Shipping Safe Shipping to Face-Up Artist

Make sure the doll's head has its protection mask (starbuck lids are amazing idea actually!) with bubble wrap. Another thing to help with keeping the lid/mask on is those pear foam stretchy fruit nets. Soft and great for protecting heads! When packing it in the box make a "hole" in like all the packaging so the head can sit in there and not have any movement at all. Movement is the worse possible thing when it comes to face ups. So summary is pack it safely so it doesn't move much or at all.

I actually keep one of my old Doll chateau pillow bags to put heads in if shipping since its an extra layer of protection and you can make where the head actually doesn't really move so bonus points! There's so many ways to protect and ship dolls by the more creative means.

 

I agree that making sure there's no movement is the most important. I try not to use too big of a box so I don't have to pack as much stuff in it, and I even stuff any small gaps I see with bits of kleenex. I put soft material as a cushion between the mask and the head, just like I do when taking my dolls to meets, and hold the mask on either with a rubber band or tape. I've sent several heads out for faceups and haven't had a problem with any of them, so as long as you're careful about packing I don't think you have anything to worry about.

 

Another key thing is insure for full value; what the head cost plus what you are paying for the face up. Also signed delivery conformation. That means someone has to sign for the package weather at door or at post office. That way you know they definitely have it. Then have all that done to have head shipped back to you. If you're doing in USA and artist is willing to do this then your good to go. Also be sure artist is reliable. Don't just go by feedback also go by friends recommendations.

 

I use plain white (brand new, never worn) Socks to keep the face masks on my dolls whenever I have to move or ship them. Poor things end up looking like they're being kidnapped with a sack over their head, but its really effective, and adds even more cushioning/scratch protection.

 

I've used foam padding to reduce the size of the inside of the box to help reduce movement along with bubble wrap, and paying a little bit extra to get your head there faster is definitely worth it for me the less time with the shipping company the better lol

 

As an artist myself, I personally hate it when people send them with face-masks and usually opt to not attach them to the head after the face-up
I had it happen too often that they would slip or similar, and then the hard plastic outer rim would scratch the chin. Reason why I stopped using them when traveling with dolls as well.

Unless you have eyelashes glued in there is absolutely no use for them, because wrapping the whole head in soft tissue won't harm the face-up at all.
If there are glued in lashes, the artist just needs to make sure to wrap some tissue around the face before they put on the mask, and to make sure the mask has no way to slip. I usually roll up some soft tissue and then wrap it around the jawline, stuffing the ends inside the head before putting on the headcap (imagine a U shape around your doll's face).

As it is, you as customer just need to do one thing. Take a sturdy box that is a bit bigger than the head (don't make it too tight), and then bubblewrap the hell out of it. That's it. The artist has to put in some more care, but as it is blank heads are very resistant.

 

If you plan to have them attach eyelashes, yes. I sometimes could make due with creative wrapping, but at least for lashes a facemask (or similar) is the best way of keeping them from being crushed too much.

Also what you described is more than enough! Companies don't do much more than that usually either.
What I sometimes do when shipping stuff is to enforce the corners a bit with tape. So when you tape everything shut at the end, add some tape around all the corners as well. Helps them from not ripping in.

 

You could send it with the original face cover, but if they are adding eyelashes you could try using half of one of those DIY christmas ornaments. They come in all sorts of sizes and are very strong plastic and if you add a little bit of foam or bubble wrap with eye sockets cut out it should work out pretty well!