Sunset Bright Velvet Rag for Perfectly Distressed Edges

For Oklahoma photographer Kimberly Smith, 2017 was quite the year; not only did she take home a Sunset Print Award for her entry “The Beauty of Innocence” in the Southwest PPA regionals, but in February, she was presented with the 1st Place prize for the 2017 National Sunset Print Award at Imaging USA.

To create her signature style in these winning images, Smith uses LexJet Sunset Bright Velvet Rag 315g with distressed edges that create a fine art finish to her work.

In quite the follow-up to 2017, Smith won another Sunset Print Award in the 2018 Southwest PPA District, and she stepped to the head of the class for the first time to teach a group of students about the art of black-and-white photography … as well as her favorite deckled-edge finishing technique.

While preparing her curriculum, Smith wanted to include the distressed technique for her students. “I want to print out a few different images for them to practice tearing the edges,” she said. Of Sunset Bright Velvet Rag, she says “the thickness (of the paper) means the tears on the edges are perfect for a soft, multi-layered look.”

Sunset Bright Velvet Rag is a 20-mil thick (315g) 100% rag paper with a velvet surface. The bright white finish is the perfect complement to Smith’s preference for high-key black-and-white printing. “The cottony feel and thickness is what caught my attention and it prints beautifully,” she says.

With all the print competitions she does, it’s important that her prints stand up to being held, shipped and displayed all over the country. “Several of my images have been handled a lot, packed in print cases and shipped several times,” she says. “They come back looking the same.”

Bright Velvet Rag will continue to be part of Smith’s award-winning formula for a while. “It’s a beautiful product that I will continue using myself and highly recommend for others.”

If you are looking to give your photographs a fine-art finish, call your sales representative at 800-453-9538 to discuss LexJet Sunset Bright Velvet Rag 315g or visit us at lexjet.com.

Choosing the Right Fine Art Paper for Your Artwork

When it comes to choosing the right inkjet paper for digitally printed reproductions of your artwork, it ultimately comes down to personal preference. However, some papers naturally work better for certain art forms, and choosing the paper you print on can be as much of an art as it is a science. Here are some tips to pick the paper that will work best for you:

The first determining factor is the type of printer you’re using, since not all printers are compatible with all papers. The preferred print technology for most fine art printers is aqueous, which has the most compatible papers on the market, and newer models, like Epson P-Series and Canon PRO-Series printers, have 10- and 12-ink options for greater color gamuts that are truer to the original art.

Some printers are moving to eco-solvent technology, like Sacramento Giclee, which recently added a Epson SureColor S80600 to its operation. The solvent technology eliminates the need to coat the print, which is helpful for busy, large-volume shops.

Printer Challenge: Reproduce the 30-foot Painting, African Menagerie

Last fall, Christopher Glassman, general partner at Casual Graphics in Hays, Kan., got a call to reproduce an enormous painting by Brian Jarvi titled “African Menagerie.” The painting, which captures 210 species living in Africa now, was 17 years in the making. It’s been part of a traveling exhibit and Jarvi wanted a more manageable version for smaller venues, as well as prints for reproductions, books and other uses that might come up.

“Chris is the consummate professional,” Jarvi says. “We were very fortunate to have somebody right there who was so skilled. The reproduction is probably superior to anything we’ve had done prior, and with that said, the Menagerie was probably the greatest challenge, as well.”

This Seattle Framing Company Is Going Big with the Epson P20000

Mary Song of the Seattle-based NW Art + Framing knows a thing or two about printing. A photographer and print coordinator, she oversees the fulfillment of custom and commercial orders for a variety of clients throughout the Northwest. In fact, the company handles printing for three sets of stores, which include the flagship NW Art + Framing, Frame Central, Museum Quality Framing and Beard’s Framing.

“Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, we’ll fulfill 10,000 orders,” Song says. “We get 150-foot custom rolls, and we’ll go through four of them a day.”

NW Art + Framing prints for hospitality, healthcare and commercial clients.
NW Art + Framing prints for hospitality, healthcare and commercial clients.

