How to package paintings for shipping
After you’ve spent hours of your life and a piece of your soul creating art, the last thing you want to happen is your precious work getting absolutely wrecked in transit. This is how I package paintings!
Wrap the painting in glassine paper. Glassine paper is made to be a protective layer for artwork. It has a neutral pH and a finish similar to parchment paper. It is so important to prevent your painting from potentially getting plastic stuck to it in summer heat etc.
2. Sandwich your painting between cardboard panels. Cut the cardboard to the same dimensions as your canvas or panel. For canvas, putting cardboard on the front and back will protect it from the flexible canvas getting dented or punctured which is REALLY hard to fix so preventive measures are always your best line of defense from irreversible damage. Seriously it’s so heartbreaking trying to fix a dent and cracked paint.
3. Protective cardboard corners. Though I do think you can diy these with scrap cardboard or just use extra bubble wrap.
4. Bubble wrap! Bubble wrap the whole thing. I usually do 2-3 layers to be safe. I heard from a postal worker that the bubbles should face in towards the artwork.
5. The Box. I love using specialty cardboard boxes from Strong Box; they’re specially made for art work and the cardboard is lined with a hard plastic shell which ensures it won’t fall apart in transit or most importantly get crushed or penetrated during transit! It also has three layers of foam so you cut out the middle layer and sandwich your piece in which makes it so easy! It’s really important when packaging any fragile item that there isn’t extra space in the box so nothing can shuffle around. The foam lining is great for this. Additionally, it looks really nice and professional to send your artwork in this fancy box to a collector.
6. Tracking: Airtags. I have heard horror stories of art getting lost forever by the post office. Thankfully we have better options than relying on usps tracking. Airtags! They’re only $29 ish and you can ask the collector to mail them back to you, or even provide a small prepaid labelled envelope. So worth the extra expense in my opinion for the piece of mind.
7. Close the box and tape every single seam. This is important to make sure the box doesn’t bust open and your items get separated from your information on the box. It also makes me feel better for weather proofing that rain water doesn't seep into the vents in the box.
8. Prepay for a shipping label to get cheaper rates. I use Pirate ship, a third party service that offers discounted rates to UPS and USPS. I prefer USPS for domestic shipping and DHL for international.
