Storing alot of cels

Oh, heck no. I am terrible. I only air out my cels from their bags and periodically change the cel bag altogether.

Just the basics, air them out, keep them out of direct sunlight, keep them in as much as a "regular" temperature storage area as possible. Hang them vertically in books, with not too much squishing. Finally, frame and hang out the ones that I want to see the most and enjoy the view.

I would never suggest putting paper on a cel on the paint side. I hated to receive cels with that toilet or trace paper crap on them because sometimes it gets stuck. But that is just me.

I do realize that if I had the money to blow I might buy this micro filter stuff, because I do see how cels get damaged by oxidation over time (I lived in Japan = very humid = lots of oxidation).

Hello Gordon,

A very good way to store large amounts of cel art is to go to Wal-mart or K-mart and buy yourself a plasic hanging file folder storage box,Legal size is best for larger cels.Note* some have locks on them, This is a good idea to keep others out of your cels.
But make sure you put the cels in a cel bag and store the drawings in there own bag so the acid from the paper does not damage your cels, Try not to put so many in the box that they smash each other,150 to 200 will fit nice in each box so you may need to get two boxes for them all.


Gabriel,
I have used the papers E talked about and they work very well as liners in wood drawers and non-acid free storage cases.
You can also use them to line the back of a framed drawing to help keep air out of the frame and make your drawing a little bit more stable for the long run.
The papers can be used for short term storage and for shipping for your cels, But for long term storage they are only good for paper drawings and backgrounds.
As far as storage goes for cels the safest way is still the good old cel bag,But make sure you change them out every 4 or 5 years and as far as the old myth goes, That you need to poke holes in the bags this is not needed, The bag is used for air tight storage and if you poke holes you are letting in the air you are trying to keep out,Not a good thing! I have cels in bags that had holes poked in them and everywhere the holes are the cel and or drawing has yellowed over time at the holes.
Make sure you never store your drawings with the cels put them in there own bag as the drawings are somewhat acidic and can yellow your cels after a time.NOTE* some drawings are done on acid free cel paper but it is better to be safe than sorry so treat them all like they are acidic and put them in there own bags.

Gabriel the papers also work well for long term storage of bagged cels in bundles of 10 or 20 cels each, This is done like wraping meat, you stack 10 to 20 cels all in there own bags and wrap the stack and store them standing up in there folders.

Roy

Thanks Roy! That is exactly the kind of information I was looking for.

In cel collecting you hear so many contradictory things on cel preservation and storage - do this, don't do that, and often without a reason why - its just done that way. So I have about a hundred junk cels I have been experimenting on for about 4-5 years now to see for myself what works, and what doesn't. Some things take an awfully long time tho to determine if it is doing any harm to the cels tho, so its nice to know from someone who has more cels than is probably good for them. ;)

I don't know if I trust putting cels without backgrounds into poly bags without some sort of a backer. I saw a collection of 100+ cels completely ruined after they were stored for years in poly bags. The paint came off the cels and stuck to the bags. I don't know if it was just the bags, or the storage enviroment- these were in a damp basement, but I won't put any cel I care about straight into a poly bag. I'd rather it be stuck to a piece of archival acid free paper than need complete restoration.

Storage is one of those things that gets complicated and expensive. High end collectors tend to frame all their cels and that's what the gallery types recommend. Then again, I've seen cels look perfect after 20 years of being stored in a card board box in a warehouse. Probably depends more on the cel itself than the storage conditions.

All of my good cels go into flat file cabinets because that was what was recommended, but those are pricey and take up an insane amount of room. The few thousand bulk cels I have just go into museum boxes, their just not worth spending big bucks storing them.

I think that storing a large number of cels in 'museum boxes' is a good idea. It keeps them together nicely, avoids them being knocked/moved about and protects from sunlight and some air.

I'd guess that they only cost about US$20- I'm thinking of a comic box-type container on a larger scale.

To bag each cel before storing with regular polypropylene is fine. As the others have mentioned, it's best to change the bags ever 4 or 5 years. This is a cost effective method too and once you've baged em, forget about them for a long time.

The link posted to 'iconusa' showing the black boxes wouldn't be suitable if you have 300+ cels to store. It would work out very expensive when you can only fit around 50 to a box.

What I've wondered about is how to store oversixed cels. The ideals are the same, but getting the right sized containers is very difficult and expensive.
For some series where I have 500+ cels, I like to arrange them chronologically. That means that I have many 10" cels interspersed with some 14" and 26" ones too.
These piles of cels are separated into batches and kept in large paper or plastic bags, stacked upright. I'm thinking that a sturdy chest [20" deep X 30" long X 25" high] is needed to store them safely.

Is this a good idea or should I leave them as they are? What do you think?