How to wrap art-work in order to protect it in transit is a much-debated question. Most of us use standard bubble-wrap, although this doesn’t last long, quickly looks tatty, and is easily torn by adhesive tape. I’ve been looking for a better alternative for some time.
Several years ago I was taking part in an exhibition in Kendal when my wife spotted that another exhibitor had devised a neat system of “envelopes” constructed from heavy-duty bubble-wrap and “gorilla tape” (duct tape). I was well impressed by these, and tried them out for a while. They are a bit of a fuss to construct, and the tape is less durable than you might expect. As each envelope is tailor-made to a picture there is a considerable loss of flexibility here, and they are relatively expensive.
Recently I came across another solution to which I have now made a commitment (at least on a provisional basis, if that isn’t a contradiction in terms.) I was introduced to it by one of the people who make my picture frames. It consists of reels of very light and disposable film, 10 cm. wide, fitted onto a plastic spindle. It is possible, using these, to provide an easily-applied protective layer around the frame of each picture, with just a few sweeps of the arm. They are, of course, disposable, but very cheap indeed. They do not interfere at all with visibility, so that finding a picture on a rack is far easier than with other wrapping systems.*
Having tried out the system with a couple of reels of the film I decided that I would try to go over to its use systematically, and I drove over this morning to the nearby town of Sowerby Bridge, to a firm of packaging specialists who supply the stuff. “How much do you want?” asked the receptionist. “Oh, a half a dozen will do.” “They come in boxes of forty reels!” Ouch! I smiled sweetly and asked if they might consider a smaller order, as forty reels, at a reasonable rate of use, would see me supplied for the rest of my life. This was agreed, and I drove round to the delivery door.
The clerk there asked me what I had come for, and I had to confess that I didn’t actually know what they were called. Luckily, as I fumbled an explanation his colleague appeared carrying my reels. “Oh! Those are mini-rolls”, he said. “It sounds as if they should be covered in chocolate”, I replied. Anyway, now I know for future reference. For the foreseeable future my pictures will travel to and from exhibitions, and sit on my storage racks, encased in film dispensed from a “mini-roll”. It’s a wrap!
*I have no information as to whether they are superior to conventional bubble-wrap from the point of view of their biodegradability, but I suspect that they win on this score also.