Keeping Pastel Dust Off Your Mats
by Candace D. Fenander

No one can deny that pastels are beautiful, especially when framed. But they detract from their own beauty, when their dust gets on their mats. How we keep this from happening is the big question. There is no sure-fire way of totally preventing pastel dust from getting on your mats, but there are some things that can be done to reduce its presence.

Method 1: Burnishing
This method is usually done at the completion of a painting, but really could be done at various stages throughout the painting process.

Lay your painting flat on a table, cover it with tissue paper and then press down upon it with a rolling pin, burnisher or just the palm of your hand. This will press the bits of dust together by getting rid of air pockets and create better cohesion between the particles. This method takes off some of the top layer dust and, depending on the kind of tissue paper you use, may be anything from just a little to “yiiiks!” If this happens, just touch up your painting afterwards and use a better tissue paper next time. So far, I’ve found that tracing paper works best. You may find others work better.

Method 2: Layer with Workable Fixative
This method was suggested by a framer with a fine art background.

Lightly spray your painting with workable fixative at various stages of your painting. While this won’t hold all the pastel on your board, it will fix some of the dust in layers, thus minimizing “dust fall.” This also has the added benefit of allowing you to layer on more pastel, especially if you are working with paper that has little tooth. Workable fixative won’t destroy your highlights as would non-workable fixatives or spray varnishes.

This, along with Bridgette’s method (below), was recently put to the test. While hanging a show, one of my paintings took up the habit of falling face down, twice in a row! Holding our breaths, we waited for the verdict— was the painting still in tact. We found that no dust had fallen on either glass or mat! I had used a variety of pastels, from hard to soft, but layering workable fixative and giving the final work a few whacks did the trick!

Method 3: The Bridgette Greb-Adams Way
This method is not recommended for softer pastels, as you will most probably lose a great deal of it on the first whack!

Bridgette paints with NuPastels and pastel pencils. These harder pastels allow her to really pressure down on her support paper, causing an immediately strong cohesion between the pastel particles. When complete, she sprays it lightly with an acrylic fixative (I used workable in the above example). After this has dried, she takes her painting (still mounted on a board), turns it over and gives it a few good whacks on the back to get rid of any loose particles. According to her framer, her paintings are easier to frame, since less dust comes off than with those from other artists.