Screen Printing Gold Ink Review

Hi!  Today I would like to share with you my review of a selection of gold screen printing inks. You may have noticed in recent posts that I have been creating my own screens for printing, and have been printing onto bags which is great fun.

I have also been on the look out for a really good metallic gold ink, which is reasonably priced, readily available and prints well.  Having managed to get hold of a selection I thought I would do a video which is at the bottom of this post, and share my thoughts here.

I used a screen that I had made myself with Heat Transfer Vinyl (HTV) and screen printing mesh, observations printing onto black fabric are as follows:

Jacquard Professional Solar Gold
Consistency - very thick
Smell - not much of a smell
Colour - beautiful rich and bright gold
Print - any surface
Set - leave to dry, then heat set
Washable - yes
Clean up - soap and water.  Came off the HTV & mesh screen easily
PLEASE DO NOT USE on the blue Screen Sensation screens as this ink will remove the blue media and ruin your screen.  This is my own experience, and even with this, it came out on top for me for using with screens that I have created myself, just a shame it can't be used on the SS screens, though I would use a number of these other inks on them and also achieve really good result 




Imagination Crafts Starlights Textile Rich Gold
Consistency - quite thick
Smell - bit of a smell
Colour - beautiful bright gold
Print - fabric, fabric coated surfaces
Set - leave to dry, then heat set
Washable  - yes, up to 40 degrees centigrade
Clean Up - soap and water
I love the colour of this ink, only downside is the very small pot as its only 50ml 



Pebeo Setacolour Shimmer Opaque Gold
Consistency - a bit runny
Smell - slight ammonia type smell
Colour - quite a bright gold, but not as rich as the Jacquard Professional or Starlight Textile inks
Print - farbic
Set - leave to dry, then heat set
Washable - yes, up to 40 degrees centigrade
Clean Up - soap and water
I quite like this one as its a bright gold colour with good coverage, but it's only a 45ml pot 



Jacquard Versatex Gold
Consistency - very thick
Smell - slight ammonia type smell, but only if you put your nose right over the pot
Colour - a nice bright gold, not as rich as the first two listed above
Print - fabric, paper, wood, canvas and other porous and semi-porous surfaces.  Not suitable for vinyl or non-porous surfaces
Set - leave to dry, then heat set
Washable - yes
Clean Up - soap and water



AV Vallejo Textile Metal Gold
Consistency - reasonable thickness, but definitely not one of thickest
Smell - none
Colour - a nice vibrant gold
Print - fabric, paper and card
Set - heat set.  Bottle also says you can air dry for 48 hours with no need to heat set but I  have not tried this out yet
Washable - yes, up to 40 degrees centigrade
Clean Up - soap and water




Hunt The Moon Gold Metallic
Consistency - thick but runny (hmm... not sure that makes sense - you need to watch the video!)
Smell - quite smelly, with an ammonia type smell 
Colour - nice bright gold colour
Print - fabric, paper and card
Set - heat set
Washable - yes
Clean Up - soap and water
Even with the smell, which does seem to decrease the longer the pot is open, I will definitely be using this one!





Screen Sensation Gold Metallic
Consistency - quite thick, but not the thickest
Smell - none
Colour - a nice bright gold
Print - most surfaces
Set - heat set
Washable - yes
Clean Up - soap and water





Speedball Gold
Consistency - very thick
Smell - slight smell
Colour - a pale goldish/silverish colour, quite pretty if that is the effect you want
Print - fabrics and card, not for use on nylon
Set - heat set
Washable - yes
Clean Up - soap and water






Decoart So Soft Metallic Glorious Gold
Consistency - very runny, but this is advertised as a paint for applying with a brush, stamp or sponge and comes in a very small pot
Smell - slight smell
Colour - quite a pale gold
Print - fabric
Set - dry for 48 hours
Washable - yes
Clean Up - soap and water






Screen Sensation Gold Shimmer
Consistency - reasonably thick, but not the thickest
Smell - none
Colour - very very subtle shimmer, not easily seen on black fabric
Print - all surfaces
Set - heat set
Washable - yes
Clean Up - soap and water


All in all, I would say that I was pretty pleased with printing all these samples of gold ink - I have some prints for reference, and can look at them all together to compare so that I can choose the right ink for what I am working on.

I hope you have enjoyed reading and watching this review!

Happy crafting!

Mandy