I am a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator and I love all the stamps, paper, coloured inks and accessories.I get so excited when the new catty comes out that I get worked up into a tizzy!
BUT I'll admit it - I do NOT like the Basic Black dye ink.
It took me a while to come to grips with this because when I first became a Demo I decided that I would use ONLY Stampin' Up! products.
However, I was disappointed when the black ink came out purpley and felt sure that I had a dud. This was evident in a lot of the block image stamps that were out at that time.
I ordered 2 more Basic Black dye ink pads thinking that these would be better. I teach classes and felt justified in ordering 2 at one time.
Now I have 4 Basic Black Stampin' Up! Dye Ink pads and 1 Basic Black Craft Ink pad. The craft ink is a nice rich SOLID black but it's messy and takes a while to dry. The dye inks are all purpley-black.
It's not so evident in basic line stamping and I will continue to use them in my classes because they are fast drying and permanent.
BUT somewhere along the line (2004) I discovered the Tsukineko Versafine Archival Instant Dry ONYX Black pigment ink and last year I discovered the CTMH Black Dye Ink.
They are both BLACK and great to work with. Although I don't really care for the way the CTMH ink opens up - I'm forever getting my fingertips inky even when I'm careful!
I'm not sure why Stampin' Up!'s Basic Black ink is not black - maybe someone can enlighten me?
If I were to recommend a black ink to anyone I would HIGHLY recommend the Versafine Onyx Black ink.
It takes a bit of time to dry (not as long as traditional craft/pigment ink just a bit longer than the dye ink though) and it is a nice solid BLACK!
ETA: Thank you STAMPINSARS for reminding me about Black Stazon.
Yes it is really a BLACK ink and great for watercolouring with. I do like to use it for tiles and transparencies but rarely use it for paper. The only drawback to using Stazon for me is the smell and the clean up. I've heard that vegetable oil and baby oil are great for cleaning your stamps after using Stazon. I have a small bottle of Stazon cleaner that I use and it seems to work ok.
The smell is another story. I have a terrible sense of smell and Stazon ink and Chlorine are just about the only 2 things that I can smell really well. Can anyone else smell it or is it just me?
I don't know why it comes out purpley, but it sure does... and it is actually worse after you reink it! But I have been using the black stazon for anthing that I need to watercolour, and even when I need an image to be pure black. I haven't tried those other inks you mentioned, but have heard a lot of good things about the versafine. If CTMH can get a real black colour, then SU! should sure be able to!! As a demo, you should keep sending the company suggestions about this. Even customers can do that, you don't have to be a demo.
ReplyDeleteI too am a SU demonstrator and I discovered Palette Noir ink and love it...especially when you are watercoloring an image. You get a very crisp, clear image in a true black very little odor and stamps clean up easily.
ReplyDeleteI thought I was the only one that was seeing "purpley". I've been using Stazon for watercoloring too.
ReplyDeleteLove your blog!