TRAVELING PORTFOLIO PROJECT

[Aggie]

..

 

[bmac]

Holy smokes, I better start thinkig about my next print!

 

[bmac]

Where is the portfolio these days?

 

[Ed Sukach]

Where is the portfolio these days?

I have it ... working on my contribution now. Pressure of business.....

 

[ChuckP]

Picked up the portfolio today from the post office. I'll try to ship it off to John Callow late this week or early next. I noticed it was shipped insured. What value of insurance are we putting on it? I know my stuff is usually valued at a nominal $1 for shipping but some of you are doing this for a living and have standard prices for work. Even if we said $200/print the total would be $4K. Anyhow looks like a nice mix at first glance.
Chuck Pere

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

If it were insured at a value higher than the replacement of materials, would the shipper even pay the claim? I know FedEx has a waiver for artwork, diamonds, rare artifacts, and such.

 

[Ed Sukach]

When I received the portfolio, it was insured for $700 Australian. I took a wild "stab" at the conversion rate, and insured it for US$500.
I sent it through the U. S. Postal Service ...

Was all this OK???

 

[Nige]

Just rang the Mrs to ask about this and she paid for $100 (AUD) insurance but did notice that the writing looked like $700. Maybe the Post Office thought the work was much more valuable

I suggest the next person to send it, drops it back to the cost of the case ($100 US).

 

[bmac]

MY thinking is in line with Nige.

 

[Robert Kennedy]

I think I insured it for something like $200.00US.

 

[Ed Sukach]

The insurance fee for US$500 for the portfolio was US$6.20, from my local Post Office.

I figured $100 for the portfolio itself and $20 each (or so) for each print .... although, If I remember, there was a Platinum print in there which would have cost much more.

Seemed reasonable to me.

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

The problem with insuring the prints using postal or other shipping insurance is going to be that you have to show evidence of value--like a receipt for the items--to make an actual claim. If I hunt around, I may still have the receipt for the portfolio case. If it isn't possible to show evidence of value, then it doesn't make sense to insure the portfolio for more value than can be proven.

Does anyone have some real experience with this--say shipping work for review to a magazine or potential client--and having the shipper actually pay for the value of the work on a damage or loss claim? If one does this regularly, do you use the shipper's insurance, or do you have your own private insurance policy?

 

[Aggie]

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[David A. Goldfarb]

Artwork is in a different category from household items. Without a receipt for items purchased or an authoritative appraisal it may not be so easy. FedEx will only assume liability for up to $500 for artworks or photographs, negatives, or undeveloped film, and such. The USPS insurance coverage is significantly greater, but with the caveat of ability to provide evidence of value as well as of damage or loss.

 

[Aggie]

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[Robert Kennedy]

So your decor is Southwest Danish? Does this mean all the people in your paintings are blond and sunburned?

 

[Jim Chinn]

I thought Southwest Danish was something you find on the Taco Bell 99cent menu in Texas.

 

[Aggie]

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[ChuckP]

Shipped the portfolio out today via priority mail to John Douglass Callow. He's #19. Nice to see everyone's work. Don't normally see that many alt process prints that I can actually hold. Looking forward to a second round.
Chuck Pere

 

[Nige]

can someone remind me what print I put in? (Once it gets back round again I want to have my print ready to go, and I don't want to print the same one!!!)

 

[bmac]

Ok kids, we are two people away from the end of the list. I'm just checking to see what people think of the current roster. Does anyone want out? Any lurkers want in? Let me know. Also, how do you guys feel about the order? Should everyone kick in a couple bucks this time around to help with shipping it internationally? Let me know what you think.

 

[Nige]

How long has it taken to get around? It will do a circuit twice a year I guess. I'm ok with the cost of sending it back across the Pacific (or the Tasman if Sean gets back in his allocated spot!.. the Postal calculator said it wasn't much diff for either destination even though ones a LOT closer!)... it's only money...

It was originally mentioned about the possibility of starting up another one if this one went ok (which I think it has... I'll comment on that below) so if no-one wants to drop out, and there's enough new interest then maybe another one could be started.

My thoughts on the current one...

- Great to view the prints, alternative process and 'conventional' (gotta distance ourselves from those 0s & 1s generated ones)
- Really enjoyed everyones commentry accompaning their prints.
- There's a lot of cardboard in there! (bumps the cost of sending it across oceans)
- It's taken quite awhile to get around, athough I don't think that's bad as such. I wonder if people are prepared for it (ie have your print ready) I wouldn't have been except it detoured to some other people before I was intended to get it, which gave me extra time I wouldn't have had. By the time I sent it on, I'd still had it for about 2 weeks.
- Some prints are in folders/plasitc sleeves/etc which makes pulling them out to view more inconvienient/fiddly than needs to be. (I put mine in a plastic bag as I stuck my info on the back at the last minute and was worried the glue wasn't completely dry... someone can turf my plastic bag now if they think of it)

If another one gets going, I would consider having it unmounted prints, or a minimal mounting method for those processes that require it (and I'd put a normal FB print into the 'not requiring mounting" category) It's nice to see the work presented nicely, but for these purposes I'm not sure window matts, double matts, etc are needed (mostly around the cost to send, they do fit in the case) I guess I consider the print I put in as a throw-away, which probably isn't the case for some of them!

anyway.. that's some of my thoughts...

next opinions...

 

[Aggie]

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[Jim Chinn]

I would be happy to kick in $15 to help defray some of the overseas shipping costs. Who do I send it to?

Count me in for another go around.

If we have just a few more participants ask to join, maybe we should have two portfolios with a smaller number in each. It would get around faster allowing more work to be shared and viewed.

I can understand to need to standardize the mounting/presentation. Perhaps as Aggie suggested, ask everyone to either not mount or use a single piece of 2-ply card. I would prefer the 2 ply card method.

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

Since I was at the top of the list, I'm really looking forward to seeing what's there. When it's on the way back to New York, it would be nice to have an APUG get together to view the portfolio after its first round for contributors and non-contributors alike..

I think people should present their work as they would like it to be seen, with some upper limit as to how much volume they can take up (no dioramas!). The original limit of twenty participants was enough to let everyone submit one print mounted on 4-ply board with a 4-ply mat. If it's turning out that enough people are inclined to send unmounted prints, we could add a few more participants to the portfolio.

It does take a long time to go around, but I don't mind that. I'd rather see a bigger selection of more people's work than the work of fewer people more frequently. On the other hand, if some would like to start one or more smaller, faster traveling portfolios, that would be great too. There's no reason we can't have several going at once.

The order could probably be smoothed out a bit to keep the shipping distances as short as possible, since it seems to jump around a bit within the U.S. I don't mind picking up the hop from New York to the UK.