Update: just found out my 'blueprint' paper is eating my drawings over time

Was cleaning out old files from 2019 and noticed yellowing and cracking on some prints I stored in a standard cardboard tube. Turns out the acid in cheap kraft paper tubes can literally degrade the paper over a few years. Anyone else switch to plastic or pH-neutral storage?

2 comments

2 Comments

verap521mo ago

Oh man, that's rough. So basically your own art is slowly turning into a ghost in front of your eyes. I had some prints from a 2018 show stored in one of those cheap cardboard poster tubes and when I pulled them out last month they looked like they'd been through a paper shredder and then left out in the rain. The yellowing was so bad I thought I'd accidentally stored them in a coffee cup. Lesson learned I guess, now all my stuff goes in those clear plastic tubes from the hardware store.

anna9831mo ago

Wait, you had the same thing happen with a cardboard tube? That's exactly what happened to me with some sketches from 2016, I thought I was just being paranoid. But yeah, @verap52's story about the coffee cup look is spot on - mine had this weird amber tint too. I used to think any tube was fine but I've switched to plastic ones now, definitely not going back.