My new endeavor: A fine art giclee studio in what used to be my guestroom.

So, I'm embarking on a big new endeavor.

I'm going to be printing my own fine art giclées at home. Giclée (pronounced Zhee-clay) is a digital inkjet process using advanced technology to create a lustrous, continuous-tone print that is as good, or usually better, than the quality of traditional lithography or offset printing. They are basically the high-definition prints of the art world. And best of all, you can print them on watercolor paper, giving them a huge benefit when it comes to looking like the real thing.

So I bought new printer with eleven different ink cartridges and a price tag that makes me feel a little faint. It is an Epson Stylus Pro 4900: It is truly state of the art and completely massive. It arrived on a big truck the other day, bigger than the ups or Fedex truck. I bet those guys had never driven down a driveway like mine! (Yes, that photo is my actual driveway.) Delivery people are always shaking their heads a us, so we're used to it.




Continuing on... the box was HUGE!!!! We had tried to prepare ourselves for how large it was going to be, but we did not succeed. Here's my husband, John with the printer still in the box.

Once we got over our astonishment at the size of the box, we opened it up. It was nicely packaged with Styrofoam, but still took up most of the box.

Purchasing this printer has opened up a whole new world to us already, and we haven't even turned it on, yet. To be able to use it to it's capabilities, we have bought a new computer and monitor. We have also been shopping for all sorts of new things like watercolor printing paper, giant ink cartridges, and all sorts of cables and wires for our various new hardware devices.


We also converted our guest room into an office for our printing. We wanted a room that we didn't use for anything else, and where our pets weren't allowed, so that the printer wouldn't be exposed to pet hair or any more dust than necessary. You can see how huge the it is here. We made a nice, sturdy stand for it out of 2 x 4s and 1 x 12s so it wouldn't shake around while it works.

I'll follow up with more articles later, once I fire it up and learn how to use it!

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