Thursday, July 05, 2012

A fresh perspective on packing glass for shipment from glass artist, Debbie Tarsitano of Westford, Massachusetts.

Hi All,

As an artist who has packed hundreds of artworks to be sent all over the world I learned a lot about packing from professional museum packers. I learned to use egg crate as a packing material, the type you can buy at Wal-Mart. It is used to put over mattresses in dorm rooms et. You can cut it up and create a very secure cocoon around the piece that fits exactly . It is better than bubble wrap because it has give and can cushion the piece as it is moved around in shipping. You can create a custom fit by cutting it with a simple scissor. You can use tape to secure it if you want. I then box the piece securely with egg crate lining the interior of the box in large egg crate squares. If the piece is very fragile I double box it leaving at least a 2 inch space between the boxes, and I cushion that in between with bubble wrap or newspaper. If you do this you will not break anything. I buy the full or queen size egg crate from Wal-Mart the Wal-Mart brand is cheap. You can re-use the egg crate over and over again, it dries out after about 5 years. For storing art glass I use it with clear plastic tubs from Wal-Mart that are first lined with egg crate, then I fit more egg crate around and over the piece. Egg Crate is both safe and economical and all the museums use it for storage and shipping.

All the best for happy shipping, Debbie Tarsitano www.debbietarsitano.com

Debbie Tarsitano
Tarsitano Studio
www.debbietarsitano.com

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2012 Carder Steuben Club annual Symposium will be held at The Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, NY from September 20-22, 2012.

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