Red Inks

Well, this is a novelty- two posts in the same week! I showed a new inkpad on my blog, the Ranger line that will be replacing the Adirondacks. I bought the Red Cherry, to see how it compared to the Red Pepper Adirondack, although I have managed to get re-inkers for pretty much all of them now, and as I've had them a few years yet without re-inking, I'm probably not going to run out in this lifetime.

So this is the old and the new, and there are re-inkers for the new ones too, and Susan over at Countryview Crafts has both on her site, she's also the wonderful stockist who has managed to order all the Adirondack re-inkers for me, so if you want the most fantastic customer service, as well as free postage, you know where to go! Anyway, back to the subject. I was curious to see how Red this one was going to be, and a few of you commented on the post you'd be interested to see what I thought of it.The packaging looks like a nice strong red, but then again so does the Red Pepper. But as that's not always a good guide to reality, I ink up my own narrow labels to put on the ends.

I sorted out some red inkpads, and a handful of cosmetic sponges, so I could use a fresh one for each colour, not getting any colour contamination.




I went and found a few other reds after, a  Brilliance pearlescent, as well as a couple of others I have in Dewdrop size.




So here is what they all look like, sponged out.

Now how these look will differ from monitor to monitor, I know, but I think the basic shades/tones should show up ok. The three Adirondacks at the start are the ones I see as being in the red range, although the Watermelon probably veers more towards Carmine. Next up is the new Classic Cherry, and I was surprised that it is much redder than the Red Pepper, which almost looks orangey by comparison.The Versafine Crimson Red looks more like Distress Aged Mahogany than anything else, and that (The DI), also looks like it need inking! Festive Berries seems to me to be the truer red of the Distress inks, Barn Door and Fired Brick have definite orange tones to them. The Docrafts Palette inkpad, which is a pearlescent ink, to me looks more of a Carmine, than red. The Brilliance Pearlescent Poppy is quite dark, I'd have expected a Poppy colour to be brighter. The two Marvy inkpads next up both seem like good reds, the trouble is that Marvy have discontinued the Inkpads, and I can't find anyone in the UK with re-inkers either! Which is a shame,as I'd like to get some for those two shades. Memento's Rhubarb Stalk looks very similar to the Pearlescent Poppy/Versafine Crimson Red. The Ink It Up pad on the left end, I've had for ages, I don't even know if they are still about. That's a pigment inkpad, and not a bad red, to be fair. The bottom two Dew Drop pads I bought recently. The Versamagic is a chalk ink, and I think veers off towards orange again. The Memento Lady Bug is a nice strong red, and to be honest is probably my favourite for a good clear red. So I may well be upgrading that colour to a full sized pad- easier for brayering from.
 Right, onto actual use:

I just tested the Classic Cherry for print quality against a couple of the other dye inks, and the print is perfectly good. The smudges were ink off the side of my fingers!
Its funny, I'd always thought the Red Pepper was a good red, but up against the new one, and the Memento Ladybug, not so much. All this testing was just done on a bog-standard piece of white cardstock, nothing fancy, so results might vary a little when its used on say, Neenah cardstock, or glossy coated. And if anyone ever asks why we need so many inkpads, you can quote this test of 17 red pads, and no two are exactly the same! Similar, but not identical.Actually, that's quite scary. I had no idea I had that many reds. And  I do know that I have a bigger selection of blue pads and green. I'm not even going to count those!
 So, the biggest surprise for me was the Red Pepper inkpad- clearly not as Red as I'd always thought. One thing I want to mention, I was sat down doing this, so when I picked the inkpad up to take the lid off, I did notice a very slight solventy smell to the new Ranger one. Nowhere near as strong as Staz-on, which always reminds me of almond marzipan, and if you take the lid off while the pads down on the desk, I didn't notice it at all. But it definitely smells different to most dye pads. On a side note, does anyone else find this same problem with Red lipsticks? They nearly always veer towards orange, or start to turn orangey when you've had them on for a while?