A pastel painting is fragile as long as it remains unframed. It is like ‘wet paint’: if you touch it, the paint will come off and you will smudge the painting. A pastel painting or drawing therefore needs to be framed behind glass as soon as possible to protect it. Once it is properly framed it will last for a very long time indeed.Unframed pastel paintings should be stored flat, with sheets of glassine paper over it to protect it from smudges. It can help to tape the glassine paper to the edges of the painting to make sure the glassine paper does not move and smudge the pastel. I usually fold a sheet of glassine around the edges of the pastel paper. This way the glassine will not smudge the pastel by moving. If I don’t have glassine than any other paper will do, preferably acid free quality to make sure colours don’t change. Store your painting in a sturdy folder to keep them flat or put them in a drawer.