Saturday, August 14, 2010

Professional art movers: a photo essay

Ever wonder how professional art movers pack art? I did, and when my paintings came home from an exhibit in Africa earlier this week, I had a chance to find out. If the paintings had made it around the world in good shape, I figured I could use the same techniques to ship other works across the country.

First the movers had boxed each painting in a heavy cardboard box:




Then a layer of bubble wrap:




Then a wrapping of plastic:




And voila! my painting is unwrapped and home, safe and sound:




Frankly, I can see including a layer of glassine paper against the painting, before the plastic. It probably gets hot and humid at some point on the route home, and I'd be concerned that the plastic might stick to the surface of the painting (as the top layer is acrylic gel medium). But otherwise, it's interesting to take note of how the pros do it.

And the good news is, I have all this free packing material, ready to re-use!

4 comments:

Ian MacLeod said...

good post Catherine!!

Catherine Carter said...

Glad to hear it, Ian. I thought it was interesting to peel back the layers!

Martha Marshall said...

Don't you love seeing everything wrapped up like a big present? Thanks for sharing these pics.

Catherine Carter said...

It is rather like opening a present on Christmas morning, Martha!