You may soon find that you have more square feet of art than you have space on your walls.

It is not a bad idea to re-sell some prints. Your mother probably has a better class of house guest than I do, but I think using an agent, like artelino, works best. the nice thing about prints is that you can easily post them off and be done with them. No frames, no problems.

So do you keep your prints in folders, and then take them out every so often to admire them? I’ve thought about doing that … and then decided, forget it! I want them out! My mother, who has a little bit of an art habit — though not really the prints — decided a while ago that she needs to deal to support her habit. (Her exact words.) So she runs an art gallery out of the house, with discreet little price tags on the side of each frame …

It is hard to argue against the idea of enjoying your art by hanging it on the wall. I justify buying prints by pretending I might sell them again one day. Condition is everything to the value of a print. Because they are made in large numbers, most collectors want the best quality image they can find. They also tend not to buy framed prints. Framing itself is not the problem, but the frame will not protect a print against light. Hanging a framed print in sunlight will produce a change in the colours in a few years. The bathroom is probably also not a great idea given the potential for foxing.

Abuse aside, I am always amazed at how well washi paper and Japanese colours hold up. I bought a Saito print that had been framed for 40 years, backed by plywood, and pressed up against the glass, yet there was not a spot to see. When I looked closely at the plywood there was an impression of the print faded into the timber, shroud of Turin style, but no problem with the ink or the paper.

Glad you approve. Steve wanted your print to float, because he’s fond of the ragged edges of the paper, but he also wanted a bamboo frame (he has an unhealthy obsession with bamboo). I ix-nayed the last. And glad to hear you like the company: Yoshida, Saito, and of course, Annie Bissett. I don’t have problems committing to frames, just getting around to doing it!

Speaking of frames, I have two Willie Seiler prints that are in just the frames you describe. I love the frames. They’re so simple, yet elegant. (The prints themselves are a little kitschy and they’re not something I would buy; however my grandparents had them hanging in the bathroom when I was a child, and therefore so do I.)

I hear you about gluing stuff down! It’s criminal. On the other hand, true collectors would probably decry my framing and hanging my prints instead of storing them against sun damage. *Ahem* is that what you do?

I have only one woodblock print hanging in the house, and that one only because I could not rescue it from the frame. It was glued to the matboard and the backboard. Some framers are actually art vandals. I am not against framing, I just have trouble committing.

For me, the ideal frame would be easy to open and allow me to change prints around. The Japanese did make such a frame, with two swivelling battens attached to the backboard. I have one that came from ebay with a small Tomoo Inagaki cat print.