Sunday 19 June 2011

Oh look, a debate...

Well, there was a lot of discussion around my last post. And because this is my blog and you would expect nothing less, I'm going to exercise a right to reply.
I was so, so angry at the loose lid situation of the Adirondack pad that I blogged about it. Because I'm naturally quick to judge, whinge and be unpleasant, it didn't occur to me that it could be a one off problem that I might be able to address by contacting Ranger. Really, it didn't. I was amazed by Misteejay's comment - it calmed me down immediately! I will contact Ranger, and let you know of any outcome, of course.
Unexpectedly, the debate turned out to be about storing inkpads.
Upside down or not? And even how to label them. How interesting. (Unless you don't use ink pads - then it's probably as intersting as a debate about paint drying time.) I'm in no doubt at all that my pigment ink pads benefit from being stored upside down. A couple of you said not to store DI pads upside down. But didn't say why. And really, at this age, I can only change for a good reason. According to others, TH says you don't need to or shouldn't (I can't verify which) because the pad is well saturated. So on that basis it won't matter will it. To a well saturated ink pad, upside down may as well be right side up. So I don't have to learn a new habit, fortunately.

Lots of my inkpads are stored in baskets standing on their sides. All of the Tsukineko ones actually. And they can be easily labelled...because every ink pad you buy has a pair of sticky labels supplied for just that job. Nice. Although I've never actually gone to the trouble of swiping the ink colour on the label - I kinda think I know what I'm looking for when I pull the basket into the light. These are stored on their sides for reasons of space and convenience. The convenience part: the lids are snug and do not fall off when you create a space by removing one or more. And because this is not the case with the DIs and my one Adirondack inkpad, I stack em. Upside down, out of habit. I also have a collection of Marvy dye ink pads that I have to stack for the same reason. But I forgive these. Probably because
I don't use them very often....and....they have coloured bases...so you don't need labelling in any way. What a fine idea.

So surprise me do - I thought the debate would be about marketing and consumer manipulation. Or the atmospheric conditions for inkpad storage affecting their lifetimes. After all, the black ink pad that I had to replace was about 4 years old. Surely if I lived somewhere hot, it's life would be a bit shorter? Don't start!

Oh and yeah - Jody Jodpea and Claireliz were so right - if you need any reason to buy Stazon..the smell is delicious. I bet both of you are too young to remember that Vidal Sasson hair products smelled exactly like that too. Mmmmmmmm, marketing.

20 comments:

Ciara said...

I remember those lovely almond scented Vidal Sassoon shampoos in brown bottles! I was most upset when VS changed them.

For what it's worth, I store my ink pads flat and only turn them upside down when they are starting to dry out. So there

RosA said...

For my two cents (or pence) worth, I store all my ink pads upside down, all the time. And some of them are really, really old and they are still OK. Even the one distress ink pad I own is upside down. (See I haven't been caught up in the TH frenzy. Not yet, anyway.) And I've also got a strange feeling, no facts, that the "yummy" Stazon ink pad is possibly deleterious to own's health if inhaled too often. Just a feeling, that's all.

Lynn said...

I haven't got any Adirondack ink pads so can't comment on them but just wanted to add that I store my ink pads flat, lid uppermost. When they start to get dry I turn them upside down. I find that some leak if left upside down when new and juicy.

Lynn x

Mary Dawn said...

there was a video from CHA-winter where-in Tim Holtz explained that ink doesn't *need* to be stored upside because it is a "suspended medium"

my husband and i debated whether suspended was correct...without resolution

i store my distress inks, when they make it back to their basket, on the side, because that's how they fit

Carmen said...

I've only got about 5 ink pads but I shall henceforth start storing them upside down.

Mmmmmmmm. Marzipan.

Anonymous said...

ok, I thought I was strange for thinking Stazon smelled kinda good! Glad to know I'm not! Well, not because of THAT anyway ;)

Mary Dawn said...

here's the video i was talking about:

http://scraptime.ca/blogpage/?p=1988

Kath Stewart said...

to be honest...whatever floats your boat in the ink storage department...hugs kath xxx

Polly Polkadot said...

I have nothing to do with papercraft, so I only need blue, black and red bic biros. OK, I've got to ask, how many ink pads do you have?

misteejay said...

Hi Julia, I must admit I'm a bit like you if something has disappointed me so could understand your frustration in the last post.

I used to use Whisper (sp?) ink pads as they were the only ones you could get easily around here but they tended to dryout which ever way they were stored. I did used to store my Catseye liquid chalk pads on their side so that I could get as many as possible in the storage box I had but I found certain colours tended to leak (orange & red mainly) and make a real mess.

