Clueless about how to protect beautiful acrylic painting you received as a birthday gift? Wondering how to mat and frame your new watercolor? Here’s a handy guide on how to care for your precious artwork, no matter what media it was created in.

. Handling . Storage . Transporting . Matting . Framing . Laminating . Display . Cleaning

Special care for different types of media

. Acrylics . Oils . Watercolors . Pastels . Charcoal, Pencil, Colored pencil, Crayon drawings . Ink drawings . Digital art

Handling

Always use great care in handling artwork. Never touch surface of art with your bare fingers as natural oils, acids and salts on your skin can transfer to artwork and cause permanent damage. If you must touch art, wear cotton gloves.

Storage

Artwork not displayed should be stored in a clean, dry, dark and well-ventilated area in moderate temperatures and humidity levels that do not fluctuate a great deal. Avoid storage in basements, attics or garages as extreme temperatures and moisture can damage artwork.

Store unframed art flat with acid-free paper between each item, or store individual items in archival-quality envelopes.

Avoid storing art between cardboard, as it is highly acidic and can damage artwork over time.

Store art created with charcoal, pastels, pencil or crayon between glass to avoid rubbing and damaging delicate artwork. Preferably mat item first with an acid-free mat and then cover it with glass to protect artwork from any kind of contact with its surface.

Never store unframed art in shipping tubes for any length of time. Remove art as soon as possible and lay it flat until you are ready to frame it. If a painting has been stored in a tube for a long time, consult a professional who will use utmost care and expertise in unrolling and relaxing artwork to avoid possible cracking and damage.

Never store framed art directly on floor. Instead, rest artwork on blocks or on shelves.

Transporting

Never leave artwork in your car for extended periods of time. Carry framed artwork by sides and avoid resting canvas against any items that may damage surface.

Roll prints carefully and insert into heavy duty shipping tubes. Remove artwork and unroll as soon as possible after transport to avoid permanent damage.

Matting

Have your artwork matted with an acid-free mat board. Poor quality mats may damage art over time due to chemicals in board that can transfer to artwork. The same is true for backing your art with cardboard which also has chemicals that may cause discoloration.

Never use rubber cement or white glue to adhere art to a surface as it can cause damage to your precious artwork.

Framing

Art created with ink, pencil, pastels or charcoal should be framed under glass. You may use Plexiglas only for pencil or ink drawings as any pastel or charcoal artwork may be damaged by build-up of electrostatic charge emitted from Plexiglas and similar plastics.

Make sure to completely seal back seams of frame and backing with acid-free tape.

To further protect your print from harmful UV rays you can ask your framer to use glare-free glass with a UV protective coating to cover artwork in frame.

The frame you choose should be slightly larger than your artwork. Humidity may cause paper to contract or expand and extra space between frame and artwork will allow for these changes without damaging art.

Never frame artwork without also using a mat board between art and frame. Wood may hold humidity that can transfer to artwork. You can use acid-free frame spacing instead of matting, if you prefer. Ask your art store to see what is available.

Also, if you have a glass insert to protect artwork, make sure you add a mat to prevent art from sticking to glass over time.

Laminating

Since nearly all laminating materials have UV inhibitors in them it makes sense to consider this option for protecting your prints, photos and digital art as well as other artwork such as delicate pastels and charcoals.

Consult a photo store to ensure that this process will not damage artwork you’re thinking of laminating.

Either bring your print or photo to a photo shop to have it professionally laminated to a base, or use a laminating machine if you would rather use a frame.

• Emails • Phone • Meetings

The increase in productivity from investing a small amount of time in efficiently managing these activities upfront is more than worth result.

EMAIL MANAGEMENT

Keeping up with daily onslaught of emails is a major challenge for most of us, both personally & professionally. The following tips will help you manage daily flow of emails:

• Create an electronic filing cabinet, much like physical cabinets you have, with electronic folders for category names

• Once emails have been read and responded to (if an action is required), move email from your inbox to your storage folders. This makes it easy to track which emails still need an action. Many companies impose limits on “inbox” size. By moving your mail out of your inbox to a personal folder, an added benefit is that restriction on size will not interrupt your day at precisely moment you need to send an email.

• If your email program includes previous email content for that email string when replying, be sure to delete earlier versions of string to avoid redundant emails filed. This makes it much easier to find latest copy in string when searching later.

• If your email has an attachment file, detach and save it as a file in your electronic filing system for future reference, so you won’t have to go searching through your emails to find file later. Relying on email subject headings can create a time consuming search for file later.

• If you frequently send same type of email, save a copy as a draft or template that you can reuse over & over (changing specifics such as name, date and amount for each email)

• If a document is available electronically, but you refer to it frequently, print it and keep it in a hanging file or on your desktop.

• Every 6 months or so, go through your folders and delete emails no longer needed. This will save disk space and make your searches more streamlined.

PHONE MANAGEMENT