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et's
talk about packaging ceramics for sending to galleries or exhibitions
or competitions. This can be especially crucial when sending work overseas,
and will be of lesser or greater importance depending on the carrier used
and the type of ceramics sent.
Carrier Options
The most sophisticated 'pack and send' type of carriers will custom make packaging for you. In this case, your ceramic artwork will be placed in a sturdy cardboard box, which is then filled with expandable foam. The box is one third filled with expandable foam, then a layer of thick plastic is layed over the foam and your ceramic artwork is gently pressed in to the foam, so the foam molds itself around the bottom half of the piece. Then a new layer of plastic is laid over the piece and the rest of the box is filled with more expandable foam. The plastic ensures that no foam contaminates your work, while the foam itself creates a custom mold, ensuring the work is protected and cannot move around in the box. Understandably this is the most expensive option. Other carriers will accept work packed by yourself. Some specialize in moving artworks and some may require to check your packaging in advance, to convince themselves that this has been done properly. Courier services such as TNT, UPS or FedEx may be less expensive than specialist art movers, but will require a more resilient packaging. The cheapest option, and sometimes a quite appropriate one, is to send work with your national Postal Services. Good packaging will be essential in this case. 'Fragile' stickers are largely ignored by postal workers, something I know from my own experience. However, it may be possible in your country to send a package as registered and insured mail, which need not be expensive. In such a case, verifying the packaging at the post office, and opening a package in front of a postal employee may be advisable.
Packaging Your Stuff
Materials needed:
- one inch styrofoam cut to size
- Styrofoam pellets or shredded paper
- bubble-wrap
- two cardboard boxes that will fit one into the other with plenty of room to spare
- sturdy packaging tape
Let us take the example of packing a vase form. First of all we will wrap the vase in several layers of bubble wrap. Next we place a square piece of Styrofoam on the floor of our smaller box and lay our wrapped vase on it. Make sure the base of the box is already taped up. Then we cut to size walls of one inch Styrofoam and insert them into the box. If the wrapped vase does not fit snugly into our foam construction, the empty spaces need to be filled with extra pellets or shredded paper. Then we place another piece of custom cut Styrofoam on top as a protective lid. Now we should be able to close and tape up our cardboard box. In case of any empty spaces inside, these need to be filled in first with more pellets or shredded paper or bubble-wrap. You might think that this would already be enough packaging and protection and this may be the case with some specialist movers. But usually not! Now comes a further protective layer which should ensure that our works arrive safely at their destination: we now take our smaller box and place it in the larger box, with a further protective layer of one inch Styrofoam all around - top, bottom and walls. So what we have is: outside box; Styrofoam; inside box; Styrofoam; pellets or shredded paper; bubble-wrap. This type of packaging should protect against knocks and even jabs with sharp objects. But even the best packaging cannot guarantee protection if your packet falls off the back of a truck, so insurance is also essential!