removing stuck paper from a cel
Posted: Fri Oct 21, 2011 8:44 pm
Back when I first started collecting cels, I bought one of those Itoya books, thinking, "archival safe paper and sleeves! Perfect for storing my cels" which is true, if you, you know, also bag the cels. Being young and ignorant, I did no such thing, putting the cels directly onto the paper. This in itself isn't actually harmful - unless a small bit of moisture or heat (like a hot summer day when the air isn't on) gets applied to the book, and then you come home to discover that you've firmly adhered the cels to the paper.
Since then, I've learned about proper cel storage, but out of terror, I never removed the paper from those cels, just sort of cut out the unstuck areas of the paper and left it on the back.
Well, tonight I finally sat down with a handful of Q-tips and a glass of water and I ever, ever so gently pried, peeled, scraped off all of that black from the backs. It took a long time, but ultimately, I didn't remove a single bit of paint and my cels are back to their former glory, except there are some still tiny, thin shreds of paper on the backs of some, but I'm willing to accept that.
I had a Sailor Moon Saturn cel with just a ton of paper, completely stuck to it, I wanted to cry. But now it's back to normal! I think I had about 15 cels stuck to the paper in this manner.
Basically, I wet down the backside of the paper several times so that the other side had water saoked through and was slightly damp. This actually made it possible to basically slowwwwwwly peel the paper off, something that was not at all possible when the paper was dry. I imagine this would also work with sketches, but you're more or less guaranteed to ruin the paper so it's probably not a good idea. I was worried the water might thin the paint, but since the paint never got much water on it (just the paper got damp), it was a groundless fear.
So if you're ever dumb enough to do something like this, now you know it's possible to remove the paper without damaging the cel!
Since then, I've learned about proper cel storage, but out of terror, I never removed the paper from those cels, just sort of cut out the unstuck areas of the paper and left it on the back.
Well, tonight I finally sat down with a handful of Q-tips and a glass of water and I ever, ever so gently pried, peeled, scraped off all of that black from the backs. It took a long time, but ultimately, I didn't remove a single bit of paint and my cels are back to their former glory, except there are some still tiny, thin shreds of paper on the backs of some, but I'm willing to accept that.
I had a Sailor Moon Saturn cel with just a ton of paper, completely stuck to it, I wanted to cry. But now it's back to normal! I think I had about 15 cels stuck to the paper in this manner.
Basically, I wet down the backside of the paper several times so that the other side had water saoked through and was slightly damp. This actually made it possible to basically slowwwwwwly peel the paper off, something that was not at all possible when the paper was dry. I imagine this would also work with sketches, but you're more or less guaranteed to ruin the paper so it's probably not a good idea. I was worried the water might thin the paint, but since the paint never got much water on it (just the paper got damp), it was a groundless fear.
So if you're ever dumb enough to do something like this, now you know it's possible to remove the paper without damaging the cel!