When I first started selling my art online this past Fall, I wanted to focus on creating affordable original art. But, lately, I have been thinking about making prints of my work. I started researching decent printers and eventually found a deal on craigslist that I couldn't pass up. I bought an Epson 1900, which is a pigment inkjet printer. The advantage of pigment ink is its archival quality. Supposedly prints can last 100 - 200 years.
So, for the past week, I've had fun testing out my new toy. For the first couple of days, I experimented printing on different inkjet papers. I went to a local photo store and bought a couple of sample packets of Hahnemuhle and Canson fine art papers. There were eight different sheets that I ran through the printer, all with the same image. I was surprised to find that there really wasn't much of a difference between the different kinds of paper. Although I really liked the weight of Hahnemuhle's Museum Etching paper, I eventually bought a packet of Hahnemuhle's Sugar Cane paper, which is made from sugar cane fibers and recycled materials.
The sugar cane paper has a textured and matte surface. Yesterday, I decided to print a photo of the Columbia Gorge that I took just a day prior, and I loved how it turned out. The photo looks somewhat like a painting (especially the background), which was the effect I was going for.
Here's another photo I took on our trip to the Gorge. The print is a little darker than the actual photograph, but I ended up liking the darker, muted colors as much as the original image.
Future printing projects I have in mind include postcards and notecards. I would also like to create a limited edition pocketbook gallery. The little books would be printed and assembled in my studio, so I'll need to work on the logistics of all that.
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