Canvas from China

[KenBabcock]

Today I received some samples from a place in China.  

Some of it was awful, but there was one or two pieces that caught my attention.  They were extremely flexible, which is my only issue with the Canon canvas I use being harder than cement.  Because it was so flexible I was able to gallery wrap the canvas without any cracking at all, and that was before spraying.

The only downside I experienced with the samples is the colours didn't "pop" like they do on Canon canvas.  Flesh tones were a little pale when compared side-by-side with the same image printed on Canon.  The other minor thing I noticed was I could see the dots of ink when I printed at 720dpi if I really examined it closely.  1440dpi made it go away and created a bit more vividness in the colours.

I would never think of using this canvas for high-end work from clients who pay well and expect quality, but it might be okay for cheaper prints that don't attract those who pay a premium.

Anything I should be weary of if I order from China?  I have to order a minimum of about $1200 worth to get it shipped here.

[bill t.]

What about import duties?  And consistency from order to order?  Although a lot of small packages from China make it through unscathed, the larger shipments are bound to attract attention.  I know a wholesale framer who would up paying import duties of something like 30% the cost of his 1/4 container load of moulding.  And in the end the moulding varied considerably from the sample he had received.

At Dan Berg's suggestion I tried a roll of Lexjet SSMC3640 canvas which as far as I can tell makes prints just as nice as anything else, and was of very high manufacturing quality.  With high value stuff like that available from an in-country supplier at very low prices I would not be tempted to import.

[KenBabcock]

Supposedly there are no import duties when the shipment arrives in Toronto, however, I would be looking into that myself before ordering anything.

I don't know about the consistency from batch to batch.  That's why I was asking here if anyone else had experience with the canvas from China.

Like I said in an earlier post, I would never consider using this canvas for clients who demand the best.  But I do have a lot of people that inquire about prints then shy away when they realize the price.  It would be an alternative that the everyday Joe could afford.  Definitely would not use this for my current clients (Dr's, lawyers, photographers, etc...)  Just yesterday I even had Curtis Joseph (former Toronto Maple Leafs goalie) buy a print from me and he commented on the canvas I used.  So the China stuff would be more for those who want prints, but don't want to pay for a premium canvas.

Not saying I'm going to buy it, but I was asking around to see if others had tried it first.

[enduser]

It depends on which China.   The Taiwanese is said to be better than mainland, but that's not confirmed by us. Considering how many known paint artists with reputations buy pre-stretched canvases from wherever, and sell their one-offs for a large sum, I'm not sure we aren't being a bit too cautious in rejected Chinese products.

We have seen prices trending down recently in Australia, possibly as a result of a lot of low price Chines product reaching the West.  Our supplier says that the biggest variable with Chinese canvas is the poor uniformity of any optical brighteners, and he scans random rolls under UV light to pick up variations.