How do you store your genga sets?

[Kasi]

Please forgive me if this topic has been covered recently.
While cels are pretty easy to store and admire in a cel book folder, I was wondering how others store and admire their genga sets?

I'm getting a pile up if quite a few genga sets stored in their studio folders, but its rather cumbersome to actually enjoy looking through the drawing sets easily. I wonder if I should place the studio folders elsewhere and store the drawings in a folder. What does everyone else do?

[theultimatebrucelee]

I been meant to ask this as well. I have gotten some archive storage boxes for them and just left the sketches inside their cut bags. but for a permanent solution, I was wondering if I need to put some kind of protection into the box or individual cut bags.

[Drac of the Sharp Smiles]

Definitely a problem I've come head-to-head with.... Generally, I look through the set and decide which is(are) my favorite page(s). Once I've decided that, I store the sets in Itoya folders with those pages displayed on top. Most of the time, I don't immediately display more than two sheets of any given set, but the most I have displayed of a single set is one set that takes up six pages in one of my books. (I just loved that many of the sheets in the set.)

Very important is that I have a limit on how many sheets I'll store in a single pocket. In most cases, I try to keep the count to under 5-6 sheets for a standard sized set and no more than 2-3 for oversized sets. With too many sheets in a single pocket, their weight (combined with the action of turning pages in the book to look at them) increases the chance the sheets will be damaged, even if they're in bags, from sliding around in pockets that inevitably do not fit them exactly. When sets are very large -- like those ones I think we all have at least one of, where the set has a kabillion pages of some small moving thing (falling leaves, snow/rain, drops of sweat, mouth-only layers, whathaveyou) and only one or two pages with decent images on them -- I store only the pages with the attractive images in my Itoyas. The rest of the set is bagged and stored, sorted by series/show and cutscene (if I know it), in boxes in my closet. This is also how I store cutscene bags when I have them, since these don't fit in my 11x14 binders. I use small colored stickers (think a holepunch taken to the sticky part of a post-it note) on the outside of the plastic pages to indicate a set has a larger portion I've stored this way, just in case I go to sell it, it would remind me to get the rest of the set and sell it complete.

Many Sharp Smiles,
--Drac

[sensei]

Well, my RS gallery is essentially my means of displaying genga, as I tend to go out less and less often and the last time I did very few people were interested in looking at the sketches. So I've committed to a long-term storage solution. That means that once a sketch set has been received, evaluated, had tape removed, and been scanned (at least the good ones), then they get sorted out, with all the different types of sketches in order and the ones on white paper separated from those on colored paper (more acidic and thus more fragile, I've been told).

Then they go inside polypro bags with a piece of acid-free cardstock slightly bigger than the sketches. White genga go on one side of the cardstock with a half-sheet of MicroChamber paper every five genga sheets; colored genga go on the other side with a whole sheet every five genga or so. I write the title of the show, the episode, and cut number in the upper left corner of the white side of the bag. Then the bags go inside archival clamshell boxes. Most of these are genga-sized: inside, they are organized by series, and then by episode and cut number so I can run down most of my sketch sets within a few minutes when I want.

Some of the movie-sized or pan sketches require special treatment. I don't like storing sketches in folded condition, and I also like to keep taped-together sheets in original orientation when I remove the tape. (I do this by replacing the tape with little strips of Filmoplast, a buffered librarians' repair tape.) I've at times had to get matboard and cut it myself to size, then baste together cel bags to accommodate some of these. They go inside a smaller number of really big clamshell boxes. When I can (as with CCS Movie sketches) I organize them the same way. But many of them tend to be one-of-a-kind, so I've had to be more careful about keeping a record of which box these are kept in, as it's much easier to lose track of them.

It sounds like a lot of work, but when it's done I feel confident that the sketches are going to stay in decent physical condition even if I am not looking at them every day.

[theultimatebrucelee]

@sensei: would those life magazine bags from bagsunlimited suitable for sketches?

also, I have absolutely zero confidence when it comes to removing tapes from those pan sketches and then reapply another type of tape on them without first torn into the sketch paper itself, it'd be great if there would be some kind of guiding example for me to follow. might I suggest a demonstrative short video and I'm looking at tapes on bagsunlimted also, is this the kind of tape for replacement? http://www.bagsunlimited.com/p-2212-men ... -x-50.aspx

[sensei]

@sensei: would those life magazine bags from bagsunlimited suitable for sketches?

I use them for both cels and sketches simply because the width is just exactly right. If you cut the cardstock just at 10 3/4 in. the pieces are narrow enough to fit in the bags snugly and also wide enough to give the sketches a little protection on both ends. I do cut a tiny hole in a corner just to keep air from getting trapped in them, which quickly turns your sketch box into a pile of little jiggly balloons. For cels I rip the bags all the way down the side on the side toward the top of the cel book where I'm going to store them.

also, I have absolutely zero confidence when it comes to removing tapes from those pan sketches and then reapply another type of tape on them without first torn into the sketch paper itself, it'd be great if there would be some kind of guiding example for me to follow. might I suggest a demonstrative short video

I'm busy now (American Folklore Society comin down fast!) but I can put up the PowerPoint I did on the topic at AnimeNext last year. It's not hard: I go at the tape from both edges, let the solvent dry, and then apply the skinniest strips of Filmoplast I can make, ideally where the old tape wasn't removed. Then I get the tape in the middle. Since I'm not likely to get the sketch back out of its new bag and wave it around, I use only the minimum needed to keep the paper in original orientation.

and I'm looking at tapes on bagsunlimted also, is this the kind of tape for replacement? http://www.bagsunlimited.com/p-2212-men ... -x-50.aspx

You could do a little checking for reviews, but the specs look similar to Filmoplast (which is German-made by Neschen AG) and it seems to behave the same way. The Filmoplast box describes it as "Self-adhesive, extremely thin, transparent special paper for invisible mending of torn pages and documents. Produced acc. to the newest principles of the preservation of cellulose fibres. ... Buffered with CaCo3." It's expensive but lasts forever. I probably have enough after several years of use to last the rest of my effective collecting life.

[theultimatebrucelee]

@sensei: good luck on your project

a PP would be greatly appreciated, before my attempt to create any victim among my collection lol do you use any tool for this process besides hand?

I will order some filmoplast tape, there seems to be different wired numbers/types of them, which specific type would you recommend?

[sensei]

I've uploaded my PowerPoint How to Train Your Douga to Sendspace. That gives a list of needed supplies and a series of photos illustrating the process. Be patient in working through the slides, as I like to have one photo dissolve into another on the same slide.

My box says "Filmoplast P" but I've not tried any other variety and don't know what the differences are. I found this variety recommended on a librarians' website, and it does what I need to do.

I'll be offline the rest of the week but further questions will be answered eventually, perhaps after Halloween. Good luck! Any ally in the battle against celotape is welcomed in these quarters.

[theultimatebrucelee]

very nice power point and the process does seem to be fairly easy, step wise at least.

I have quite a bit of sketches that should be worked on and bagged up, and scan...hopefully I'll be able to get sometime to do them before end of year.

Thanks for the informative powerpoint!