Welcome to another edition of ArtWise, our periodic newsletter for our regular customers.
As you will see, we have started off the year with some Special Offers on some staple products, including popular paints, Mount board and Canford Paper and Card.
We often get asked whether various paper, card and boards are Acid Free. We find there is a lot of hot air is expended on this subject from people who want to sound knowledgeable and scare you into buying their particular snake-oil! We thought that some practical suggestions may help you to understand the importance of this attribute and spend your money sensibly.
Most of art quality boards and papers sold at Bovilles (like the Daler Rowney Mountboard and Candford papers on our offer) are in effect acid free: that is they are formulated and made in such a way that they are slightly alkaline. This enables them to counteract the acid nature of moisture in the atmosphere. It is the acid in this moisture that causes yellowing and degradation of paper. In a modern, centrally heated and well ventilated house the problem with moisture is pretty minimal anyway, so most of the time there is little to worry about. On the whole it is cheap papers, such as newsprint, copier paper, sugar paper, carton board and things like greetings cards and postcards that may not be acid free or certainly susceptible to the action acids in the atmosphere. If you are mounting or framing any of these then they are the limiting factor, rather than the mountboard.
If, however, you are mounting valuable original artwork or limited edition art prints, then you may need to consider using a proper Conservation quality mountboard (or even Museum quality board if we are talking about heritage works of art). They are, of course more expensive! We can always advise you.
Don’t forget that how the paper and board is subsequently stored can be just as relevant. If you keep the artwork away from the atmosphere, by storing it in archival display sleeves for example, it will prolong its life. We sell these as well!
We sincerely apologise to our customers living in the Thames Valley for the mention of moisture in this article!
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