Ask Ali: Biodegradable cellophane

After a couple of weeks away from this regular feature, it’s back and this week I thought it might be worth sharing my experiences of presenting paintings and attempting to be environmentally conscious at the same time.

As you may know, I try very hard to think about what my business impacts on the environment, not only in practical terms but in the products that I use and I’ve realised that some you win and some you lose. I’ve never been one of those people who lay the blame squarely on large corporations, I think that if we all did a little bit to improve what we do, we would collectively make a change and help to educate each other.

Here is the green rabbit hole that I have disappeared down recently. The tradition for presenting paintings that you are not going to frame but still wish to sell is to back them in card and wrap them in cellophane so that they are kept clean and protected but don’t cost the earth. I’d like a pound for every painting I have ever wrapped. Previously I have used mountboard for backing and then traditional florist’s cellophane to wrap them but this time with my 50 at 50 challenge, it seemed daft to me to be raising money for a charity that seeks to protect wildlife and for me not to do something towards thinking about what products I might use to present my pieces.

So I set about researching what I could substitute for backing as mountboard is a very processed board and I settled on a double-strength corrugated card that could easily be recycled if the buyer wanted to get rid of it and then I turned my attention to the wrapping.

Oh boy, what a minefield it is! After an afternoon of deciding that I need a degree in chemistry I settled on a product that used a cellophane substitute that was able to be composted at home, I thought that I would include the details with any of the pictures sold and that I was doing a better job because of it.

Here is the thing that I didn’t factor in. I am good, I read the instructions and for this product, I read that it should be in contact with water or it will start to degrade, no problem, I’m not going to be letting water anywhere NEAR my paintings so that won’t be an issue. What I didn’t bank on was the good ol’ British weather being blazing sunshine and that the heat would make the wrap start to shrink! All of a sudden the paintings started to warp and I had to loosen the packaging of several pieces so they didn’t bow on the screens and look awful.

All of this was done of course, while muttering under my breath and trying to tell myself that I was doing a good thing. Sometimes your best efforts are not without a few trials and tribulations along the way. I’d be interested to know what your thoughts are and if you have had any similar experiences, leave me a comment below, Ali