Shimmering Inks: What Exactly Is The "shimmer"?

[loopyloop]

So, am thinking, these diamine shimmering inks have some silver or gold particles in them. What are they, does anyone know?

Because, surely, if you could get hold of that powder and know the correct ratio, then you could add it yourself to any ink...no?

Edited October 24, 2015 by loopyloop

[Pterodactylus]

I do not recommend this.

 

You can easily clogg your pen.

 

You can get silver, gold,.... powder in every good art store.

 

What you can do is mix these powder with ink and use it with dip nibs.

So you can also get amazing effects (already did this).

But the particles will not be in suspension very long, so you have to shake it.

 

But I would not recommend to load something like this in a FP.

[Venemo]

if you could get hold of that powder and know the correct ratio, then you could add it yourself to any ink...no?

 

Not necessarily. Not every ink contains materials that could hold those particles in suspension. Also the powder that you could get at a random place might not be as fine-grained as the one they put into the Shimmertastic inks.

[Luma]

FPNer Halloween HJB posted a review of adding Pfeil & Holing Luster Dust to some of his inks and how they resembled (and surpassed) Some of his Diamine Shimmer Inks.

[Pterodactylus]

Check this out:

http://fpgeeks.com/forum/showthread.php/2259-Metallic-Dip-Pen-Ink-homemade?highlight=Metallic

[AoKiu]

Read this:

 

http://www.leighreyes.com/?p=5077

 

:-))

[loopyloop]

Yeah, well... So, basically, if I buy some of this luster powder I can mix it myself in some writing instrument with a nib. Certainly worth a try. Thank you for the links.

Edited October 24, 2015 by loopyloop

[Pterodactylus]

As my picture links on fpgeeks do not work anymore here the pictures from my try:

 

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/280x200q90/27/i8b4.jpg

 

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/280x200q90/706/eipt.jpg

 

Imagehack is a crappy hoster, in the past I hosted my pictures there, until they removed the free membership.

Then they said that all the already posted pictures will be available forever, but it seems that they invalidated all the old links to the pictures.

More than 600 of my pictures here and on fpgeeks are affected, which renders many threads useless.

I consider such a behavior of a picture hoster as reckless and unacceptable. (Now I only can link thumbnails of these anymore)

 

What you need is:

• Ink
• Extra fine artist pigments (metallic)
• Gum Arabic to make the ink stickier for the dib nibs

Edited October 24, 2015 by Pterodactylus

[loopyloop]

Thank you very much indeed for instruction, I shall try. How about Flickr for image hosting?

[Pterodactylus]

Thank you very much indeed for instruction, I shall try. How about Flickr for image hosting?

I already use Flickr since then and I'm happy with it, thanks for the hint.

But as this was an quite old 'experiment' I had to refer to the old pictures.

[loopyloop]

Do you happen to know the mixing ratio of the 3? Thanks again.

[Pterodactylus]

I didn't noted something done. It was done by guess and by gosh.

You don't need much of the pigments.

Just add some, stir and try, keep adding until you are satisfied with the particle dense in the writing.

Same for the gum Arabic, add it until the ink stick well on your dip nib and you can write convenient with it.

It works really well and you can create depending on the pigments any kind of shimmering in any ink.

But my experience was that you have to stir quite often as the pigments sink down rapidly in the ink.

The particles can't be held in suspension by the ink.

This is the general problem with such metallic inks.

For sure it is also depending on the used pigments.

I used Gerstaecker Extra Fine Artist Pigments - Silver.

 

The same problem have also the Diamine Shimmering inks, the particles sink down quite quickly.

The amount of particles is not constant when writing.

Regarding consistency the home made metallic ink is superior to the bought shimmering inks, as you can (have to) stir the ink before dipping and get a consistent high particle dense.

Edited October 25, 2015 by Pterodactylus

[Venemo]

 

What you need is:

• Ink
• Extra fine artist pigments (metallic)
• Gum Arabic to make the ink stickier for the dib nibs

 

 

As cool as this mix sounds, I would never dare put that into a fountain pen.

Edited October 25, 2015 by Venemo

[rafapa]

Regarding consistency the home made metallic ink is superior to the bought shimmering inks, as you can (have to) stir the ink before dipping and get a consistent high particle dense.[\quote]

I don't understand your reasoning. If you stirs the commercial inks, the result is different?

[loopyloop]

Regarding consistency the home made metallic ink is superior to the bought shimmering inks, as you can (have to) stir the ink before dipping and get a consistent high particle dense.[\quote]

I don't understand your reasoning. If you stirs the commercial inks, the result is different?

 

Yep, very much so if ink is already in a fountain pen where the pigment settles at the bottom of reservoir, cartridge, whatever. Tested! You can only shake it, but not stir it... See what am sayin'?

Edited October 25, 2015 by loopyloop

[Pterodactylus]

As cool as this mix sounds, I would never dare put that into a fountain pen.

I totally agree with you, I also said: to be used with a dip nib

[rafapa]

Regarding consistency the home made metallic ink is superior to the bought shimmering inks, as you can (have to) stir the ink before dipping and get a consistent high particle dense.[\quote]

I don't understand your reasoning. If you stirs the commercial inks, the result is different?

 

Yep, very much so if ink is already in a fountain pen where the pigment settles at the bottom of reservoir, cartridge, whatever. Tested! You can only shake it, but not stir it... See what am sayin'?

Excuse me but I do not follow you.

I am talking about two inks: commercial and the formulation proposed here.

Pterodactylus​ mentioned that the home made ink is superior to commercial ones. I assume we are talking about using them with a dip pen because the home made has gum arabic which is not recommended to put inside a fountain pen.

I do not understand where the superiority came from.

[Pterodactylus]

This is my personal observation with the Diamine Shimmering inks.

 

The particle dense is not constant using the Diamine inks in a FP.

When you fill the pen or when you start writing you get a lot particles, but the particle dense rapidly go down after a few lines most of the time, especially if you write fast.

After a page of fast writing many times almost no particles are left in the writing.

 

Don't get me wrong, I think the Diamine / Herbin inks are amazing, but they lack consistency.

My explanation is that the particles (even in the commercial inks) can't be held in suspension by the ink.

They sink down quite rapidly.

There is not much you can do to influence, even if you shake your pen every line.

 

In the homemade metallic ink solution you can influence it, you can stir the ink before you are dipping again, so you get consistent results.

This was was I meant initially.

[loopyloop]

You can't disagree with someone's experience, for one. I'm getting the diamine inks this week, am curious to test this consistency issue myself. Once again, thank you all for helping.

[Pterodactylus]

As an example look at the picture below.

In the first line there are a lot of gold particles in the beginning.

At the end of line one it´s already getting less.

The second line has only a few.

From there ongoing there are no particles present anymore.

 

 

(Pelikan M200 Demonstrator - M italic ..... Diamine Purple Pazzazz)