Packing and Shipping Long Pieces

The sculpture end of these pieces

Before I left for NCECA (post-NCECA posts coming soon), I finished a commission for my aunt, but I didn't get the pieces shipped out until after I got home. Packing these pieces for shipping was tougher than I initially anticipated. 

short and tall rods

The ceramic part of these pieces is fairly small, but each piece is attached to a metal rod support which makes the pieces long, longer than any boxes I had around the studio. 

my studio mid-pack

Luckily I had been cleaning my studio this winter, so I had the space to completely take over my studio with packing materials. I used several pieces of foam from a bed that my husband had taken apart several months ago. 

cutting the foam wrappers

I wrapped each of the pieces in foam and then grouped four of the six pieces in groups of two. I divided and cushioned the wrapped pieces with more foam. 

wrapping the pieces

I had four long and two short pieces. The short pieces fit in a box I already had, but I had to build a box around the long pieces.

large and small box (the large one is about 5'3" tall)

I laid two wrapped pieces down on another piece of foam, then wrapped the new foam around the two, I then wrapped cardboard boxes around the whole thing. 

wrapped pieces on their second piece of foam

The two boxes I had were about half the length of what they needed to cover, so I taped them together. I then took apart another box, oriented this third box in a different direction and wrapped that one around the weak spots on the first layer. This one didn't fully cover the original cardboard layer, so I have a wonky looking taped box that's about my height (and width).

wrapping the second box around the foam

At this point I only had four of the pieces boxed up. My husband found a very thick, durable tube that we cut in half. The pieces barely fit inside, so we had two tightly wrap the foam around the ceramic part with several layers of tape, then shove the pieces into the tubes.

pushing the last piece into the tube

Finally I reinforced all four boxes with tape and made some duct tape handles for each box to (hopefully) encourage them to be handled fairly gently. My fingers are crossed for everything making it to California intact. I'm also very happy to have my studio space back and be done with the shipping part of this project.

wrapped and ready for shipping