If you’ve been following along with me, you know that I’ve been working quite a bit lately on linocut block prints (if you haven’t been following me, you can check out some of my earlier posts here and here). I’ve been trying out some new printing inks, trying to find ones that have better working properties than the ones I had been using previously but that are still easy to clean up without solvents and with good lightfastness.

and here). I’ve been trying out some new printing inks, trying to find ones that have better working properties than the ones I had been using previously but that are still easy to clean up without solvents and with good lightfastness.

One of the colors I’ve enjoyed printing in is gold. It’s kind of difficult to find gold block printing ink in general and even harder to find a good one!

Today, I’d like to compare two of the inks I’ve tried out so far: Speedball Water-Based Gold Block Printing Ink and Schmincke Aqua Gold Linoprint Ink. I’ve used the Speedballwater-based inks for years. They’re easy to find, inexpensive, non-toxic, and very easy to clean up with soap and water. I’ve never been very happy with their working properties, however, which has led me to my current quest to find a ‘better’ block printing ink.  

 Speedball Water-Based Block Printing Ink

The issue I have with all the water-based Speedball inks is their poor working properties. They dry too quickly, especially in warm weather or in the winter when the indoor humidity is low. This makes it difficult to print the image evenly, since you have to work Very quickly. I’ve often only managed to get a couple good prints at a time, with many more that are poor quality—patchy or with faded areas. But they do make a gold ink. It’s not terrible. More of a coppery color than gold, in my opinion.

Schmincke Aqua Linoprint Ink

I discovered Schmincke Aqua linoprint inks online recently. They’re water-based, so they clean up easily and without needing to use harsh solvents. The reviews I read were generally quite favorable so I decided to give them a try.  They’re not cheap, however.

I had such high hopes when I rolled this ink out on the plate! Sadly, so far I hate the ink. Like, really hate it. To be fair, the color of the gold ink is fantastic. It’s a nice, bright, iridescent gold. I just could not get a good print out of it. Now, it may be that I just need to spend some time experimenting to figure out the best technique for inking the plate and printing the piece. My current technique certainly doesn’t seem to be working!

I had two main issues with the Schmincke ink—getting good ink coverage on the plate and removing the paper from the plate after printing. The Schmincke ink is, I think, a thinner consistency than the Speedball ink. This is good in that it lets you print fine details more easily, without clogging up the plate and filling in shallow cuts—a definite issue with the Speedball inks. Indeed, the Schmincke ink did give me more delicate-looking lines in the finished print. The problem was that I couldn’t get it to stick to the entire plate evenly so I lost a lot of detail in the overall image. It’s almost like the ink simply wouldn’t stick to the plate. It was incredibly frustrating. I thought at first it might be an issue with residual oil from the other ink I had used on the plate, but I had the same problems when I tried it out on a plate that I had only ever used water-based inks on.

On the other hand, once I inked the plate and printed it, it was very difficult to pull the paper off the block. That sucker was stuck down like I had used superglue! Weird, considering how hard it was to get the ink on the plate in the first place. Now it doesn’t want to come off? The ink does seem to get Very sticky as it dries. I like to use a thin Japanese paper for my linocut prints but this paper gets bent and warped and distorted trying to pull it off the plate with the Schmincke ink. A heavier paper may help with this; I’ll have to give it a try and see.

So far, I have one ink that prints okay-ish with an indifferent color ( Speedball) and one ink with a stunning color and a terrible printing experience ( Schmincke). I definitely will continue to test out the Schmincke ink to see if I can figure out a way to get good prints with it. I really do like the color!

If you’re interested, you can also read my thoughts on Caligo Safe Wash water-soluble block printing ink here (spoiler alert: I love it!). Sadly, Caligo doesn’t have  any metallics in their Safe Wash line. The do have a gold ink in their traditional oil-based ink line that I may have to try out, despite the greater difficulty in clean up.

Have you tried out any water-based printing inks? What about metallic inks? What have your experiences been with them? Tell me below!

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