When you collect your new painting directly in my studio or in a gallery, we can limit the packaging to the strict minimum required to ensure that the artwork isn’t damaged on the way home. But to mail a painting or when having fine art prints in consignation in a gallery, a minimum of packaging is required. The box, I can easily make myself from cardboard. But the rest of the packaging is dominated by plastic in current packing standards...

For example:

• bubble wrap to protect an artwork from shocks during transport

• plastic envelopes to ensure that an original painting is not damaged by water or moisture during transport

• transparent plastic sleeves for fine art prints: allowing to see the image well, while also protecting the prints when people manipulate them in a store or gallery.

• Tape, lots of tape, to hold all the padding and protections in place and to seal the boxes.

Solutions

I can resume them as reducing packing materials to the minimum and finding sustainable alternatives to plastic when really needed.

• I usually sale my paintings unframed (except during exhibitions of course: to be able to hang works on paper and protect them!). It reduces the packaging needed because glass requires a lot of precautions if you want to avoid breakage during transport and risking damaging the artwork. In addition, it makes a work less big and heavy to mail, which reduces C02 emissions from shipping.

• I discovered alternatives to bubble wrap which I would like to test when I have used up mine: it uses cardboard to absorb the shock.

• I also tested a paper tape to replace the plastic one that usually closes packing boxes: it held up well.

• Replacing with cardboard the foam boards often used as a firm backing to prevent canvases from beeing deformed or cut and artworks on paper to get folded.

• Making custom boxes. This can decrease the packaging required because, to avoid breakage, the artwork must move as little as possible inside the box, so too large boxes require more padding, but it’s for sure more time consuming even if its fairly simple to do.

• Cardboard that has a very high percentage of recycled fibers and/or made from FSC certified wood. Even though it's biodegradable, it's best to use papers made with wood from responsibly managed forests. Bonus if ti is made locally (or as close as possible) to reduce C02 emissions from transport. I admit I'm not sure if the cardboard I currently have is FSC certified and I don’t know where it is from? Definitely something to pay attention to next time I restock.

Plastics I haven’t yet figured how to eliminate

I haven’t found an alternative to adequately protect an original artwork from water and moisture during shipping or to protect fine art prints available in boutiques.

But, I found:

• Transparent plastic sleeves with a smaller footprint: for the moment, the ones I use are made of 100% recycled plastic, recyclable and made in the United States. Here is the product. I would like to find something even more locally, but I also wanted something of archival quality. I was very happy with the results from the ones I tested recently.

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