That’s a lot of media for fine and framed art, metal prints, canvas and much more. To handle the workload, the facility houses nine printers, mostly Epson, including the recent purchase of the Epson SureColor P20000 64-inch printer, pictured above in action.

“The P20000 is helpful for large canvas and art prints,” Song says. “We have a demand for it, and everyone is going larger.”

The demand, she says, was specifically for large fine art, coated prints that weren’t latex-specific. The P20000 was specifically designed for high-production photographic and fine art printing with all new UltraChrome PRO inks, including four levels of grays. To ensure the color reproduction was up to par, Song but it through a rigorous test: her own work.

“As a photographer, I didn’t trust people to print for me,” Song says. “When we got the P20000 in, the first image I printed was one of mine, so I could see how good it was. The definition in the images was fantastic. The image has sepia tones, which is difficult to print, but right out of the box without profiles, it was spot-on. I couldn’t be happier.”

Since Song started with NW a year and a half ago, the company has doubled the number of its printers in effort to bring all print jobs in-house. “We really wanted to get the profit inside our building,” she says. That also meant that she and her team had to work faster, which was another selling point for the P20000.

“We needed a faster turn-around time, and this machine is faster,” she says. After considering some other less-expensive, older-model printers on the market, she chose to go with the P20000. “I said: If we’re going to invest in new technology, let’s invest in what’s the newest, not something that would be outdated within a few years.”

The company is also considering purchasing a SureColor P10000 44-inch printer, which uses the same ink set as the P20000, which will save on storage space and maintenance, she says, as well as delivering the consistency she expects. “Nothing beats Epson’s color or quality,” Song says. “Epson is by far one of the best printer companies out there.”

Introducing: LexJet Sunset Production Satin Canvas SUV

For photography and fine art reproduction shops, LexJet Sunset Production Satin Canvas SUV is the all-new solution for high-volume production that demands consistent results for the creative digital market.

The new canvas is a U.S.-made 100 percent polyester canvas with the look and feel of a traditional, 2-over-1 poly-cotton weave, but heavier than a typical polyester canvas. Compatible with solvent, eco-solvent, latex and UV-curable printers, this versatile canvas is a cost-effective alternative that doesn’t require a coating for a satin finish.

Maxwell D1
This print, titled “NY NY,” is available at MaxwellDickson.com.

Los Angeles-based Maxwell Dickson, which specializes in digital canvas décor art, tested the new product and has since put in an order to bring it on as a go-to canvas. “We’re going to use it — that’s the best endorsement I can give anyone,” says Kashif Shaheed, manager at Maxwell Dickson.

“We prefer for our canvas to have a cloth feel to it, so it looks like authentic canvas – not too plastic,” he says. “People confuse it with vinyl if it looks too manufactured.”

Because Maxwell Dickson prints more than 100 prints per month that range in a variety of sizes from 16-by-20 inches to 40-by-60 inches, the fact that this new canvas comes in 150-foot rolls is a bonus.

“We use at least 12 rolls of the 75-foot rolls each month,” he says. “We’d prefer not to change out the rolls as often, so that’s really one of the biggest selling points for us.”

To learn more about the launch of LexJet’s Sunset Production Satin Canvas SUV, call us at 800-453-9538.

Top Tips: DIY Spray Booth and Easy Canvas Coating

If you’re a photographer or fine-art printer, chances are you produce a lot of canvas prints. And with that, the need to apply a protective coating, which can be messy and expensive.

However, you don’t need to set aside a large space or spend a lot on a spray booth. In fact, we’ve created a guide to show you how to build a three-sided spray booth for less than $70, that can be accomplished in an afternoon using PVC pipe and plastic sheeting.

You can see the booth in action in the video above, which illustrates the application of Sunset Satin Coating using a high-volume, low-pressure spray gun. To see how easy it is to build a DIY spray booth, check out the video below. You can download a PDF with all of the detailed instructions HERE.