Materials for storage

["Anna Javér" <anna.javer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

My name is Anna Javér and I am a Textile Conservator at The World 
Culture Museum in Gothenburg, Sweden.

We are in the process of moving our collections of ethnografic and 
archaeological textiles into a new storage building and in the process 
we will install a new storage system. 

We are now just about to order our this system but do feel that we need 
more input for materials that are in use in museums around the globe.

We will have a system for rolled textiles and we will be using acid-
free cardboard boxes on solid shelves for some textiles. This straight 
forward and we know what we want to use here.

Then we have decided to use frames in a "baking-tray" system which will 
support our often large and very fragile textiles (read: pre-columbian 
textiles or Indonesian barkcloth).

This last system is what I would like to have input and views on 
especially your thought on materials.  The frame will be of aluminum 
because we want it to be light in weight. The supportive material in 
the frame is what we have not decided on what to use. The criteria for 
it is to be light-weight, supportive, and inert. 

We have discussed using a streched polyester weave, secured 
mechanically as has been used in The Art Institute of Chicago and at 
American Natural History Museum but are worried that it will "sack" 
over time. We have also discussed using Correx (polyethylen)sheets but 
are worried about the static electricity that comes with it. Then as a 
third alternative is paper, such as corrugated cardboard or honeycomb. 
The worry here is that it's hard to find acid-free cardboard that is 
not buffered and we do have a lot of fragile protein fibres in our 
collection.

I would really like to hear your ideas on this. I do not whant to 
invent the wheel once more and at the moment I feel like I am trying 
to... Thank you for your help,

Yours sincerely,
Anna Javér
The World Culture Museum
Goteborg; Sweden