Do you keep your cels in a binder or frame it?

[cutiebunny]

The Itoya paper is acid free, but the paper used to make cel backgrounds and the paper used for layouts/douga/genga are not acid free.

[Sui Kune]

Oh really? I can bag my sketches right now, I bought plenty of A4L bags, but I don't have any background-sized bags. I'll have to look into that.

Edit: Would it be better if the bags were open or closed for sketches and backgrounds? I know cels are said to need some breathing room for the paint gasses, but does paper need to breathe too? My bags are open by default.

[sensei]

My sketch bags are folded but not sealed, and I slit a corner as well, but mostly to keep the bags from acting like balloons as they stack up. I'd say that the bags, if they are archival, will last many years before reacting to the sketches. And as the sketches are kept out of the way of humidity and light, they should remain in good condition inside the bags.

Any sort of tape ought to be removed, ideally with a good-quality solvent (archival/librarian sites stock several kinds). Even the better kind will eventually start to damage the paper.

I didn't used to bag dougas, but tucked them in directly against the paper backing behind the cel bag. Now, however, I'm going through my older collection and finding bags for them. Dougas are done on pretty good paper, so no immediate harm was done. However, I suspect that the thin colored paper used for roughs and shuusei is more acidic, and so I'm careful either to bag these sheets separately or to separate white and colored sheets in the same bag with a sheet of acid-free scrapbooking paper.

It is more of an issue to change cel bags, because they do react to the chemistry in the cels. I've heard "every year," but I do it every 3-5 years and have not noticed any bad effects.

Sui Kune, if you get "Life Magazine Bags" from bagsunlimited.com (that's 10 7/8 inches by 14 1/4 inches), they will hold standard-sized cels (and old-style gengas) with the wide side inserted, and they will also hold backgrounds (and "letterbox" gengas from newer CGI series) with the narrow side inserted, with very few exceptions.

[Sui Kune]

That's a great suggestion Sensei, thanks! :3 I actually tried to bag my sketches but the bags I have now are very slightly too narrow, I had never noticed before that sketches are a bit taller than their cels. I could kill two birds with one stone with those bags. (Possibly even the gigantic movie-sized Zorua rough!)

[iceman57]

- Vertical storage, non acidic folders.
- Individual artwork packaging with museum grade paper and/or polyester sheets (fitting ISO standards).
- Controled ambiant temperature and humidity fitting museum archives standards (the actual conditions are close to the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, Ontario).
- Controled non-direct fluorescent working light up to 50 lux.

Framing artworks this year and had appointments with museum framers to see available technics and their attached costs in Europe. Priority goes to anti-acidic materials.

[Shampoo]

After the horrible trouble I had with my fav
cel that was so called "professionally" framed, I'm never
doing it again. Ever.

All of them are in Itoyas that have been placed
in a large zip-lock bag to keep the dusties out.
The sketches are in cel bags also in itoyas but
for the much larger sets, I have them in those plastic
file-folder boxes you sometimes get from japanese
sellers.
When I get a bigger place, I'm planning to buy an archival
grade flat file cabinet for the sketches.

[Keropi]

I have my nearly all of cels in ITOYA Profolios.

Nearly all of my sketches are bagged and stacked with the flaps taped over so that it's extremely difficult for silverfish to nibble on the edges. Since they're stacked, it's harder for the air to age the paper since it doesn't come into contact with as much of it. If the air in my room were drier, I wouldn't be as concerned about the stacking part.

I don't like filling my Profolios completely with cels because when they get too full they get fat and aren't flat. They don't stand up against each other flat. They end up only touching each other more with the center of their covers.

EDIT:

The smaller folders are like this:

I labeled the spines with small pieces of paper.


The larger folders are elsewhere.

[kizu]

The important ones are in a black non-acidic hardcase, in stiff toploaders/sideloaders and wrapped in acid free plastic sleeves. The regular ones are in art portfolios and my sketches some are in portfolios and scrapbooks. The oversized ones that don't fit portfolios are in sleeves stored in one of those underbed containers.

I tried framing before, it wasn't too bad for regular artwork but ones I treasure a lot, I've refrained myself... If you really want to frame, just print a scan of your cel in really nice glossy paper and frame up... You can't really tell the difference unless you're real close.

[iceman57]

[...] that have been placed
in a large zip-lock bag to keep the dusties out.

I warmly recommand you for conservation purposes to unzip the bags.
By attempting to create an airproof environment you consequently increase the acidic ambiant rate, wich will damage your arts.