How to pack stone sculture for shipping

Quoted text begins.as for ups i would not recomend them.
End of quote.

My two cents -- I've crated a lot of work, banded the crates to
pallettes and still would have brakage issues using a common carrier
like roadway or yellow. Your package is on and off of those trucks
about every 400-500 miles as the truck that takes it from your place
is not the truck that delivers it on the other end, and the loaders
don't really care if they run the forks through your crate, or knock
and end off. Sold a (Small) piece at a show in San Antonio once to a
woman who lived in Tulsa OK. She was flying and wanted me to ship
the piece. I drove it safely cushoned in the back seat. Cost me a
couple of days, but was a nice trip.

Around here, a new shipping outfit called PacMail has opened a few
franchises. Could just be the owners of the one I deal with, but
I've learned that I can take a piece to them, they will pack it in
the most appropriate manner -- often a double box system as
mentioned by someone else, or wood crate --and pick the best shipper
for the requirements (Weight + time vs. cost) They will ship
motorcycles, so there isn't really a limit as to size/weight, and
they will sent a crate builder out to my studio if I need them too.
Not likely as I've been doing that myself for a long time now.

Finally, I use a "load Broker" for larger shipments. Everything
needs to be palletized, but I can ship anywhere from 1 to 20 pallets
of architectural stone and it is picked up at my place and unloaded
only once- at the clients address. Now if I were sending a large
piece of stone sculpture, I would crate it onto a pallet, call the
load broker, and he would find space on a truck going in that
direction, always with an air ride trailer.. Draw back, there
needs to be a fork lift involved on both ends, but then as someone
else mentioned, people who work with stone usually collect all sorts
of lifting aids, and in addition to the gantry crane in the shop, I
have an antique forklift that works, and a f-450 flat bed truck
capable of hauling 4 to 5 tons of stone.

Simple answer Mary, is that there are all sorts of options,
depending on the requirements, and a little local research will open
them up to you.

JVC