“We take photos as a return ticket to a moment otherwise gone.” – Rumi
I take pleasure in capturing photographs of people, scenery, and especially food. Although many firmly believe that if a moment is important enough you shouldn’t need the photographs to remember it by, most of our memories can only hold that much detail.
Canvas and More is a canvas printing service situated in Cape Town. I discovered them on Facebook, and when I noticed that they were having a sale on their canvas combos during the lockdown, I obviously jumped at the opportunity to test their products and service.
I ordered their 3 x A4 canvas print combo for R199.00. The most difficult part for me was choosing which 3 photographs I wanted splashed on a canvas. Canvas and More do, however, allow you to email your photographs at any time, which means that you can place an order for canvasses currently on special and send through your photographs much later. How considerate! You are given choices to customize your canvasses for a few rands more, and for an additional R15.92 I requested one of my pictures be edited to remove a white pipe and black box.
They also stock wooden canvas box frames which I added to my cart. The A4 size costs R25.00 and the A5 size costs R10.00. I customized mine to include the hardboard backing for me to use for my quilling, and it cost an additional R8.00 and R4.00 respectively. Door-to-door delivery was R99.00. My total, including delivery and VAT, was just R355.92!
I emailed my photographs about a month after placing my order and making payment (around mid-June), and received my order last Friday (mid-July). This was completely understandable due to the lockdown. The team at Canvas and More emailed me at the beginning of each phase so I was always aware of how far along my order was. Their emails also offered the option of calling them should I have any urgent queries.
It took me a solid 10 minutes to pry open my parcel when it arrived. The canvasses and wooden frames were individually wrapped in clingfilm, and then the entire order was ensconced in layers and layers of bubble wrap. Nothing was going to penetrate and damage these canvasses!
Looking at my featured image, the canvasses are astounding! The printing and quality of the canvasses are top notch. I decided to leave the edges white and not have the pictures wrap around the edge of the canvas. The only tiny problem I picked up was that the black box was not removed from my picture on the right hand side, BUT I was given an email address to send through any complaints. I chose not to send through a complaint and return my canvasses for editing because the quality of the products and customer service I received surpassed my expectations.
The wooden box frames are ideal for me to use for quilling and definitely worth more than the price.
Local is definitely lekker, and with the current pandemic the world is facing, we all can do our bit by offering local businesses a chance to showcase their skills and talents. I recommend Canvas and More to anyone in search of a canvas printing service that takes the utmost care and pride in preserving memories, but as usual that’s just in my opinion 🙂