I hope you have success with Ranger most folk seem to find their customer service very good.

Now has anyone got a crowbar I can use to get this DI lid off with.............

Toni xx

fairyrocks said...

Going back to the source is a great idea!!
This did not work however for my corner chomper that had honestly only chomped about 100 corners when a piece of mylar got lodged in it....I have been categorically ignored....
Some customer service is better than others.

MaggieC (Silvercrafter) said...

Just remember that the Big and Juicy ink pads MUST be stored the right way up. I shall continue to store the others upside down, though.

Unknown said...

I have to join in this debate.
I stamp very little now because every time I'm ready, the pad isn't! Pigment has worked the best for me, but sometimes the project just calls for a different kind. My DI's are the most DISTRESSING! Not really enough ink to get a good mark, from the beginning. I thought I was expecting too much; now I know I'm not the only one.Excuse me, I'm going off to sniff my StazOn.

donnalouiserodgers said...

Ooh I do love a good debate

I shall show you my ink pad drawer on Wednesday - they are upside down , right side up, sideways on and some are at very Jaunty Angles - all purely incidental - so in the interests of scientific debate I have duly stamped the same image with each and.....

it Really Has Not Made Any Difference To Their Performance In Terms of the Way It was Stored...

only the ink type did

regarding colour? when I stuck my hand in the drawer and rummaged for a bit (usually swearing at the same time and looking in the opposite direction to the rummaging activity), and pulled the hand back out I could usually tell what colours were which by the stripes on my fingers.... everything went brown after I stopped cleaning the stamp between colours, as did the ink pads...so mostly now I just have various shades of Dunn, and I have invented a special one with sparkle (ffs I spilled glitter AGAIN) called J Dunn It Upside Yo Head...

And I'm with Pat ,

if I breathe deeply whilst using Stazon (or any other solvent based product) I start to care less and smile more....I'm pretty sure it was almond oil not acetone in the shampoo....jeez that would explain the bad hair days though eh?

Angie said...

I tend to store mine right side up ...certainly while they are new otherwise they seem too wet....then later they get stored upside down ...if I remember. xx

Yvonne said...

Have to say , me , I store mine the right way up ( esp TH). They are so wet, that I think you would have a puddle in the lid otherwise, lol .

Now other inks .. don't know why , I think it's because I am worried they will run into each other, and get in a big mud bath, always sore the right way up.
Never have I sored them on the side ( have to say, that did shock me) .. do they not run all up to that side??? Of course they don't or you would not do it, lol

Just me and my ways I guess, we all have our ways of storage, and what works for you , is always best!

URMMM STAYZON .. just have that on the NHS!!

Lisa said...

Only black Stazon smells yummy, the other colours don't seem to.....

I'll post my ink pad storage on Weds too, just for comparison purposes. The comparison always seems to end in my having too many ink pads though.... I have lots of Impress inks too, and they don't stack very well but the colours are fab.

Loving the debate. What's next week's going to be on Julia Paxman?

peggy aplSEEDS said...

hi, Julia, i've enjoyed your last few posts (as always) and the debate about storing ink pads.
hugs,
peggy aplSEEDS

jodpea said...

It does ring a vague bell in my youthful (ha!) mind, altho now I buy my shampoo just cos it smells like coconut!

No, complaining to the manufacturer wudnt be my first thought either, altho I seem to remember Kath blogging a few weeks ago about having a direct line to Sir Tim himself..!

Hurrah Stazon sniffers of the world unite!

nerllybird said...

Oh my goodness. Thought I'd weigh in on this one. Firstly, I take St Tim's word for it. I believe that the ink in his pads IS a suspended medium - ie, it doesn't move around inside the felt. It's 'held' in the felt, a bit like the oxygen in the air, which doesn't all fall to the bottom in the Northern Hemisphere, now does it. That's probably a flawed argument...

I store my inkpads on their side for the same reason as you, Julia. They used to be stacked but that was just a big fat pain in the bum as I'm not very tidy, and it was 'one out, all out'. Then I bought one of those basket tower things from Ikea which is meant for holding clothes - if you put punches in the bottom drawer and dies in the next one up, they're so heavy they pull it out of shape and the drawer with your Bits And Pieces in it won't stay in the runners. But anyway...

The DI pads sit in a lovely plastic insert; they're exactly the right size, just as we crafters like things to be, and if I slip a bit of non-slip rug-holding stuff in the bottom, they don't all fall over when I take one out. There is the lid problem, but I can live with that as pushing them all back together to make the lids go back on, is easier then unstacking and then restacking them.

So there. :D