Who is a good recommendation for shipping photos on canvas? Every typical vendor has priced me around $50--some artist told me he ships wrapped canvases for $15-is this for real? Thank you!
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What size canvas are we talking about?
I ship using all carriers, but I first investigate FedEx Ground shipping. You need to specify GROUND rather than EXPRESS with FedEx. Seems all carriers are priced about the same these days, but when the packages get bigger, I think FedEx Ground's price gets cheaper than the others. FedEx will only insure fine art up to $500. I don't know how FedEx classifies a photographic print on canvas. Probably the same way as fine art.
Just as Jim has already mentioned, I have accounts and can print the labels at home and drop them at carrier locations.
For more expensive smaller items, I do US Postal Service REGISTERED service. Now I'm talking items that are a few thousand dollars and more that are small enough to meet the US Postal Service dimensions.
I always double box framed artwork. When shipping repros flat I sandwich them between five or six slices of recycled cardboard I get from furniture stores and wherever I find them behind stores in alleys. I do all my own packaging.
Good luck. WOOHOO!
UPS will insure up to $1000, and more if dropped at a UPS service center directly (not a UPS store, but one of the shipping hubs).
Insulation foam (available at Lowe's or Home Depot) makes a good packing material for canvas wraps that are flat, as per Laura den Hertog's article.
For packing framed work with glass, it's more involved. Double boxing, taping the glass, padding the corners, wrapping the inner package and providing air space all important in that case.
I am keen on using the insulation, but I never build in air space. Every space is filled with the insulation around the inner box. Rigid solid packaging has always been my best bet.
With glass, I don't like to have solid packing against the frame. A sudden sharp shock to a corner has more of an ability to break glass or chip a frame if the entire package is solid.
I usually build the inner package with a top and bottom sandwich of heavy (three-ply) cardboard, overlapping the frame by three inches on each side, or however much it takes to match the inner dimensions of the outer box. Notches in each side up to the sides of the frame allow the frame package to be securely taped or saran wrapped to the top and bottom "bread" in the sandwich. You can fill that air space with packing peanuts, but I've not found that necessary as the sandwich method keeps the frame securely in place.
My frame resource packs joined frames this way, but since they aren't glassed, they use soft styrofoam spacers to make up the space between box and frame on all sides. Cardboard and bubble wrap between each frame.
I will sometimes reuse the styrofoam spacers.
A bump to the corner is a bump to the outer box. If the inner box is surrounded by a few inches of insulation, it's doubtful there will be any shock to the frame it at all. I suppose creating space is the key, whether it's air or insulation.
I wrap my framed & glassed artwork in a fleece blanket and then build a box around it so that it fits pretty snugly within the box. I then create a few inches of insulation on all sides around the inner box (sometimes maybe just 1.5 inches all around) and then seal the box. I've never had any breakage and hope that I never do. My boxes are usually from 6 to 8 inches thick so that the artwork is somewhere close to the middle of both sides. UPS even has regulations about this as well, and I can't remember if they specify that the artwork must be 2 or 3 inches from each side. And they used to be grumpy about glass. I did have better luck when I could ship from their location rather than having a driver pick it up. When insuring things for several thousand dollars, they just insisted upon inspecting the contents first. I haven't shipped higher dollar stuff with them in a while, though and regulations change.
For wrapping, this is a good method. Takes some time, but will work with any size art.
http://lauradenhertog.com/blog/10972/fool-proof-method-for-shipping...
I prefer UPS; others like FedX or USPS. With cost of materials, your labor, and shipping costs, it's quite possible to get to $50.
Open a UPS account, and you get a bit of a discount over walk-in rates at the UPS store. You can also use their estimating tool to get a feel for cost, but it's not completely accurate. Print a label at home, take it to a drop point for the best rate.