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A full range of Thangkas- Andy Weber

The sewing machine has been busy mounting Andy Weber's full range of 12 giclee canvas prints into silk brocade surrounds which have been manufactured in Nepal.

Wow don't they look good! The rich textured silk fabric of the traditional Thangkas perfectly compliments the vivid giclee prints of Andy Weber's paintings. These are available from the Dharma shop on Andy's new online shop.

The giclee prints include Amitaba Buddha, 1000-Armed Avalokitsvara, Chenrezig (4 arms), Green Tara, Manjushri, Medicine Buddha, Pilgrimage to Mount Kailash, Prajnaparamita, Shakyamuni Buddha, Vajrayogini, White Tara and Yamantaka. These are all currently available in an A4 size image, with surrounding silk brocade with some of them also available in a larger A3 size.

Andy's new on-line shop has excellent facilities to enlarge the images to view them in their full splendour. It has the whole collection of Andy Weber's Fine Art Reproductions, Limited Edition Giclee prints, posters and cards. All are printed here, the majority by waterless offset, at Abacus Colour Printers.

www.andyweberstudios.com

Fine Art Limited Edition Reproduction aids RNLI fund raising.

Phil Weeks recently placed an order for 200 Fine Art Limited Edition Reproductions of his original painting of the RNLI lifeboat 44-004,Passing South Stack, Holyhead, Anglesey. This painting was exhibited at the 2009 Society of Marine Artists exhibition.

The original was painted in gouache on a peelable board so we were able to scan it here at Abacus. Originals need to be flexible to bend around the cylinder on our high end drum scanner. This in-house scanning enables the best possible rendition of originals which is the crucial starting point for accurate printing of Fine Art Reproductions.

All printing on the Komori press in four colours is by Waterless Offset. The Magenta and Yellow printing inks are very special as they contain lightfast pigment and compliment the standard Cyan and Black inks which are already very permanent. These inks enable the Fine Art Reproductions we print to conform to the exacting standards of the Fine Art Trade Guild. In order to remain a print member of the F.A.T.G. a print has to be sent for independent evaluation of its lightfastness - a test we have passed for the last 20 years.

All Fine Art Reproductions are printed on 300gsm paper which has been accredited as fulfilling ISO9706 for permanence.

Abacus has been specialising in printing Fine Art Reproductions for artists and publishers for over two decades. Five years ago this was expanded to include Giclee printing in a dedicated studio. Abacus now offers the most comprehensive variety of options for printing long or short runs of large or small images of Fine Art Limited Edition Reproductions.

Philip Weeks can be contacted by email: philweeks@fsmail.net

HOXA TAPESTRY GALLERY ORKNEY

Leila Thompson is a Tapestry artist residing in the Scottish Orkney Islands.From her base at the Hoxa Tapestry gallery,St Margarets Hope, Leila designs and makes her beautiful original works of art.Her materials are mainly Shetland wool,Swedish linen and American cotton and a variety of other materials she likes to experiment with.She is currently so successful that there is a 2-3 year waiting list for her original works,which can take up to 4 months to complete.
The gallery was purpose built to house Leilas large works and give her room for her creativity.
Leila was born on Orkney and graduated from Edinburgh College of Art in 1980 with a 1st class honours degree.
Here at Abacus we have regularly printed a range of posters,greetings cards and postcards for her. Leila takes advantage of the full card sheet rates we offer to give the minimum unit cost, therefore maximum profit margins. By mixing different sizes of greetings cards and postcards there is no waste space on any of the larger SRA2 sheets for this canny scotch lassie.
Leilas work can be viewed on her excellent website www.hoxatapestrygallery.co.uk The postcards,greetings cards and posters are available exclusively from her gallery.

Full sheets of cards for Joyce Watson of Beannachd Cards

Joyce has recently taken the opportunity to place an order for a whole range of postcards,greetings cards, bookmarks and mini cards. Here at Abacus we were able to fill the large SRA2 sheet economically by mixing both postcards and greetings cards on the same sheet leaving no empty waste space.

Abacus offers this flexibility in relation to full sheets to enable clients to maximise the available spaces. We at Abacus are not rigid in our sheet layouts and will guide you to what is and what is not possible on these SRA2 sheets. Your financial success is our success as further orders will inevitably follow.

With previous orders Joyce has sent in her own scans originated on her own desktop scanner, but having not been entirely happy with cards originated in this way, this year she left the scanning to Abacus. [A route we always recommend as the final print quality is only as good as the origination].

We at Abacus were delighted to ensure the scans from our very expensive drum scanner met her approval by submitting press profiled digital proofs for her to see before printing. On receiving this approval the postcards, greetings cards, bookmarks and mini cards were printed, cut, scored packed and despatched to her base in the Isle of Iona.

Joyce chose a matt finish to completely seal the colour front side of the cards.When ordering a full card sheet there are several options available for a range of finishes, such as gloss or matt lamination, gloss sealer, spot varnish,or very matt sealer, all of which are undertaken in house[some involve extra costs].

Spot UV varnish is yet another option but this involves significant additional costs as it is only available from a company based in Yorkshire.

Full Card sheets of Postcards

The most efficient way to print postcards at a economic unit cost is to fill a fullcard sheet.
The sheet size we print on is SRA2 a sheet measuring 640 x 450mm, which can accommodate 16 standard postcards.
Turtle photography have been taking advantage of this cost effective waterless printing of postcards for several years www.turtlephotography.co.uk
Turtle Photography based in their gallery within The Craft Centre, Abersoch, not only offer for sale postcards but a full range of photographic photo prints, all based on the beautiful local seascapes.
Their full sheet of postcards are spot UV varnished on the image area of the postcard only. This very shiny varnish really brings up the colours in their vivid photographic postcards, and is a dramatic contrast to the white silky 380gsm Abacus card.
Special finishes like this are only available on full card sheets specific to an individual client. These full card sheets can also include greetings cards and Christmas cards.
In every case of full card sheet printing the run on price of each additional 1000 sheets dramatically reduces the unit cost of the postcards or greetings cards. Here at Abacus we have some clients who print up to 14000 sheets of cards to successfully achieve a minimum unit cost to wholsale at realistic profitable margins to the retail trade.
Special estimates are available for full card sheet printing from sales@abacusprinters.co.uk.

An interesting new Giclee line for Andy Weber

World renown internationally, as one of the worlds leading artists in Buddhist iconography, Andy is returning to Buddhist routes.
By printing his images on canvas by Giclee printing it is giving the work a robustness to roll up. Why the need to roll? Andy's most recent idea is to recreate traditional Buddhist Tangkhas which are sewn into a brocade specially made by local craftsman in Kathmandu, Nepal.The completed pieces including a wooden scroll, and saffron protective curtain is a contemporary rendition of traditional Buddhist Tangkhas. The whole Tangkha rolls around the scroll for ease of transportation so important to nomadic Buddhists.
We at Abacus are happy to welcome and help expand the many opportunities Giclee printing offers.
Andy Weber’s Tangkhas are an unusual departure from the norm, especially as they are returning funds to craftsmen in Kathmandu. These ten new contemporary Tangkhas will offer ten different Giclee prints of Andy's paintings and are available to be seen on his web site www.andyweberstudios.com and will be available online or from the many buddhist events he attends.
These Tangkhas are quite beautiful, and really must be seen to be fully appreciated.