Protect Your Fine Art This Year

With the New Year just around the corner, it’s time to think about what you want to achieve in the coming twelve months. Although you’ll probably be thinking of New Year’s resolutions such as how to obtain wealth, becoming happier or maybe even losing some weight, might we suggest something a little more practical like helping to protect your pieces of fine art this year.

At Cube Fine Art Services, our whole business revolves around storing and protecting artwork. Our purpose built facility will not only protect your priceless pieces from theft but will also help to preserve them thanks to our climate controlled storage facility.

If you would like to know more about any of our services for the New Year, please contact us.

Best Wishes for Christmas

Christmas is finally upon us so we’d like to take this opportunity to wish you a very Merry Christmas to you and your family.

You can rest assured that security is of the upmost importance to us this Christmas and our usual security vigilance and procedures are all in place during the holiday season to safe guard your  possessions and artwork. Our staff will also be on hand so please feel free to contact us with any questions you might have.

It’s not too late to take advantage of some of our special offers – check them out here.

Stuck for Stocking Fillers this Christmas?

With less than two weeks until Christmas, has the prospect of Christmas shopping become too daunting? Does the thought of braving the shops fill you with horror? Is your budget seriously limiting your gift ideas? Then let Cube Fine Arts help you this Christmas.

A £25 Amazon voucher makes a great gift for anyone, plus it’s easy to post or will fit neatly into a Christmas stocking. Well this Christmas we will give you a £25 Amazon voucher for FREE* in return for referring a friend, family member or colleague to us this month.

Where’s the catch? There isn’t one. Simply refer a friend to us and when they take out their first order for fine art transportation or storage, you’ll receive a £25 Amazon voucher. Choose to give the voucher as a gift or use it to buy gifts from the wide range of items available online through Amazon. If you would like to know more about this offer or any of our other services, please contact us.

Aardman Animations Creates New Morph Film

We realise he may not strictly be considered ‘Fine Art’ but when we found out this little piece of plasticine magic was making a comeback we just had to share. Thats right Morph, the little brown man from everyones favorite children's Art shows Take Hart, Hartbeat and Art Attack, has starred in a brand new animation made by Aardman animations to celebrate the 38th anniversary of Forkbeard Fantasy’s theatre company. 

It’s not that simple to watch toe movie as you have to follow the link below and complete a number of puzzles before the movie is unlocked, but we personally feel its worth the wait. 

Unfortunately as some of you may remember some of the original morphs were lost in a fire in 2005 meaning those remaining are even more precious. We’re hoping someday Cube Fine Art Services will have the honor of storing the BAFTA award winning creation in our state of the art facility, where out fire safety precautions will ensure their protection. But for now, we’re happy watching the little man do his thing on film. 

http://ow.ly/g0xBr 

The Turner Prize 2012

We are coming close to the conclusion of the 2012 Turner Prize exhibition with the winner to be announced tonight on Channel 4.

The Prize is awarded to an artist under the age of 50 who was born or has been working in Britain and had an outstanding exhibition within the last 12 months.

This year the exhibitions from the four Turner prize nominees range from the intricate to the captivatingly insane, and surely provide something for everyone in the eclectic mix.

A few of us at Cube Fine Art Storage went along to check out the exhibitions of this year’s nominees and in our opinion there were two stand out exhibits from the four on show.

While we enjoyed all 4 of the exhibitions it was the intricate pencil world created by Paul Noble and the engaging performance artwork of Spartacus Chetwynd’s exhibit that captivated our attention the most. These two exhibitions immersed the viewer into a world created and controlled by the artist themselves, but did so through completely opposing mediums that resulted in an equally effective experience.

The drawings by Paul Noble of his imaginary world ‘Nobson Newtown’, created over the last 16 years draw the viewer in and captivate their attention with the intricacies of the work, where one finds oneself marvelling over the minute detail which could be found on every inch of the paper.

Nobles work is in complete contrast to that of Chetwynd, whose performance art is certainly the most quirky of all the nominees on display. Like Nobles work, although for completely separate reasons, Chetwynd’s exhibit is intensely captivating; with the crowd participation ensuring audience members become immersed in the piece.  

Although Paul Noble is widely considered as the favourite to win this year’s prize, an opinion shared by many of the Cube team who visited, it would be out of character with the Turner prize to award it to the front runner, making our anticipation for Mondays announcement all the greater.

Have you visited the exhibition? If so what were your opinions on the four artists and who would you most like to win the coveted prize?

If this year’s exhibition has prompted you to invest in artwork like that of Paul Noble, then why not ask us at Cube Fine Art Services about art storage, art transportation and art packing, to ensure your items remain in their best possible condition. We’d love to help so don’t be afraid to ask.

