AFAIK, the Kernewek line of "infused" fabrics is only available in the U.S through an exclusive distributor,
Freestyle Photographic I don't know how it is distributed in Europe, but for those interested I'd try contacting Kernow Coatings directly
Kernowcoatings.comFreestyle renamed the Kernewek line of Fine Fabrics as the "Arista Americana Collection", but these infused fabrics were tested at Aardenburg Imaging & Archives under their original product names. I have attached a screenshot of the the renaming key included in each of the Aardenburg test reports. Those lightfastness test reports can be easily found by filtering the "paper/media" column for "Kernow" in the AaI&A light fade database.
These media are aqueous inkjet printable fabrics that use a special process to infuse the ink receptor chemistry into the fabric rather than simply overcoat it on top like most canvas and other inkjet printable fabrics are made. The inventor of the process, John Edmunds, and I became good friends over the years. John was a really good guy and very passionate about his scientific research and inventions, so we formed an immediate bond of friendship. Sadly, John passed away a few years ago from an aggressive cancer that did not respond to modern day treatments, but from the very start of his inkjet printable fabric project he was a strong advocate for Aardenburg Imaging's image permanence research and innovative test methods. He advocated strongly with his company's technology licensee, Kernow Coatings, to provide independent light fade test data on these fabrics. Kernow Coatings, much to its credit, obliged. It was a unique fee-for-service testing contract that has never been repeated by any other vendors. Aardenburg requires full public disclosure of all test results, good or bad, for any commercially available products we test. Most companies will absolutely not abide by those terms, electing to contract to independent labs where any disappointing test results that don't meet marketing expectations will be held strictly confidential. Essentially and understandably, companies want to accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative. Under the right circumstances, Aardenburg Imaging will perform proprietary and confidential testing for prototype materials but again, not for commercially available products, and if the prototype materials do eventually end up on the market, Aardenburg considers those products totally fair game to retest as a public service. So, bad results on commercially available products can never be swept under the rug for very long if Aardenburg is doing the testing. Hence, most manufacturers will not choose Aardenburg to perform this type of testing, because they can't control the outcome. The testing of the Kernewek fabric line presented a unique situation due to John Edmunds faith in his technology and his faith in Aardenburg Imaging. I doubt the stars will ever align quite like that again.
I developed a personal liking for the St Ive's full cotton canvas fabric (now branded Arista "Monument Valley" by Freestyle Photographic), but each one of these fabrics in the Kernewek line have distinctive weights, textures, and other properties, so I would encourage anyone interested to acquire some samples. The handling properties of these fabrics is top notch. Although I don't promote my custom printmaking services on my website, I have done so for select clients in the past, not so much lately. When I was testing these fabrics, I had an important client who also took a special liking to the St Ives fabric when he saw some images I had printed on it. I did not perform any finishing treatments for this artist. He handled all his own needs for additional coatings, stretching, and mounting, and he always told me how easy it was to work with. The infused fabrics can be aggressively stretched, hand or spray coated, and the are quite free of many of the cracking problems artists face with various inkjet canvas products now on the market. The light fade resistance is as good as it gets with the ink sets I tested, and I would not expect that to change with any of the newer ink sets when comparing to other inkjet printable canvas or fabric options. The only downside to these infused fabrics is that the Dmax and color gamut, although very good and competitive with many other fabric media, is not the very highest that can be obtained on other roughly comparable media (although none of those media have the natural weave appearance of these infused fabrics). That said, you do have to choose and prepare image files for these infused fabrics carefully to get great image quality, but with the right image the results are very special and quite unique. Also, I have not revisited the Dmax issues on these fabrics with any of the newest ink set from Canon and Epson that are showing increased Dmax capabilities. There could be some real improvements with the newest ink sets. I just don't know because I haven't retested with the latest ink sets.
To this day, I feel strongly that had a major player like Epson, Canson, or Hahnemulhe picked up this line of fabrics from Kernow Coatings for branding under private label, many folks would be well aware of them by now. Regrettably, distribution of these infused media has been very very limited, and the printmaking community by and large simply does not know they even exist.
cheers,
Mark
http://www.aardenburg-imaging.com
