Canvas sells but fine art papers don't.

[dgberg]

Another thread on this forum about all the wonderful fine art and photo papers that are available today got me thinking.
Why we offer what we offer. Do we push what we like to work with or what the customer wants?
Example. I had a request several weeks ago for a quote for 90 prints and framed images for a local hospital.
I pushed canvas right from the get go and got the job.
The price for paper mat and glass would have been double but the mat and glass work keeps me from offering it.
Which brings me to the question of the day.
I want to sell more fine art and photo papers and it is just not happening. I probably have several thousand dollars worth of papers here of several dozen different types and brands.
I experiment with them and they were all beautiful. What happens? I stick them in my large print drawers or they get thrown away. I never mount them or hang them. Which also means I do not push them either. Did a little walk around my studio workshop and counted 74 hanging prints. 10 dye sub metals, 56 canvas,3 paper and 5 acrylic face mounted. Did the same in the house. Of the 37 hanging 3 were metal and 34 were canvas.
So how do I push all these papers when number one there is very little money in just doing the prints. The money is in mounting and framing and of course large canvas prints.
I know you will probably all say you are probably making money doing what you are doing, keep it up.
Just not interested one bit in doing mats and glass and that is most certainly the reason I do not offer it. Am presently experimenting with different laminates over some of the fine art papers but they lose that beautiful texture and also get pretty plasticky looking.
See many of you folks are marketing only fine art and photo papers but no canvas.
Just putting it out there for discussion. Are that many clients wanting these papers, if so why?
This is apparent to me that this is an issue about mounting rather then papers.

[Jager]

Well, perhaps you sell canvas because that's what you have, what you like, and what you push?  Even your URL points in that direction.

We all have biases and preferences.  Nothing wrong with that.  But we need to remember that those then become the prism through which we see the world.  It also becomes the lens through which customers and potential customers view us.

I'm guessing if you woke up one morning, walked into your studio, smiling happily at all the wonderful fine art hung there - heavily outnumbering the few odd canvas pieces... you'd be just as successful.

[shadowblade]

I think size has a lot to do with it.

Paper is convenient for smaller prints, and a paper surface is better at small sizes where details in a photo would be overwhelmed by the texture of canvas.

At large sizes, paper is increasingly difficult to handle. Framing, matting and quality glass/acrylic become incredibly expensive, while the framed prints become more fragile and more difficult to handle. A 20x60" paper panorama is no fun to handle, let alone a 32x96" panorama - common sizes in canvas and metal. Canvas and metal prints (whether paper bonded to metal, UV prints or dye-sub prints) become much more practical at large sizes.

[disneytoy]

Not really a problem, but I get caught up in the same thing. I lead my clients to the Epson Exhibition Watercolor. I just got in the Legacy Baryta, so I'll need to get some orders to justify the $500 I just spent on paper.

[GrahamBy]

That is between 30 to 35ml left in every one.

In an 80ml cartridge? Something is going seriously wrong there, I can't believe they'd do that, to that extent...

[Jager]

Dan, would be interested if you're able to find or devise a refillable ink system for the P800.  According to Jon Cone, the chip algorithm(s) in the OEM P800 carts are much more heavy handed than the 3800/3880 (or even the P600).  He's not been able to come up with anything so far.

Inkjetmall - P800

[Peter Mellis]

Some years back (around 2006) Epson settled a US class action lawsuit that, amongst other things, claimed that their printers/cartridges indicated that the carts were empty and stopped printing with ink still remaining. Maybe this is rearing it's head again.