apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

The last time we made a big move we hired a moving company, but even so we packed our own artwork (husband is an artist so we have a tonne of paintings) I'm sure other artists here can tell you how to pack them up well. I do remember covering them with a dropcloth, encasing them in bubble wrap, and then making a box for them (out of several cardboard boxes). Nothing was damaged

Usually when I move I try to take my most precious items and move them myself. Usually just a carload of stuff that I would be devastated if the movers damaged them. Not sure exactly how big this piece is but if it can fit in your car that's the way to go. Wrap w/bubble wrap and anything else you need to keep it safe but don't let it out of your sight.

You might try buying bike boxes and using them to make a new box. Or get it crated by a pro.

depending on the size you can try a place like Pottery Barn. My husband and I just moved and they had a ton of very nice and very heavy duty picture frames.

the bike box is a great idea as well. You might also ask at a framing place that is local about purchasing a container for it.

This shouldn't be a problem to move without a crate since it's pretty local. I can't tell what the material is or the fragility of the piece, but it looks like the surface would need to be protected with a piece of glassine or maybe just wax paper or parchment (since its a short term thing, the acidity of wax or parchment paper shouldn't harm the surface), then bubble wrap and cardboard to protect the corners. If you can move this yourselves, I'd suggest that it travel flat if that's possible. Again, it's hard to know since I can't tell the size. If a precarious situation arises in its transport or there is any doubt about its safety, I say just pay an art mover to move it. It's less expensive than hiring someone to fix it or having to ship it back to France to be restored by the artist.

Good luck!

Make a box. I did the same thing you did - threw out the cardboard crate my paintings were shipped in.

Wrap it, so it won't scratch. Then bubble wrap it. Then put it in a box that's a little bit larger than it is: drop some packing peanuts in the bottom so it's completely padded and fill the sides and top with peanuts. Tape the box up, and then put *that* box in a second box: same drill, bigger than the original one, fill bottom with peanuts, put box inside, fill rest of box with peanuts, seal it shut. The inner box should not move.

Label it "fragile' on every single surface.

You now have something that you could probably football punt across a room, but avoid the impulse. :)

I am an artist - and have often dragged and mailed artwork across oceans. Canvases are actually quite resiliant. Frames are more likely to be damaged.
Try going to an art supply store, and ask them to save the cartons that canvases get delivered in. The workers at a Pearl Paint, once graciously gave me half a dozen of various sizes. I packed the unused ones, one inside each other, which served me for years.
By the way - unframed canvases can also be stacked one inside each other like Russian dolls. Before my last exhibition in the US, I ordered canvases, sized precisely for this purpose.

I once had to wrap a painting for an employer. The artist told me to wrap it first in glassine paper (looks like waxed paper but isn't sticky). The envelopes the post office used to give with lick & stick stamps are glassine paper. Then follow jrochest's advice. If you can find a box-selling company (like The Container Store), buy a mirror box--it's basically four corners that fit together in the middle.

I am an artist and custom made my brother a box for a very large stretched canvas painting he'd bought from me when he was moving cross country - bought a huge sheet (4 x 8 feet) of 1/2" foam core, measured and scored edges (not all the way through!) so it could bend into a box, and taped it all up into place (since the foam core was so thick, I cut 1/2" strips to fill in the corners of the outside of the box too.) A lot of work, but much better than having it damaged. You can place the work on top of the foam core as you work to make sure you are making it the right size. Do wrap the work itself in glassine or clean plastic followed by a second full coat of bubble wrap - extra heavy at the corners. I would not use peanuts right near the work if it is a stretched canvas as they may move around and indent it. Come moving day if possible, I would move it yourself, but if you have to have movers handle it - do write 'fragile - art work' on every face as well as 'do not stack' so they don't put it flat at the bottom of a pile and load up stuff on top of it.

Depending on what the hanging fixtures are like on the back it may be worth a few minutes to take the screws/hooks out of the frame to ensure it will sit perfectly flat when it is moved (and make sure the wrapping doesn't get torn). When I last moved the only problem I had with my art collection was that some of the eyelets holding the wires sat out too far to stack neatly.

At my museum, we skip the peanuts; they break up and you end up with tiny little white bits all over everything. They're really unnecessary for a work you'll be hand-carrying yourself.

Cindy has it just right: glassine, bubble wrap, cardboard DIY box. You don't even need to get all origami on the box-making; just sandwich a board on either side and tape straps all the way 'round. You can use foam spacers between the cardboards if you're concerned about squashing. We use archival ethafoam, but that stuff's expensive. For the short term, any kind of packing foam that you can cut into blocks will do the trick.

It's a painting, yes? If the back is unlined, cut a piece of mat board or foam core the size of the back, and wrap that inside the glassine.

Try Dick Blick or your local art supply store for materials. I know you can order 6' x 8' cardboards (that are non-archival and therefore non-expensive) but I cannot for the life of me remember who we get them from.

Just put it on top of the other stuff, it will be fine. Jeez.

It looks like a fairly fragile work on paper, so I think you should definitely wrap it in glassine, bubble and cardboard at a minimum. It wouldn't be that expensive to get a slat-crate or shadow frame made and would be much better for protecting the corners. It doesn't look like it has glass, but if so, make sure it is properly taped. Whatever you do, think about if it fell face first on the corner of another box or table or a ladder fell into it, would the cardboard protect it? I've seen/heard a lot of horror stories, I think it is always worth the money to protect something if it is that valuable or important.