Constant Dreamer

Choosing a Printer

I see people inquiring about the "best" printer on the Etsy forums on a regular basis. Unfortunately (or not), no one can really tell you which is the best. You need to do the research (or get someone who likes you a tremendous amount to do it for you).

Some BIG questions to ask are:

- How much money to you want to invest? $100? $10,000?

- What are you going to print? Business cards? Greeting cards? Posters? Fine Art Prints?

- How much space do you have? Some printers are several feet wide.

- How much can you lift? Some printers weigh over 100 pounds.

That's plenty of questions for now. If you have more, definitely write them down. That's what I do, or I forget quickly. Where was I? Oh yeah. Research.

The first place I went was CNET to look for possible candidates. They had a great deal of information in an easy to understand format. The reviews ended up being a great jumping off point for further reading. Yes. More reading. Buckle up. LOL.

My friend Google was a huge help. I found several (primarily) photographer's forums that have amazing threads chuck full of printer anechdotes. Photo.net has a large pro printer forum. Luminous Landscape covers printers, paper and ink in one forum section. The last one I used was dpreview.com.If you have questions, the chances are that someone has already asked them. Do some searches.

What else? Oh! Most of the printers you will hear mentioned are Epson, HP, and Canon. It's a good idea to check out their websites as well.

Now, you can forgo all the research and just pick something and hope it works for you. It will likely be fine if you're willing to work with whatever you buy. Keep in mind that you will need to learn a little bit about color calibration and the super fun ICC profiles or your print jobs could end up looking like poo. No one pays for poo. Except farmers. Mostly.

It's Been Too Many Days

I have been very busy creating and not blogging. Sorry!

My Etsy shop has been stocked with a few new pieces including this one. I'm excited to finally be up to 15 pieces! I can also see I have a long way to go. This is the first work I have done on the new Ampersand Deep Cradled Hardbords. "Hippo" measures 8x10 and is acrylic and ink. The giclee prints I have made from it are once inch smaller on all sides to allow for a boarder. I'll let you know when I post the original for sale in a day or two.

In other news, I am currently on the front page of Etsy! Woot! I have a screen shot, but I'll spare you. lol

Okay, I have a super huge pile of laundry to do and a shower to take and a house to clean up. Oops and I need to make dinner. My darling husband will be home in an hour. Anyone want to guess how much I will accomplish before he gets here?

Popularity

I ended up having to order paper from out of state. There isn't a sheet of cotton rag for inkjet printers with my name on it in the entire Twin Cities. Hard to fathom, but unfortunately true. In the meantime, it's waiting time again. Always awesome for business. lol

This piece is currently my most popular. It's called "Giraffe" and it's an 8x10 print with a 7x9 image on it. The original is acrylic painting with an ink drawing on board.

I have run out of this print until I get more paper.  In the meantime, I'm getting everything ready for printing.

Sea Turtle

I have been working away scanning all of my artwork and cleaning it up for printing. I decided to try a small copyright in the upper right corner in my web display images. So far, it's not bothering me, so I think I'm going to stick with it.

My new 17" Epson Professional printer has been getting multiple test runs along with all of the other new gagets (the scanner and color profile thingy). I will post further on the products I chose and why and how well they perform at a later date. Right now, my husband and I are focusing on getting everything up and running with the most perfect print output possible.

Tomorrow's task will be sending back the new Somerset velvet I ordered and running to a local printing place to find something more suitable. I'd order on the internet, but I want that paper right away and don't feel like waiting another week to fill my little shop.

For those that aren't aware, never ever buy a paper that isn't coated unless you want fuzzy (crazymaking) results. Another lesson learned here. :)

This piece is originally about 8x8 inches but had to be scaled down to 7x7 to fit the 8x10 media. Acrylic paint and ink on board. 

Craftster Swap

My swap partner finally received her package, so now I can share without spoiling the surprise. Hooray! Something to blog about!

The theme was Tea Time, Most people send teacups and beautifully embroidered tea towels and such. I didn't feel like sending a teapot and a cozy. I also wanted to include only items that I made myself (except the tea, because growing tea is a bit much for me). Since I have two book arts classes under my belt from college, I decided on a book, a box and two bookmarks. Don't you immediately think of bookmarks when hearing the word "tea"?

The blue box is a portfolio that I filled up with Good Earth tea. The inside is lined with paper that I marbled at Open Book. To make it fit into the theme a bit better, I painted little yellow teacups down one side.  The small yellow book is a simple accordian book. I painted one litle red teacup on the front.

The bookmarks are black mat board painted on the front and back, but only one side is illustrated. I used many of the same methods I use in my larger illustrations.

In other news, my printer and new monitor have arrived!!! Very very soon, I will stock my store with the pile of work I have completed. Yay variety! :)

Eating Well

I have decided to devote more time and attention to our diet here in the Standing home. I really feel it's necessary to eat as many vegetables and whole grains as possible and add fruits,proteins (chicken, tofu, nuts,etc) to round out meals. We have a stack of cookbooks. Some of them,like The Whole Foods Market Cookbook (Sonoma Chicken Salad mmmmmm) are really great.

We also have several books on eating raw and the Macrobiotic diet. I found them fascinating and quite useful- albeit a bit too extreme for my tastes. Trying to keep everyone happy is key (and challenging). It's a tall order, but certainly attainable.

I'd like to have the meals sorted by the time my new printer arrives and the shop gets updated. Ha. Totally kidding. It will probably take weeks. Hopefully, we can stay away from McDonald's in the meantime.