water based glossy clear varnish

[defencedesign]

Does silk-screenable water based glossy clear varnish exist? Or do I have to use an oil based product?

[hartman]

Speedball makes a gloss overprint varnish. And yes, its water based.

[crosshair]

Problem with the Speedball is, it never really dries for some reason, and so the prints remain tacky and may stick together months after you've printed them.

TW 5000 series WB overprint clear is good. I haven't tried the NazDar 2700 but it's probably ok too.

[steve w]

the speedball varnish is awful and there are about 4000 threads on this subject here.
use the search function

[Havenpress]

That speedball gunk is just complete shit, from start to finish, any ink they make. Just spare yourselves the headaches and leave it for the highschool art courses. I hate their 'ink'.
I honestly think you could do a better job of making your own for 1/4 the price.

In any case, yeah, TW makes a great gloss overprint, and they have a halftone base that is semi-gloss as well (kind of comes out satiny, or the last bucket I bought did at least).

Also you might look into modifying some of the "golden" paint brand mediums, such as the 'polymer gloss medium'. I've had some really good results with it once it's properly modified with some retarder. They make a bunch of different products like that and it can be had in gallons or smaller containers.

[boatdreams]

Hey now, what did Speedball ever do to you?

[Iron Canvas Studios]

I always here about the speedball not drying thing but have never, ever had a problem with it not drying/being too tacky (of course I run a large dehumidifier for a majority of the time in the studio). I've used both the Nazdar and TW and both work really well.

[Havenpress]

Hey now, what did Speedball ever do to you?

What you mean, aside from providing what I consider to be one step up from the other bottom rung product ("createx")?

Don't get me wrong, it's probably a decent "Beginner" ink, but the stuff is flawed. It's ink for kids.

It fades/isn't very lightfast (I've done tests- hands down TW and even aerotex beat it), it cracks, it's full of shitty extenders (ran it through a chemistry centrifuge once, it's like 35% "Other"), the 'overprint' varnish has problems drying sometimes, and I generally think it's a shitty product. At least if you buy it in bulk it's somewhat inexpensive, but the cans are just murder expensive. No thank you.

I will stick to Aerotex and T.W., thank you...........

Now, their cheap little brayers and block carving kits are okay, but I honestly know you can make better ink yourself with a mixer and some nicely ground pigment and acrylic polymer medium and floetrol.

[Thornysarus]

Isn't Aerotex a textile ink? Are you using this for posters?

I've been using Speedball and am wanting to switch to something else.

[Havenpress]

Technically it's for textile, but I haven't had problems and I really like how it handles- but the pigment range can be somewhat limiting.

Look into TW- really good stuff if you want to switch up, there are probably a few threads on it here.