Translate

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Christmas in March

Yesterday it felt like I was getting ready for Christmas. I was wrapping and packaging 10 paintings ready to be sent to their new homes. Now all I need to do is take them to the courier or post office :-)

Each package was personally inspected by my little furry buddy as she had to lay down on each package and sniff each one. I think she has some kind of brown paper fetish :-) No there are no drugs in the package and no she is not a drug finding cat working for the DEA.

I thought I would just impart some words of wisdom about shipping un-framed watercolours.

  • 300lb Watercolour paper just does not want to roll up and fit in a mailing tube. :-(
  • So you need to ship the painting flat and rigid to prevent those pesky delivery guys bending, folding or mutilating your artwork. ;-)
  • I elected to do the following for now, but may try to come up with a cheaper solution. I first taped the painting lightly to a piece of acid-free mat. Then put the painting and mat into a "Crystal Clear Bag" to keep the artwork dry and clean. I then taped the bag with the artwork onto a piece of high-density foam-core and covered it with another piece of the same foam-core. Taped the foam core sandwich together to form a rigid package. Then wrapped the foam-core sandwich in plain brown paper suitable for shipping. Finally I labelled the package with both a from and a to address including a telephone number for both addresses. I then clear taped over the marker written addresses so that the marker ink would not run if the package got wet. Oh.. re-inforce the corners with clear packing tape, 'cause that it usually where any rips in the packaging start. 
  • Whenever possible send multiple paintings in one package  .. it's cheaper :-)
  • Well we shall see how this works out when they get physically shipped. I have stuff going to various parts of India, UK , USA and Canada.
  • I have a feeling shipping will not be cheap :-(
Okay I will let you all know how that works out. The delivery guys should be able to toss, drop-kick, and wet the packages without damaging the painting.

Okay so thats the originals sorted out.

So the next thing is what happens if the customer wants the high-resolution images for digital printing?

  • Well, if you agree they get a copy so they can get prints done locally, then you need to get them the file(s) and this usually includes a high-res .tif file and a web-ready .jpg. Try and get your photographer to provide colour corrected image files that are 300 dpi at at the size of the original art. 300 dpi file for a 8" x 10" image is not the same a 300 dpi for a 30" x 22" image. If this is not right then you or the customer will be disappointed when digital print is made at full size. You can always make the file/image smaller but not make it bigger without losing resolution.
  • The .tif file usually ends up being bigger than you want to be sending via email and lately there have been lots of issues with sending non-commercial CD's / DVD's through the mail or courier service. This is especially true when shipping internationally. There are all sorts of iCloud and ftp site methods for allowing the retrieval of these files. I have just recently begun using Drop Box. I set up a low volume free account which is fine for me as long as i keep the box clean. I just found out about the public box that allows non-drop box people to access individual files and download using their internet browser. You just send the recipient the individual file link and the he/she can retrieve the file through the browser and do a save as to keep the file. I tried it out and it works just great.
Cheers
Dave

2 comments:

  1. Hi VanCouver Fletcher,
    Congratulations on finding homes for so many of your artworks. Too many of mine are no doubt tired of their garage-storage ghetto. However, people have bought a few of my watercolors and sketches from my exhibit at the airport. So things are going well here in Florida.
    To send paintings thru the mail I use Residential Sheathing Insulation (a Dow product) that is about 1/2 inch thick, rigid and impervious to water; this is the blue foam-like board that they use building homes here. There is a foil-covered version of the same thing that is actually cheaper, but sometimes the foil has a slightly oily residue from the manufacturing process.(With th foiled stuff I wrap the art in plastic first before sandwiching).
    Just sandwich the painting between two sheets (very easy to cut to size) and tape around the edges. If you do a good job taping you can actually send like this thru the (US) post; if you doubt your taping, or just want an extra layer of (more professional-looking package) wrap with paper or plastic (but I still write the address on the insulating foam in case the "envelope" gets torn.
    I enjoy your blog.
    Florida Fletcher

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dear Florida Fletcher
      Thanks for the tip, I'll have to try that Residential Sheathing. My sandwich packaging was more expensive than I wanted. Yes it was solid, light and secure... but still darn expensive and now I am scrounging around to get some art boards to paint on. I was using the high-density foam core to tape my watercolour paper to for drawing and painting.

      Cheers
      VanCouver Fletcher

      Delete