Turner Prize 2012

5 Ways Cube Fine Art Make Your Life Easier When Moving Artwork

At Cube Fine Art, we understand how stressful it can be to move your valuable artwork. That is why we go to great lengths to ensure that every aspect of the move is done with the upmost care and attention to detail. Here are five ways we help ease your anxiety when moving fine art:

1. Consultation – before we confirm the move of any artwork, we offer all our clients a consultation to discuss your exact requirements for the move.
2. Bespoke Packing Service – we don’t just pack your artwork for you but we build custom packing crates and insert the correct type of packaging materials to ensure that your fine art reaches it destination in the best possible condition.
3. Transport by our Dedicated Vehicles – we operate our own fleet of vehicles and oversee the loading, transportation and unloading of your fine art by our highly skilled staff.
4. Customs Management and Security Clearances – we do all the paperwork for you whether your fine art is staying in the UK or travelling abroad, saving you time and energy.
5. Dedicated Project Manager – throughout the planning and the move itself, you will have a dedicated project manager who you can contact for advice or with any questions.

If you would like to know anything further about these or any of our other services, please contact us.

Get Your Hands on Your First Christmas Present from Cube Fine Art

So it might not be quite the start of December but for many the countdown to Christmas has begun. We’re offering you your first Christmas present in the form of a £25 iTunes voucher*. Want to know more, then read on…

We are thrilled that most of our new clients come to us on the back of recommendation from our existing clients so we’d like to reward you for your loyalty to us. Simply recommend a friend to Cube Fine Art Services throughout November and for every friend who places an order with us, you’ll receive a £25 iTunes voucher.

You can use your voucher to buy yourself, or someone you love, music, apps or books online through iTunes. So what are you waiting for? Start recommending us today.

*Terms & conditions apply

Access to the Cube Fine Art Storage Facility

At Cube Fine Art, one of the most common questions that we get asked is ‘how can I access your secure storage facility? As this is something we get asked a lot, we thought that we’d take this opportunity to share it in our blog.

Our fully secure, state-of-the-art storage facility is equipped with both swipe card technology and electronic keypads. When you decide to store your pieces of fine part or other items with us, you will be given a swipe card to use to access the facility. You will also be given your own, unique pin number to use to access the building.

These two things, in addition to our CCTV system ensure that only those who should be granted access to our storage facility manage to get inside. If you happen to lose your swipe card or forget your pin number, we have a security procedure in place to ensure that we can give you, and only you, access to your items.

If you would like to know anything further about our security measures or any of our other services, please contact us.

The Cube Fine Art Team

Vintage Motorbike Storage at Cube Fine Art

At Cube Fine Art, our state-of-the-art storage facility can be used for more than just storing fine art and in one recent phone call we got asked whether our storage facility was suitable for storing an antique motorbike. The answer was ‘yes’. If you have a vintage or antique motorbike that requires storage in a secure location, here are some things that you need to know:

1.       Petrol tank – please completely drain the fuel tank as we cannot store flammable liquids in our storage facility.

2.       Getting it inside – as the fuel tank needs to be completely empty for storage purposes, you’ll have to wheel the bike into our storage facility, it cannot be driven.

3.       Cleaning – before storing your antique motorbike, it’s recommended that you give it a thorough clean to remove any dirt or grime. Make sure it’s dry before putting it into storage to reduce the chance of rust or corrosion.

Have you got something rather unusual that needs storing? We’re happy to answer questions about anything from fine art to furniture, stamp collections to antique motorbikes, just contact us for more information.

Preparing Your Antique Furniture for Storage

We recently told you about some of the things that you could store in our purpose-built storage facility. Amongst the items we mentioned was antique furniture and since our blog post, we have received a number of enquires about this service. We therefore thought that it would be good to tell you a little more about how to prepare your antique furniture pieces for storage with us. Here are a few of our top tips:

1.       Cleaning – make sure your item is thoroughly clean before placing it in storage. Use the correct cleaning products for the furniture materials and the age and condition of your piece. Make sure any cleaning reside is removed from the piece and that the furniture is 100% dry before placing it in storage.

2.       Protecting surfaces – although your pieces of furniture will be fine in storage without additional protection, we recommend covering them anyway to reduce dust getting to them or any damage in transit. For flat surfaces, use a lint-free fabric as this will allow air to circulate and the furniture to breathe whilst offering it some protection from light scratches and dust.

3.       Protecting corners – we suggest using corner protectors on the corners of tables, sideboards, desks or dressers to ensure they don’t get damaged in transit. Due to the chemicals used to produce plastic corner protectors, we recommend using fabric or cardboard corners as they will offer better long-term protection for your items.

