What Etsy Sellers Need to Know

So you sell canvas or giclee prints on Etsy right? Or maybe you are thinking of doing so or just got started. Well, this post is for you. People fitting this profile come to us all the time with questions since they want to use FinerWorks to process and ship many of their print orders. Usually the questions center around such things as how many of our own customers use Etsy as their Manufacturing Partner and what info can we provide them to be sure they are abiding by Etsy’s policies. They also wonder how successful are the current Etsy users who use us. And, some even ask us if we know what sells best when it comes to artwork.

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Fixing Distorted Photographs of Paintings

Giclee printing is a digital printing method so the quality of the resulting print depends on the quality of the image being provided to print. This is because giclee printing is utilizing similar technology you would probably use to print a photograph at home. This is one reason so many photo labs now have adopted these very large printers to produce photo enlargements for their clients. But when it comes to making an art reproduction the goal is for the printing to not look like a photo. Instead we want the end result to look like a reproduction of that artwork. Of course it starts with a good capture of the artwork. If it is not going to be scanned, you only need a decent digital camera, good even lighting and some editing software for a little color correction. When the artwork is properly composed within the frame of the photograph, it can mean the difference between a high quality reproduction versus something looking like a mere photo copy.

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Protecting and Preserving Your Giclee Prints

Just a couple years ago the production manager at FinerWorks surprised me with what she was able to do with a canvas print which had accidentally been scratched. A customer had ordered a large stretched canvas print of a wedding photo. The surface of the print became damaged when it accidentally hit up against something sharp right after it has been stretched and mounted.

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Beware of Cheap Canvas Prints

You will want to share this with any photographers or artists you know. Beware of those Groupon, Amazon or other canvas print specials by e-mail. Not that all are bad but with canvas prints, many times you get what you pay for. If you don’t believe me, check out this video of a canvas print we received from a competitor that we once used to highly respect. Now I am not so sure.

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Are My Prints Archival?

Are the prints we produce archival and what makes them archival? This is another one of those set of questions we get quite often. The first thing I tell them is yes. Because of the papers and inks we utilize the type of giclee prints we produce are some of the most archival prints you can get today. I also remind them they are also the most delicate since the inks lay of the surface of the paper. Improper handling or even jostling around can damage a print so it is important to always display it in such a fashion where careless handling or damage via shipping can be minimized. So what makes these delicate prints which are now so favored by both collectors, galleries and even museums so archival?

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