Redgrass technology
Engineered in Switzerland, built for colour-critical work
Redgrass designs across the workbench. Painting handles, sprue cutters, precision nippers, brushes, glass palettes and more are engineered in-house and refined release after release. Two of those platforms carry the deepest technology investment and are covered in detail on this page: the R9 Color Perfect™ lighting system, and the patented hydration system that powers every Everlasting wet palette. Both started as answers to problems we could not solve with the tools already on the market, and both are now built around verifiable engineering, third-party standards, measured numbers, and a chip we designed ourselves.
Lighting
R9 Color Perfect™. Light built for colour-critical work.
The R9 Desk Lamp and R9 Solo anchor our lamp range, at home wherever colour-critical, fine-detail work happens. Jewellers, watchmakers, dentists and dental technicians, nail technicians, calligraphers and illustrators, electronics specialists, scale modellers, and miniature painters all rely on them for the same reason. When you are working in millimetres and the colour has to be right, ordinary daylight bulbs are not enough.
Standard CRI testing evaluates eight reference colours and misses crucial hues like red, yellow, and skin tones. TM30-20, the modern colour-rendering standard, evaluates ninety-nine reference colours, and includes the saturated reds and greens that standard CRI never sees. Two close reds, one warm and one cool, can look identical under a generic CRI-80 desk lamp. Under an R9, the difference is visible.
A custom-made LED chip
The R9 Color Perfect™ chip combines high-end LEDs with specific phosphor coatings and purple LED technology. Together they reproduce the spectrum of natural daylight while limiting blue light peaks.
TM30-20 Rf 98.5, Rg 101
Rf is the fidelity score, a measure of how accurately the lamp renders the test set as a whole. Rg is the gamut index, a measure of how vivid those colours appear. The R9 scores 98.5 for fidelity and 101 for gamut on TM30-20. On the older extended CRI scale, it scores 98.5+ across R1 to R15, with a saturated-red R9 score of 98. In plain terms, the colour you see under an R9 is the colour your work actually is.
Custom optical lens, developed in-house
Each LED sits behind a custom 60-degree lens on the R9 Desk Lamp, or 80 degrees on the R9 Solo. The lenses are made specifically for the R9 chip and do not shift the colour temperature or reduce the power output. The result is even illumination across the work zone with no glare, no harsh shadow, and no reflection bouncing back into your eyes.
5000K daylight, dimmable
The colour temperature is calibrated to pure-white 5000K daylight. Both lamps are fully dimmable across the range, so the lamp can match the rest of your room or push to full output for the most demanding work. No warm yellow cast and no cold blue tint.
Flicker-free and blue-light safe
Certified flicker-free to IEEE1789 and rated RG0 for blue light hazard, the lowest classification available. EMC safe. Your eyes can sustain a full session under the lamp without the fatigue ordinary LEDs cause.
Two bars, no shadows
On the R9 Desk Lamp, two independently rotating light bars work together. With one bar above and one slightly to the side, every shadow is filled in from a second angle. Detail at the millimetre scale stops disappearing under your own hand. The R9 Solo trades the second bar for a foldable, weighted, single-bar form factor designed for portability and tighter desks.
TM30-20 colour rendering
Rf 98.5 / Rg 101
Fidelity and gamut, measured under the modern TM30-20 standard. The same numbers on both R9 lamps.
R9 Desk Lamp and R9 Solo, side by side
Both lamps share the same R9 Color Perfect™ chip: 5000K daylight, TM30-20 Rf 98.5 / Rg 101, IEEE1789 flicker-free, RG0 blue light hazard. The differences are in form factor and output.
| Specification | R9 Desk Lamp | R9 Solo Desk Lamp |
|---|---|---|
| LEDs | 96 dimmable, 2 bars of 48 | 48 dimmable, single bar |
| Optical lens | 60 degrees | 80 degrees |
| Maximum output | 1800 lumens | 1100 lumens |
| Illuminance at 45 cm | 3700 lux | Optimised for compact workspaces |
| Mounting | Clamp, with optional bench mount | Foldable, weighted anti-tip base |
| Best for | Fixed bench, dual-bar shadow elimination | Portable setups, tight desks, travel |
Recognised by the people who design things for a living
The R9 Desk Lamp won the Red Dot Design Award 2023 in the Best of the Best category and the iF Design Award 2024. The R9 Solo joined the iF Design Award class of 2024.
Wet palettes
The patented hydration system. Three layers, one job.
Acrylic paint dries on a normal palette in minutes. The Redgrass hydration system, used across our wet palette range, keeps it workable for hours.
The architecture is three layers, each engineered to do one part of the work, plus an integrated accessory ecosystem built around the case itself.
Layer one. The foam reservoir.
A high-water-capacity foam, naturally mould-resistant with zero added chemicals. The mould-resistance is structural rather than chemical, which means the effect does not wear out and the foam never introduces anything that could leach into your paint. Rinse with fresh water occasionally and the foam will outlast the case it sits in.
Layer two. Permeable paper, or the reusable membrane.
On top of the foam sits the moisture delivery layer. The standard option is our tear-resistant non-pulping permeable paper. It stays flat, makes full contact with the foam without bubbles, and pairs with the foam to deliver water at the rate acrylic paint needs to remain workable.
The premium option is our reusable membrane. The world’s first reusable wet palette surface, patented, and unlike anything else on the market. A specially treated surface lets paint glide on evenly. Old paints can be revivified, blends are easier to achieve, and metallics no longer seep through into the paper. Controlled capillary action stabilises paint moisture across the painting session. Each membrane lasts at least three to six painting cycles, and with care, many more. When a membrane is finally spent, it goes out with paper and card recycling.
Layer three. The airtight TPE seal.
The case itself uses advanced multi-shot TPE overmoulding, a manufacturing process that bonds a soft thermoplastic elastomer directly into the rigid plastic shell. The result is a near-perfect air and watertight seal that keeps paint workable for hours. You can find our most advanced seal on the v2 Wet Palettes
Plus an integrated accessory platform
A sliding-lock rail runs along the case of the v2 generation palettes. It accepts the Wavy v2 brush rest for ink-mixing surface and the Anti-Spill Pot, The hydration system is the foundation. The accessories make the palette a complete workstation.
Two palettes, two hydration setups
Both palettes share the same patented foam reservoir and the same airtight TPE seal. The moisture delivery surface is what differs, and that is what shapes the painting experience. Painter Lite ships with our permeable hydration paper, a single-use sheet that is easy to replace. The Everlasting v2 ships with our patented reusable membrane, the only reusable wet palette surface on the market.
Painter Lite
Our compact, affordable entry point measures 189 by 139 millimetres. It ships with our tear-resistant permeable hydration paper as the moisture delivery surface, a single-use sheet that is easy to swap out. This is the palette to start with, and the one many painters keep beside their main palette for travel.
Everlasting Wet Palette v2
The miniature painter’s standard runs twenty per cent larger than the original Painter at 225 by 150 millimetres. Every v2 ships with fifteen of our patented reusable membranes and two hydration foams, plus the full sliding-lock accessory rail. The result is the most advanced hydration system yet, at the most affordable price in the v2 generation.
Test new ideas. Make well-made things.
These two technology platforms are built to test against measurable standards rather than against marketing language, and the same engineering discipline shapes the rest of the range. If a tool sits on your bench every day, it deserves to be a tool you do not have to think about.