Since the start of Covid, we as artists have had to reinvent what we do to generate an income. I used to rely heavily on selling my work at local craft fairs and would often generate a good amount of sales from this, so I decided to start getting my work in front of people in various other ways, the best way I found was by going around the busy tourist spots with a box of prints and asking shops if they would like to have some prints on the wall, then they take a commission for selling them. This has worked fairly well, but the feedback I have had from the shop owners is that they often get asked to see what other work I have from the area. Lots of these venues have limited space, so asking them to hang 5, 10 or even 15 of your prints is not always viable, so by pure chance, I came across these acrylic blocks that are magnetic and double-sided, so I can get 2 smallish prints inside of the block and just leave it on the counter in the store.

There are a few great advantages to this and the 1st one is as above, not only do I get a condensed down in size print in front of potential customers, but the prints are also now protected so that they can be handled hundreds of times without getting ruined. Yep, these have even been used as a beer coaster in the pub and the images still look as good as new.

Even when I was at craft fairs and I was handling everything as well as I could, I would find I would have to write off a few images every single show due to them getting scuffed or torn due to customers handling them, at a few £ a print, this can soon add up, but most importantly always knowing I have every available print looking pristine means I won’t miss out on any sales as we all know that once you can get a print in front of a customer that they will most likely purchase it.

Since I placed a few of these in 1 of the spots I sell my prints I have now had a fair few messages sent to me showing the blocks with the pictures that they would like to purchase.

Yes, it is a bit of an investment, but if you pride your work and want it to be shown in the detail it deserves and look as pristine as the day you left it, then this is a great way to showcase your images. No image loss and unless you purposely decide you want to prise the two blocks apart, the print is not going to be slipping out in a hurry.

If you are looking for the perfect paper to accompany this great work tool, then my suggestion has to be the PermaJet double-sided Lustre 295gsm paper that I reviewed previously here

With this combination, I just feel that you get the maximum clarity, tonal range and that overall WOW factor that we artists look for time after time when we present our work.

As with everything I review, if you are local to me and you want to see this before purchasing, just give me a shout and I am happy for you to have a look.