What Happened To Somerset Enhanced Velvet?

A mystery? Not so much...

I’ve used the “Somerset” line of papers since the early days of fine art inkjet printing. In fact, I was honored to submit one of my pictures as an example for the “featured artist” discussing this paper in our guide to Moab papers.

If you visit Moab Paper’s site (the long-time distributor of a few Somerset Papers) you’ll see a section of the picture above as an icon representing their line of Somerset papers. Digging a little deeper, if you look at the line of Somerset papers still listed under that category, you’ll find only Somerset Museum Rag listed. What does this mean? If you’re a fan of the Enhanced Velvet are you out of luck? What are the alternatives? What happened?

Enhanced Velvet, along with all the Somerset inkjet papers, holds a special place in my heart as these were some of the first truly “fine art” inkjet papers I used way, way back at the dawn of “fine art” inkjet printing with the early pigment printers. Even if I only use some of the “greats” occasionally it pains me to see them eliminated from availability. I highlighted this problem a few years ago and what sort of pain it can cause to those who’ve found a truly wonderful marriage of a body of work to the perfect paper. Don’t panic, the situations is different than it might appear…