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Screen Printing Gold Ink

Submitted by Steve on Friday, 12 September 200811 Comments

One of the advantages of screen printing over Direct to garment printing is the variety of special effect inks that are available (although direct to garment and screen printing combinations are possible), printing T shirts with gold, glitter and glow in the dark inks has become increasingly popular in recent years.

Good waterbased binders are available for phosphorescent, glitter, gold and silver powders. We are presently using Grafco an Italian ink manufacturer who supply very good quality waterbased inks, binders and powders with which you can achieve a very wide range of special effects.

All of these powders require coarse screens, down to a 34 recommended for golds and glitters. Glow in the dark can be printed through a finer screen but we have found the better coverage you can achieve the better the glow. A good white underbase is also required, a fully opaque white is going to give the best results for glow in the dark ink, with a white plastisol underbase and binder this can create a very heavy print, there is a distinctly lighter feel to the water based opaque inks and binders.
There are alternatives for gold t shirt printing such as foil. Foil comes in the form of a vinyl which can be heatpressed to the garment, or a foil which can be applied over the top of a screen printed glue, these methods can achieve a fully mirrored effect, but these prints are more fragile than traditional screen prints. So using a binder and powder solution should give the print a longer life.

Related posts:

  1. Designing for Screen printing and bling trainers
  2. Metallic inks, screen printing
  3. Back to screen printing hoodies
  4. Glow in the dark T shirt print
  5. Screen Printing foil on T-shirts

11 Comments »

  • Sporting Accountant said:

    I need 2 t shirts, can you ask Tony? 1 Red and 1 Black, both large.

    But not screen printed in gold ink, thanks!

    Cheers

  • Sporting Accountant said:

    Oh! Sorry, I mean 1 large Red and 2 large blacks.

    What is the availability and price of large black hoodies?

  • Steve said:

    I will ask Tony and send you an e mail

  • Richard said:

    Will bare you in mind if we ever need a golden t-shirt!

  • Steve (author) said:

    Thanks Richard, we are able to print in other colours too.

  • House of Thieves said:

    Hi Steve

    Great website and glad to see a fellow so’ westerner doing some really nice printing (we’re actually based in North Devon and not Victorian London). We’ve been using some waterbased gold ink (speedball) on a high mesh…with a detailed halftone….ha the rules are there to be broken!

    Perhaps we could meet for a few cyders to see if our paths could cross in a mutually beneficial way

    House of Thieves

  • Steve (author) said:

    I would love to see the speedball inks on textiles (I have only used them on paper, funnily enough a gold ink through a 120) I am really interested in seeing your printing and designs in the real time, they come across really well on the site. Good to hear rule breaking and waterbased inks are part of the process. Will certainly get in touch if I am heading towards North Devon, and you are always welcome to call in here.

  • Metallic inks, screen printing said:

    [...] currently experimenting with new binders and pastes from Grafco. Such was the response to our new gold ink solutions, we are now taking a look at copper and aluminium pastes. Straight out of the pot they [...]

  • Christina said:

    Is it possible to get this metallic gold ink for screen printing on paper?

    I’ve purchased gold ink before, but it’s more of a weird yellow tinted ink with a slight shimmer.

  • Joann said:

    Can you screen print on water slip decals. I only need ones with single or short words. Need a answer please. I need someone to print quite a few of these. They will not be big maybe 1 inch. Example===Sweetheart. when wteer slip decal is attached to item I want it to be in metallic gold.

    thanks Joann

  • Steve (author) said:

    Hi Joann
    Sorry, we do not print on decals, T-shirt printing is pretty much all we do.

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