A Learning Experience

Which is what people seem to say when something goes wrong and they're trying to be positive...

I received work back from a show and the work was not packed properly. I was mad at first but now I'm just mad at myself. It's mostly my fault. I helped unpack the work but wasn't there to pack it up at the end. I just assumed that someone who helped unpack would pack it up or at least clue that person in...

Never assume.

So what happened was that whoever packed the paintings didn't put the archival paper on top of the paintings. This allowed the bubble wrap to lay directly against the surface of the painting and the pattern of the bubble wrap was transferred to the wax. It's hard to photograph but you can see it in the photo above in the right half - those shiny areas.

Maybe it's easier to see in this one - you can see dark and shiny circles:

What gets me, though, is that there was a piece of paper in EVERY box. Every painting was sent back packed in the correctly labeled box but the protective paper was disregarded underneath... Somewhere along the line it seems like someone would have wondered what it was for and clue in. Oh well...

Lesson: I should have included detailed packing instructions.

Fortunately it can be fixed. I will have to reheat each piece very carefully with a heat gun - that seems to make it go away. If you've done encaustic, though, you know that that can be tricky. Sometimes if you heat something just a teeny bit too much the wax will begin to run and you can lose your images, sharp lines, etc.

Here are the foamcore boxes that I make for my paintings. There are a few that I made out of cardboard, too...

I put labels on the top and sides with my name and address and I tape a thumbnail image on the top and sides as well.

Yes. I'm anal retentive.

But in a good way?

Update:
Kirsty Hall wrote a great post about packing artwork.

I also posted about packing and shipping previously (and obviously didn't take all of my own advice!).

And I should also mention that Cheryl McClure found some perfect already-made boxes.