Should you have any specific questions about how best to prepare your antique furniture for storage either in our standard areas or in our climate controlled storage area, please contact us.

Storing Your Collections

At Cube Fine Art, we have the ability to store a wide range of items. Although most of our clients wish to just store a few precious items with us, we have other customers who wish to store entire collections in our purpose built storage facility or in our climate controlled storage area. Here are a few examples of collections that we can store on your behalf:

·         Art – we can store all your artwork from oil paintings to watercolours, sketchings and more.

·         Sculptures – whether you need to store a wooden, marble, concrete or ceramic statue, we have a storage solution to suit your needs.

·         Furniture – we can store priceless, antique furniture or more modern collections

·         Antiques – we can offer suitable storage for all your antiques

·         Jewellery – we are able to store small or large collection of jewellery

·         Rugs, Quilts, Textiles and Tapestries – soft-furnishings can all be catered for in our storage facility

·         Sporting Memorabilia  - we can offer storage for all you sports items, whether new or old.

·         Ceramics and Glass – we can store any form of glass or ceramic item.

·         Electronics – whether you collect antique radios or computer equipment, you’re collection will be safe with us.

·         Musical Instruments – whether you need to store a church organ or a violin, we have a storage solution to suit your collection.

If you would like to find out more about our storage facility, please contact us.

Insurance Cover at Cube Fine Art

At Cube Fine Art, we understand that your pieces of fine art are often worth a great deal of money and that is why we offer you a comprehensive insurance policy when you store your items in our purpose built storage facility.

Insurance is charged at 1.25% per annum of the declared value of your items and our standard insurance policy covers a maximum of £50,000. However we can offer insurance to a high value to suit individual customer requirements, just let us know if you would like us to do this for you.

Although our storage insurance is optional, we do recommend you take out the policy to ensure that your items are fully covered should the worst happen. A summary of our insurance policy is available upon request, simply contact us for more information.

Storage for Antique Furniture

At Cube Fine Art Services, we regularly store a wide range of items for our clients including watercolours, oil paintings, wooden carvings, sculptures, wine collections and vintage clothing collections amongst other things. But did you know that we can also offer you storage for antique furniture.

Whether you have an antique dining table, end table, sideboard or something else, our purpose built, state-of-the-art storage facility is ideal. We offer a range of storage options including climate controlled storage to ensure that your furniture piece or collection is protected and secure during its time with us.

To find out more about how to store antique furniture with us, or for a quote please contact us.

Protect Your Fine Art From Your Heating

It’s official, autumn is finally here and that means one thing, a drop in the temperature. Thankfully in the UK we are blessed with a wide range of heating options including central heating, electric fan heaters, oil heaters, traditional open fires and log burners to name just a few. However some of these heating options can prove devastating for your pieces of fine art.

When you constantly alter the temperature in your home by switching the heating on and off, you can cause artwork to expand and contract. Over time this can cause stress and your artwork will begin to deteriorate – paints will crack and begin to peel whilst canvases and wood will split.

The ideal solution is to keep your artwork at a constant temperature and humidity but this is not very practical in the home environment. At Cube Fine Art, we offer a state-of-the-art climate controlled storage facility that allows us to do just that. To find out more about how our climate controlled storage facility works, please click here or contact us.

Storage for All Your Needs

At Cube Fine Art, we regularly tell you about our state-of-the-art storage facilities for fine art, precious items and collections. However we don’t think we’ve told you about our sister company Cube Self Storage.

Cube Self Storage offer a range of flexible storage options that can be used to store virtually anything from household furniture to BBQs, surplus stock to personal possessions. They have a variety of different sized rooms and can even offer packing materials along with advice on how best to store your items. Plus thanks to our close links with this company, you can also take advantage of their current special offers.

If you would like to know more about any of our services or those of Cube Self Storage, simply contact us for more information.

Storage for Collections at Cube Fine Art

At Cube Fine Art, we have a purpose built storage facility which offers your valuables protection from theft, damage and deterioration. Although some of our clients choose to store just one or two pieces of fine art with us, others choose to store whole collections.

Thanks to a variety of different sized storage rooms, we can accommodate virtually any collection from vintage clothing to collectable coins, stamps to wine collections. We even offer a climate controlled storage area which is ideal for stopping the deterioration of items such as clothing, wine and paintings.

So whether you give need one piece stored or a vast collection, contact us for more information.

More Than Just a Fine Art Removal Firm

At Cube Fine Art, we pride ourselves on being more than just a fine art removal company. As well as advising our clients on the logistics of moving individual pieces or entire collections, offering bespoke packing services, full transportation both nationally and internationally, we also offer a fabulous arrival service too.

