Thursday, June 28, 2012

Crate and Ship


My days continue to be about illustration projects and workshop prep rather than printmaking, but I did at least get to LOOK at a linocut today.

This is "Pas de Ducks," all framed up and ready to ship off to Birds in Art at the Woodson Art Museum. The exhibition isn't until September, but right now it feels good to be able to tick anything I can off my to do list.

One of the more nervous-making things about this business of art is shipping framed work hither and yon. I frame my prints on paper in a traditional manner– mat, glass and frame– but for exhibitions most venues prefer plexiglass. Plexiglass is lighter and less prone to break, but it's delicate stuff and apt to scratch. What to do, what to do?

Enter the MasterPak Strongbox. It's a double-walled box built expressly for shipping artwork. The top and bottom are lined with a hard plastic "puncture guard" (the black you see in the lid), and the interior foam is customizable to fit your exact piece. There's a piece of waffle foam on the bottom, a customizable piece in the middle, and another piece of waffle foam on the top. Very cool.

They're not cheap. The double-walled versions with puncture guard start at about $70, but the crates are reusable. (And even re-customizable if you save the bit of foam you take out of the center the first time.)

Artwork framed in plexiglass? Check. Packed in a great crate? Check. Off to the shipping agent? Check. Hey! That's THREE things I get to cross off the list.

4 comments:

  1. Thanks for the tip. And congratulations on the Woodson Art Museum show!

    ReplyDelete
  2. i saw these online a few years ago, there are a great idea, just not cheap :/

    ReplyDelete
  3. I wish I could afford the masterpaks. So far I've been lucky, but I know it's a possibility.

    ReplyDelete
  4. It's certainly not something I keep an inventory of, but having one around is always reassuring!

    ReplyDelete

Linocut in Progress: The Third Act

Time to wrap up this linocut ! And we are wrapping at warp speed (see what I did there?)... because there are deadlines. Exhibition deadline...