Metallic ink

Hello! What’s the most shimmery, metallic gold ink? Any recommendations? Many thanks! JM

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Short of using gold foil you’re going to be looking at oil base gold metallics from someone like VanSon or Southern Ink. There isn’t a huge variety in terms of ‘shimmer’ but you’ll usually be choosing between PMS871-876.

Brad.

To get the best “shimmer” on uncoated paper, you need to preprint the image with either a clear varnish, yellow or red ink. The fills the pores of the paper so that the metallic ink doesn’t lose its shine when printed.

John Henry

Or you could use bronzing powder. Print with bronzing prep or yellow ink. Dust with gold bronzing powder and remove the surplus with a soft rag. I generally run the job through my hand-press again without ink, using a top sheet of waxed paper (or the polythene material used to hold breakfast cereal inside the cardboard box) for each pull. This may seem a slow and rather fussy way to do the job but the end results I’ve achieved by this simple process are very satisfactory and it gives a gleaming metallic finish.