Our arrival service includes the following elements:

• Delivery of artwork – this involves not just getting it to the desired location but actually putting in the correct room upon arrival, regardless of how many stairs or other tricky obstacles are involved.
• Disassembly of crates – we will carefully dismantle the bespoke crate used to transport your pieces of fine art and unwrap them from any packaging materials.
• Displaying the pieces – we are happy to help with the installation of your fine art in its new home too.
• Removal of debris – at the end of the process we will remove all the crate elements and packaging materials and take them with us to save you the hassle of disposing of them.

If you would like to find out more about any of our services or would like a quote, please contact us.

Protect Your Fine Art From Soot and Heat Damage

In Britain we love to talk about the weather and this week one of the key influencing factors of our blog post is the appalling British summer we’ve experienced this year. It may be almost August when we would expect warm temperatures and glorious sunshine but unfortunately Mother Nature has not been kind this year and people are resorting to lighting their fires in the cool evenings in an attempt to eliminate the chill in the air. However this can have a dramatic, negative effect on your art work.

There are two main types of damage that can be caused to your fine art by open fires in the home. The first is soot damage. This is caused by the burning of any materials from coal to paper or wood. It leaves tiny black particles of soot in the air which will create a fine layer on canvases, paintings and other pieces of art. Soot is extremely hard to remove without causing further damage so make sure your pieces of fine art are covered when you light an open fire and remained covered for a few hours after the fire has died out. Better still, we recommend removing them from the room entirely to ensure their safety.

The second type of damage caused by open fires is heat damage. High temperatures, especially sudden extremes of temperature can cause wooden frames, canvases and other pieces of art to warp, damaging them beyond repair. We recommend never putting a picture above a fireplace or any other piece of fine art anywhere near an open fire or radiator to prevent damage from occurring.
We hope you’ve found these tips useful and welcome any feedback you may have.

The Effect of Sunlight on Paintings

With the summer now well under way and a glimpse of sunlight entering your house, you’re likely to be feeling uplifted and invigorated for the months ahead. However the sun isn’t always welcome, especially when it comes to pieces of fine art such as paintings. UV rays from sunlight can cause most paints including acrylics, oils and watercolours to fade when exposed for long periods, especially if they are in direct sunlight i.e. opposite a window.  As well as UV rays, the increased temperature in a room during the summer can cause paints and canvasses to crack too.

To avoid your pieces of fine art being damaged during the summer months, it’s worth putting them in a climate controlled storage facility where they will be kept at the optimum temperature and humidity to preserve them. At Cube Fine Art, our climate controlled storage area allows us to control the temperature to a precision of 1 degree whilst air filtering ensures your piece will be kept at the correct atmospheric pressure to preserve it. The area is also constantly monitored to check the conditions are ideal. If you would like to know more about our purpose-built climate controlled storage facility or would like to make an appointment to view it, please contact us. The Cube Fine Art Team

Transportation for Pieces of Fine Art

The summer months are a key time for collectors of fine art whether you like watercolours, oil paintings, sculptures or other pieces. This is because the summer months are when the most auctions are held throughout the country. Bidding for precious items at auctions might be an energising hobby but when you buy a large or fragile piece of fine art, it can cause a major problem – how are you going to get it home?

This is where Cube Fine Art comes in. We offer a dedicated transportation service which includes a full bespoke packing service plus the physical transportation of your item by trained and experienced staff. Whether you are taking your new piece round the corner or across the country, we can help ensure that it arrives in the best possible condition, putting your mind at ease. If you would like to find out more about our transportation services or would like a quote for something you have bought, please contact us.

We Take the Security of Your Fine Art Seriously

At Cube Fine Art Services, we understand how precious your pieces of fine art are in terms of both financial value and sentimental value. We therefore take security very seriously when it comes to storing your fine art. We have a state of the art storage facility that offers your fine art protection from theft 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Firstly, the facility is surrounded by a high perimeter fence which both deters people from illegally entering the premises and provides a barrier for doing so. The facility has a twin BT Redcare intruder alarm which ensures that both our staff and the police are notified immediately if anyone tries to enter the premises. As well as the building being alarmed, individual pieces of artwork are also alarmed and monitored from our reception area. This ensures that nothing can move without us knowing about it. We have both internal and external CCTV which is monitored and recorded 24 hours a day. This ensures that we know exactly who enters and exits the premises and what they do once inside You are welcome to tour our dedicated storage facility if you wish. To find out more about our security or any of our other services, contact us today

Tips and Advice for Packing Your Own Pieces for Storage

At Cube Fine Art, we offer a specialist, bespoke packing service for your pieces of fine art. However some of our clients prefer to pack their own pieces for storage and we’re perfectly happy for you to do this. We’d like to take this opportunity to share a few tips with you for the best way of doing this:

1.       Frame it – if your piece is a canvas featuring paint, oils, pencil sketches or any other type of media, we recommend framing it instead of storing it loose or rolled. This will offer it better protection.

