly sandwiched in my good old (and I do mean OLD) Strongbox® for the journey to the IAPS 18th Juried Exhibition in Albuquerque, NM. If you'd like to read a short article on shipping pastel art, it will be posted as an editorial on the Northwest Pastel Society website soon.