After stretching canvas prints by hand during the initial phase of printing my art on canvas, I found the process to be time-consuming, while often resulting with inconsistent tension in the final, stretched product. It also puts a lot of wear and tear on your hands, so I decided to automate this part of my production process. Researching mechanical stretching machines will show you there are not a great number of choices out there, but I decided to go with the 36″ model produced by Gallery Stretcher. This size was a good fit for my business, since I rarely produce …

The new “Gekkards Rule” pencils arrived a few days ago printed by the Graphite Pen & Pencil Co. Pencils are a great promotional tool for the Gekkards. They tie nicely to our business, especially when you consider that every single painting I create, starts with some sort of pencil sketch. They are perfect to hand out to kids (and adults) at art shows, school visits and author signings. Each pencil also includes our website, in hopes the consumer will pay us a future visit. I have used writeonpencils.com for years and their pencils are great with consistent quality, admittedly though, gold, …

After running an Epson 7600 for the past seven years, the time to upgrade has arrived. This is a photo of the Epson 9900 running a 44″ canvas roll. My first impressions of this new model are very positive. It is fast, very fast, especially when compared to the 7600. The colors are extremely vivid and intense. Since the color palette of my work tends to be more saturated, I was concerned the results may get over saturated with the new orange and green ink combo on this model. However, this was not the case. The warmer end of the …