2.       Corner guards – to protect sharp points or protruding sections of artwork, we recommend the use of cardboard corner guards. This should help to prevent your piece from being damaged in transit.

3.       Bubblewrap – we don’t recommend the use of bubblewrap as it can cause artwork to sweat or the chemicals from the plastic can stain it, causing permanent damage.

4.       Packing peanuts – we don’t recommend the use of packing peanuts either as these can break up into small pieces which can be a nightmare to remove from nooks in sculptures and frames.

5.       Breathable fabric – this is perfect for offering your pieces an extra layer of protection without causing damage.

If you would like to find out more about how to protect your items for transit or storage or would like to know more about our bespoke packing service, please contact us.

Why Bubblewrap is Unsuitable for Packaging Paintings

Back in April we produced a blog post which advised you not to wrap your pieces of fine art in bubblewrap when transporting or putting it into storage. On the back of this post, we had lots of enquiries from customers asking us why bubblewrap is so bad when it comes to wrapping paintings so we thought we’re share the information with everyone. Bubble wrap is made from low density polyethylene plastic which is manufactured using oil and chemicals. One sheet of plastic is wrapped around a drum with holes in it. A vacuum is then applied to the plastic which sucks the plastic into the holes in the drum. Once this has happened, a second layer of polyethylene plastic is laminated over the top of the first to trap in the air which results in small, uniform bubbles - hence the appearance of bubblewrap. When bubblewrap is used on delicate materials such as canvas or porous wood, the oil and other chemicals in the plastic can begin to leach, putting them into contact with your fine artwork which may begin to absorb it. This is the main reason that we don’t recommend using bubblewrap.

The second reason is that due to the plastic construction of bubblewrap, it doesn’t allow your artwork to ‘breathe’ so can also end up trapping tiny droplets of moisture against your item. This results in water damage. We recommend using types of breathable fabric when wrapping your fine art. To find out more about how to protect your items for transit or storage, feel free to contact us.

Our Packing Service

At Cube Fine Art Services, we are specialists in the transportation and storage of pieces of fine art. What many of our customers don’t realise is that we also offer a comprehensive fine art packing service as well – whether you take advantage of our transportation service or not. Here’s what we can offer as part of our packing service:

• Initial Assessment – when you contact Cube Fine Art, we will allocate a dedicated consultant to you who will assess your exact requirements and make recommendations on how best to package your item.

• Bespoke Case Building – we will measure the item or items you require packing and build bespoke cases for them to make sure they will be protected during transportation or storage.

• Case Lining – we will line your custom built case with polystyrene for an extra layer of protection.

• Wrapping – your piece of fine art will then be carefully wrapped in breathable packaging such as Tyvek to ensure it doesn’t ‘sweat’ and cause damage. It will then be placed inside the crate.

• Sealing – the case will then be securely sealed and we will oversee its loading onto a vehicle if required.

If you would like to find out more about our packaging services or would like a quote, please contact us.

We Welcome Feedback

At Cube Fine Art, we pride ourselves on both our extensive knowledge of the transportation and storage of fine art and also on our excellent customer service levels. We welcome feedback on our range of services and on our customer care skills and would like to invite our clients to provide us with feedback. We want to hear about your individual experience with us. What you liked about our services, what you found helpful and what our customer service was like. We’d also like to know if you think our services can be improved upon and anything that we can do that would help you recommend us to friends and colleagues in the future. We’d love to hear from you so if you’d like to share your personal experiences of using Cube Fine Art, please contact us today.

Consultation is the Key

At Cube Fine Art, we understand the importance and value of your fine art, in monetary, investment and sentimental value. That is why we don’t rush in and try to sell you our services straight away. Instead we offer each of our customers, whether looking to transport or store just one item or many, a full consultation service. Our consultation service aims to determine the nature of the pieces of fine art in question and what services you require. We will discuss specific issues about how items should be packed for transportation and how they need to be stored if applicable. We will inform you of the specification of our own delivery vehicles along with our state of the art storage facility that includes a climate controlled storage section. For April, we are offering a free day’s consultation* - to take advantage of this offer, please contact us on 0800 027 2668.

*Terms & conditions apply