When a work has value, whether that value is measured in dollars or in memory, the materials touching it matter more than the moulding around it.
What it involves
Conservation framing is the standard used for work that has to survive. Acid free mat board and backing, archival hinging, and UV protective glazing, so the frame is still doing its job long after the day it was made. Ordinary board yellows and burns a line into the edge of the paper it sits against. Archival board does not.
This is the level Studio9Art works at for galleries, institutions and collectors, and it is available for a single piece just as readily as for a collection. Anything hinged is hinged reversibly, so a future conservator or a future owner can take the work out again without a mark.
If you are not sure whether a piece warrants it, bring it in. Some works genuinely do not need it. The ones that do are usually obvious once you look at what is already happening at the edges.
How it runs
What it is printed or painted on, what condition it is in, and where it is going to hang all change what the piece needs.
Acid free board and backing, reversible hinging, and glazing chosen for the light the work will actually sit in.
Assembled so the work is held without pressure and the package resists dust and moisture from the back as well as the front.
Questions
Ordinary mat board carries acid that migrates into whatever it touches. Over years that shows up as a brown burn line following the mat window, and a general yellowing of the sheet. Archival board is chemically stable, so the work ages on its own terms rather than the board’s.
For anything with pigment or dye in it, yes. Light is the one form of damage that cannot be undone. UV protective glazing does not make a work immune, but it slows fading considerably, particularly for a piece hanging in a room that gets real daylight.
That is the point of it. Reversible hinging means the work can be lifted out without solvent, tearing or residue, which is what makes it acceptable to galleries and institutions.
Also from the studio
Tell us a little about what you would like framed and we will be in touch with considered options, with no obligation.
All the studio details
