O.K. so you’ve begun an art collection. Whether you own a couple of pieces or tens or hundreds, they all hold a special place in your heart.
Obviously, the cash value of your art collection is important to you but much more so, is the personal satisfaction you get from it, right? Let’s just say it’s a case of you’ve got your heart really into your art collection now. And that’s absolutely fine. Because you’re not alone – every collector feels this way.
Textile Art Care Tips You Can Use
As a result of your feelings about your collection, you want to care for your art just like you care for every other thing that’s important to you. And you’re absolutely right on that score too!!
Because you can damage your artwork by improper use, storage, cleaning or display. Your textile art, just like any other genre of art, needs special care. So, if you’re looking for textile art care tips, you’re in the right place.
But before I get to that, let me just say this. If you do a good job preserving your artwork, it becomes a precious treasure for not only you, but also for your family in the future. So I’ll give you five textile art care tips that will ensure your precious art is well cared for and conserved. Here they are:
5 Important Textile Art Care Tips
- Direct light, humidity, and insects are not friends of art. You want to keep any kind of art from them. Paintings may fade or crack after long periods of time in direct light and so will textile art. Make sure not to put your artworks in direct light of any kind. You may want to coat your windows with a protective film to prevent the harmful UV rays from reaching your precious art or spray with UV protectors.
- Always assume your artwork is not washable unless the artist says so. Do not wash wall art, or clean with water or other cleaning agents. Lightly dust off periodically, using the vacuum cleaner extension.
- Smells – such as smoking, cooking/food smells, and mustiness – can be trapped in your artwork. Keep your art away from such sources of smell.
- Stains – In museums, white gloves are used to handle artwork to prevent stains. Since you don’t want to be walking around your home in white gloves, display your art in locations that will keep them away from touching hands and stains.
- Do not store art in tightly sealed environments. Allow air flow for your artwork to breathe. Storing in plastic bags, for example, can result in condensation which will damage your art.
When in doubt, hire the services of a professional textile conservator. All works of art get fragile with age. Don’t go crazy with trying to preserve your art. Accidents happen and when they do, just take them in your stride.
There are professional conservators whose full-time jobs are to preserve and restore artworks. Yet even they cannot prevent accidents. For example, on a trip to the museum, a 12-year old boy accidentally tripped into a 350-year old painting valued at $1.5M and guess what… it broke!!
But there’s hope. A team of conservators will be working to restore the painting. So if the worse happens, you can always find a professional who may be able to help you.
Meanwhile, in the absence of any accidents, these five textile art care tips should help you preserve your art collection for a long time to come.
Warmest Regards,
Thanks for the helpful tips. We have a small house and it is difficult to display art on walls that do not get direct sunlight at some time
of the day. I like the recommendation to apply a protective film on the glass. In the kitchen we mainly display wall ceramics that can be lightly wiped off and resist cooking smells.
Glad to help, Maureen. Yes, many collectors protect their collection this way, by lining the windows in question with UV protective film. Try it out and let me know how you make out. Remember any direct light on your collection, whether from the sun or otherwise is not desirable.