Creating The Most Practical Portfolio and Journal Archive
- Australian Art Creativity Studio
- Jun 1
- 6 min read
Its that time of year again, its blustery wintry outside which means the perfect conditions for a day indoors tucked away hibernating in the studio. Its not all about hot cups of tea, fanciful biscuits and bonding with the pet fish.
Customarily, each year, on the first official day of winter, an review into the studio resources, filing, and archives takes place. It generally means a time of decluttering, checking equipment and supply stock as well as looking into whether the current systems and processes are as efficient as they were a year ago.
A good studio operation involves clever storage systems and at times optimising 'hacks' for the purpose of efficiency. And the size of a studio doesnt matter, whether its just a corner space in a bedroom, or a spare room of a house or a large shed... an annual review into its management is critical for a perpetual peaceful and productive creative space.
Part of internal system review involves looking at how the studio creates and manages its archival materials. Namely files and journals, artwork and portfolios.
Over the years I have experimented with various forms and found that at the end of the day, in all practicality, having a secure and protected archival system was best served in the humble filing cabinet. Lockable, sturdy, organisable, strong against knocks and bumps risked during creative chaos... realistically it is the primary foundations of a safe and efficient means to safeguarding your valueable creative works and essential resources.
When it comes to sketch books, bits and pieces of paper and what nots, the filing cabinet is versatile enough to allow you to use suspension files for your documents, through to catalogued research, creative studies and organisable in their various themes and subsections.
It also permits space to suspend clip binders of various sizes, usually mostly between A4 and A3 sizes. With them standing in unison with each other in a row, the binder spine labels are easily identifiable and offers some resilience and protection from potential damage of an active creative space.
Much like a horizontal bookshelf, the filing cabinet can be used to 'file' a bunch of sketchbooks or portfolio books neatly and compactly away; ideally organised to make referencing and retrieval action drama free any time they are needed to be accessed, especially in times of on-demand.
Other drawers can be used to store modular storage containers of bits and pieces so that aesthetically a clearer studio space offers a clearer thought and imagination flow without the distraction of clutter reminding us that at some point there is going to be a need for housekeeping.
The typical archival system of Australian Art Creativity Studio is relatively humble and simple but extremely efficient and effective. In an active studio where flamboyancy is a detraction, having a functional and practical archival system is critically important.
Often I am asked how I archive my sketches, journallings, inspo and resources and there really is no secret to effective management of an efficient system. Its all common sense in the most part from time proven convenience based need and ingenuity.
Here at the studio, when there is works or scribblings that are intended for keeping, it is customary to file away those individual papers and creations in a binder for personal use. The binders mean that pages (plastic pockets) can be rearranged upon convenience, added to without fuss at any juncture and the binder itself provides somewhat durable and structured protection and durability.
Worksheets and templates are stored in suspension files, along with all the administrative papers in their own drawers so as to prevent mixed up files or time wastage hunting for things lost or misplaced.
When it comes to long term storage of completed projects such as diamond art canvas or illustrations, they are typically mounted on backing board and framed with black card mat boards. The reason black is chosen for this purpose is because it is a neutral colour that allows showcasing of the work and adds a touch of classic unity as a collection.
When added to a display book or a binder portfolio, the card board offers some protection to the integrity of the project against damage from handling over time.
For a less formal or structured storage of art work, two pieces of card taped together makes a good file folder for slipping into a suspension file set up in a filing cabinet. For pieces larger than A3, such as the A2 or A1, the thick card file folder is ideal protection for stowing onto an easel stand or tucking into a canvas trolley.
Some choose to use corregated plastic folders for the extra water resistant protection, but it all comes down to the size of the work, the needs of it to be securely stored as to which works better overall.
As the studio is now reviewing and checking and updating its archival methods and systems, it was a good opportunity to offer an insight into one of the ways that completed projects are entered into studio portfolios and journal archives.
First of all we had to secure some resources to create a portfolio we want to archive but be also confidently able to pull out on demand for showing others the potential achieved with the work that was created.
One of the aesthetics to take into consideration is presentation, crisp clean focal point, no competitive distraction for the eye, each piece of work deserving its own moment to shine. Much like you would do when arranging a photo album of your favourite memories.
Today we are looking at recent diamond art projects that has over the past few months, managed to amass in number in a stack on a document tray, waiting to be archived.
Because diamond art is a creative work of art, and so the potential for not just archival preservation but also possibly at times on display, getting the portfolio together in a way to make the transition between archive and display and back to archive again effectively, is worth investing in doing well, right from the start.
So in order to achieve this, one needs to acquire a storage solution that is generous for the bulkiness of the diamond art itself, and strong enough to be durable enough to last the expense invested into proper storage organisation.
Effective archival portfolios need not cost the earth to bring together either.
To portfolio and archive an A4 sized diamond art canvas, a binder, backing board, and heavy weight plastic pockets are all thats needed.
It is better to have a 4 D ring binder (as pictured above) to add integrity to the pocket page's ability to last longer as well as being able to be turned with less stress on the binding strip while also alleviating strain on the design structural integrity itself during viewing.
Selecting a quality binder which has a clear pocket insert on the side binding as well as the front, in order for customised presentation labelling to be protected from stain and damage during its purposed use, is recommended.
For this particular task as an example, I have removed the sticker labelling from the binder and kept it aside as a guide for labelling measurements later on. This label will be an accurate guide for making label construction to slide as a good fit into the binding display pocket. Retaining the sticker label also assists in minimising the time and fuss needed to create your custom label strip.
When the binder is prepared with a binding side strip label inserted flush into its pocket, as well as an cover title page for the front slip pocket of the binder, the binder becomes filled with the select number of plastic pockets needed to house each piece of completed canvas diamond art.
It is better to be using the heavy weight plastic pockets because the thicker plastic holds its shape and creases a lot less but when it comes to diamond art, the thicker microns means that it will be more resilient to the hardness of the diamond art drills when compacted in a stack upon each other.
A black card of 210gsm is inserted in each pocket and another is cut to size to mount a framed frontage mat board cut to the drill design size measurements. This is to hide any blemishes or unattractive elements like the colour coding charts that typically appear at the side of an unframed diamond canvas.
It is personal choice to add an A4 comic book backing board in between the two black cards of each plastic pocket. It does bolster the firmness of each pocket, but if you dont want your diamond art to crack over time under viewing use, it is recommended to include one. If you were creating an paper art work portfolio to archive, the backing board isnt necessary for retaining the art work integrity.
When mounting the canvas onto some backing board, you will need to tidy up and dust the canvas before spray sealing the actual driamond drill design with acrylic sealant and let it dry.
Once dry, measure the canvas dimensions of the outside perimetre of the actual drills, and pencil it in on black card before using a cutting blade to carefully slice out the interior segment so that the outer frame panel left over can fit flush to the design and be held down by the pre-existing canvas overflow adhesive.
When this has been done, the canvas board can be returned to the plastic pocket and left on display inside the portfolio. Once all the canvas pieces have been taken care of in this way, the binder can be placed into the filing cabinet drawer with side binding label facing up for easy identification.
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