Please provide us with the following information when submitting an inquiry, and someone from the Trefler’s team will help you determine the next steps.
Please describe your item(s) in as much detail as possible. Information such as dimensions, what materials the item is made of (i.e. wood, plaster, porcelain), and your item’s current condition are all very helpful for our experts to make an accurate estimate.
We suggest providing at least three .jpg images per item. These should include; one image of the entire object, and detailed views of the area(s) of damage and/or pieces.
If you are submitting an inquiry for painting restoration, please provide an additional photograph of the back of the canvas.
Our team will review all inquiries and assess the best course of action to suit your needs.
Over the course of 2020, we’ve all embarked on our fair share of home organization projects. Whether you’ve banished anything that doesn’t bring you joy, or simply went excavating into the dark depths of your basement, it’s been a period where we’ve had more time than usual at home to take stock of what’s being stored away.
If you’ve recently uncovered a long-forgotten collection of family photos, our paper conservators and framing specialists have some helpful advice on how to preserve your photography and prevent the most common types of damage.
Before & After
Spotting Damage
Fading, yellowing and creased or torn edges are all too often the result of improperly storing any work on paper. Photography prints in particular contain acid, making them especially prone to damage when stored together in large boxes, or in unsuitable environments.
Acid Free is Key
Because of the acid found in photographic prints, it is extremely important to always use acid free materials when framing our storing in photo albums or books. The acidity in neighboring paper or mat boards will interact with the chemical composition of your print, resulting a yellow hue, often seen in antique photography.
UV-Protection
Ultraviolet light exposure is also major culprit in damaging photography. The sun’s UV-rays have the ability dramatically fade prints, even over just a short period of time. Keep in mind, UV damage is not always the result of natural sources. Fluorescent lighting also emits UV light, so it’s important to protect your prints from exposure even in rooms without windows, like attics, basements or offices.
To achieve the right level of UV protection, consider where your photography will be on view, and how much light exposure it will have over the course of the year. During winter, a window-facing wall may not be a risky location, however come spring, the shifting angle of the sun might mean that your artwork is more exposed than it had been in February. For most projects requiring UV-protection, our conservators suggest Conservation Clear Glass and UV Acrylic Plexiglass from Tru-Vue, which offer 98% protection from UV light.
To achieve the highest level of protection available, Optium Museum Plexi is recommended. While this option is the most expensive, it also offers protection from shattering through transit, an important consideration if you intend to ship your photography in the future.
Breathing Room
We’ve all run into the painful moment where we encounter two photos stuck together, and in the desperate attempt to separate these, we destroy both in the process. This heartbreaking, yet very preventable event is because photography prints contain not only acids, but moisture as well. When pressed firmly against another material, including glass or plexiglass, sticking is almost always the result.
Our specialists recommend using spacers or matboard when framing to create space between your print and the glass or plexiglass.
What is a Spacer?
Spacers are a nearly undetectable way to achieve breathing room between a print and the glass or plexiglass. Unlike traditional matboards, spacers are concealed within the rabbit of the frame to create more depth without changing the amount of whitespace around a picture. Spacers are made out of a variety of materials to suit any frame, such as plastic, wood or metal. Because they are matched with the background, they create a seamless piece. Still can’t picture it? A more common example of this you might have come across is the shadowbox.
The Right Location
Other environmental factors to consider which might damage your print include humidity in the environment and exposure to extreme heat sources. For this reason, bathrooms and kitchens, which have a big variability in humidity and temperature, are not the safest spot in the home to hang photography. They are also riskier because these rooms are more prone to accidents involving steam, water and smoke. It is a good rule of thumb place any artwork at a safe distance from any heating source generally, including radiators, fireplaces, wood stoves and vents.
Quality over Quantity
Take stock of the photos you’re holding onto. Which are the most important? Are there four or five that you would be heartbroken to lose? Rather than storing hundreds of photos improperly in plastic containers or cardboard boxes (as we all too often do) consider selecting the most cherished to frame safely. By doing so, you’ll be able to enjoy your prints everyday, rather than keeping them tucked away, out of sight.
It is sadly not an uncommon occurrence to encounter families that have lost sentimental family photos in floods and fire. By framing your most prized photos and placing them somewhere safe from accidents, you are giving them a better chance at being passed down to be enjoyed by future generations.
To learn more about our full photography restoration services or custom framing, reach out to a member of our team today.
Trefler’s custom framing studio is proud to offer a wide variety of framing solutions to suit almost any style, budget and environment. Moulding vendors such as Roma Moulding, Picture Woods and Larson Juhl provide finely crafted pre-finished moulding that can be used in framing projects to achieve any desired aesthetic from traditional to contemporary, rustic to minimal.
Float frames owe their name to the illusion they create of “floating” a canvas artwork. This simple trick of the eye is no feat of complex engineering, but rather simply, is made possible because the underlying structure of a canvas artwork lends itself to the framing technique. Unlike works on paper, canvases have an internal frame, and are created by stretching a material such as cotton, linen or another fabric of choice across a wooden frame of “stretchers”. These stretchers are what give canvas paintings both depth and rigidity.
If you’ve never heard the term convex glass until this very moment, not to worry, you aren’t alone. While convex glass was in fact once popularly used within decorative arts, it has since waned in favor.
