Speed ball Silver ARRGH

[largemammal]

I'm tryin to use this Speedbal silver ink for the first time, and it is goofy. I'm printing on dark paper, and its coming too transparent, and isn't printing throught the screen well.
My hypothesis is, mix a light gray that looks like the silver, adding in the silver in smaller amounts.
The screen is 230 mesh, is that to fine to print the metallic inks with?
Somebody let me know if there's a good way to tackle this little problem that fucked my whole night up.

[gun sho]

i had the same problem with speedball gold. i just added a little tiny bit of extender base. the metallic shit can get really sticky.

[connor13]

see if you can get ahold of that metallic pigment powder (silver,gold,bronze).
i've been mixing it with straight speedball base. works fine.
don't put too much powder in though

[Shad]

Originally Posted by largemammal

The screen is 230 mesh, is that to fine to print the metallic inks with?
Somebody let me know if there's a good way to tackle this little problem that fucked my whole night up.

We just checked into this ourselves a couple weeks ago. Speedball recommends sub 160 mesh inks for the metallic otherwise you have to do multiple passes.

[jayryan]

i use speedball silver on almost every posyter i make. i use 230 mesh, which should be a little too tight, but it works. we just got some 140's specifically for the silver. definitely nothing tighter than 230ish, though.

to print on darks, add a some white ink and a little bit of water to the silver. of at least that's what we do. this makes the brightness of the silver stand out without underprinting (which is also a good idea, iof you don't mind the extra run). the bit of extra water keeps things loose - the thing you need to focus on with speedball metallics is keeping them from drying on the screen. only put a little ink on the screen at a time, and refill often - you don't want half a gallon to sit around, drying out, while you're pulling.