When shipping Windstone Editions sculptures…

When packing a Windstone Editions sculpture for shipping, make sure that the hang tag is tucked under the sculpture, against the felt base, before putting the sculpture into the plastic and then into the box.

If the hang tag is touching paint, and the box gets hot in the delivery truck, the tag will stick to the paint. The surface of the tag will pull off, leaving white dots of unprinted card on the tag, and the sculpture will have white dots that turn black (the printed surface of the tag) when you try to remove them with water.

Having said that, does anyone know how to remove those black dots? I have a few sculptures that I bought that now have black dots because it’s HOT in West Texas right now, and even hotter inside the UPS trucks.

We always had problems with the Male Griffins and some other sculptures because they were wrapped in paper instead of, or as well as, plastic, and the paper would arrive stuck to the paintwork at the pressure points in the box. But that was cheap paper and came off reasonably cleanly.

I may end up having to have a “black dot” sale…

Are they coming from Windstone factory like this? If so (and you haven’t already) you may want to talk to John about it- they need to train some new folks to pack anyhow so it wouldn’t be a far step to take to be careful to pack them in this way. You may also want to mention the paper thing; if it a reoccurring issue I’m sure Windstone would like to know. 🙂 One thing that is kinda a foreign concept to them is the idea of how humidity effects these things (which is a problem I’m having here on the east coast..).
I have had sculptures from the factory that, had it been Summer rather than Winter, would have had this problem with the tags. And I’ve had a few worrying moments when it turned out the tag wasn’t stuck, or at least wasn’t seriously stuck. But I’ve always had problems with the paper-wrapped sculptures.

I don’t remember if I’ve talked to John about this in the past. I’ll do so now anyway. Thanks for the suggestion.

Just a suggestion. Hopefully you are able to clean the black spots off!
The warm water and Q-tips tip works for regular paper, usually, but I’m worried that the ink of the tag has fused with the paint, sort of like a tattoo, so it is not just a surface mark.

But I have a couple of other tricks to try. And I’ll post here if anything works.

So when shipping Windstones without an original box, what would be the safest material for them to contact?
You should always put a Windstone Editions sculpture in a plastic bag, preferably a thick plastic bag, like a 2-gallon Ziploc bag. You need the plastic so nothing sticks to the sculpture, and you need the thickness to protect the sculpture from abrasion.

The most damaging thing (other than outright breakage) that usually happens to a sculpture when not shipped in its original box is that the paint gets rubbed off on protruding ears and noses. The sculpture shifts around in the box, wears a hole in the bag or bubblewrap, and comes into contact with the side of the box. It’s more important to trap the sculpture so it can’t move than it is to surround it with a thick layer of bubblewrap and peanuts.

Then, having trapped the sculpture firmly in its box, that box needs protecting from the outer walls of the shipping carton with peanuts.

Double boxing works with peanuts because the sides of the inner box lie parallel to the sides of the outer box. Assuming you pack the peanuts in tightly in the first place, they might individually shift around a bit, back and forth, but they don’t have anywhere to go that is more comfortable than where they already are. However, if you think you can surround a Windstone Editions sculpture with enough peanuts to hold it tight in a box, you’d best think again. The shape is irregular, and the mass is uneven. Those peanuts will be more than happy to migrate away from the very points that need protecting the most.

Follow Bladespark’s instructions on packing here but at the point where you close the top on the box containing the sculpture, it should be really stiff. Actually I would put a few extra sheets of cardboard into the bottom of the box, and a few sheets on the top so that you can push down and really squeeze the sculpture tight in there before folding down the flaps. If after sealing the box you can shake it back and forth and feel the sculpture moving around, you’d need to start over.