Giclée Prints

Yesterday Gretchen asked about giclée prints so to be accurate I turned a web site I go to quite often to find out what current information is available. Take a few minutes and go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet and see what the Wikipedia has to say. I found it quite interesting and did learn some things I didn't know. I'm sure you will enjoy that link too.

Commentary: Today I sat in the Southern Rivers Guild Gallery in Pine Mountain and had a really good time talking art to the visitors and customers that came in. On one of the walls in the gallery I noticed small, framed explanation of giclée prints that I thought was very helpful. This is basically what the note said.

Giclée (pronounced "gee-clay", a sophisticated and widely celebrated ink jet printing process that was introduced in the late 1980's. Designed specifically for the rigorous and precise criteria of fine art collectors and connoisseurs of museum quality limited edition prints, many worldly wide museums have accepted them into their permanent collections. The Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles are among the museums that have giclée works hanging.

Giclée prints far exceed other forms of image printing and are so sophisticated that the process produces images which truly capture the artist's original intent.

I totally agree with the above statement. As an artist, making giclée Prints is a good affordable way to offer your work to those that might not wish to invest in your original work but want to enjoy having your work in their home of business. The only consideration, and one we all desire, is for the print to accurately capture the spirit of the original work in color, detail and experience. Be sure that the person you choose to create the giclée for you is actually creating a giclée and not just a ink jet print much like you can get from your home computer. I have seen some work (not at Southern Rivers) that are labeled as giclée prints that were clearly not giclées. To create a giclée takes a special print process and of course archival ink. Printers that can do this are quite expensive not to mention the knowledge and skill the printer has to have to be able to take your digital image and give you back a product you can be proud of. Giclee printing machines measure around 3 feet wide and are often affectionately referred to as a “knitting machine” as they look very similar. Just as you take care to use professional art supplies, be sure the printer you choose is also professional and be sure to ask questions about what kind of printing they do. Do your research and figure the cost expense. The subject of print giclées could go on for pages and I think we should continue to talk about them and learn all we can.

Some of you may already have giclée prints of your work and might want to share the name and phone number of the printer you use. Let us hear from you if you do. Some of you might have had bad experiences with printers and sharing that information would really help us all.