Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'mica'.
-
I've been perusing with interest the threads on additives to ink for sparkly purposes. It's past midnight here and one of those connective thoughts has come to mind between two hobbies: hydrocolloids and ink. Therefore need a chemist to weigh in here. Would food additive E415 Xanthan Gum in ultra tiny amounts (it's very very very effective) help suspend the glitter/pearl/mica particles when the pen/vial is still for more even and simpler distribution, yet due to it's unique shear-thinning characteristics allow good flow with just a shake of the pen? For people unfamiliar with E415, page 87 of this collection of hydrocolloid recipes/characteristics contains some of its unique properties including pH tolerances etc. http://khymos.org/hydrocolloid-recipe-collection-v2.3.pdf Random thought. It's used in commercial non-food industries for its shear-thinning properties, as well as in food salad dressings etc. I don't yet own semi-disposable pens nor the glittery/pearly/mica products to try this out, but I do have this... Edit: now it's past 1am and I realised I hadn't made it clear why I thought of this. The particles in the inks appear to be settling out for members in the testing threads both in the vials and in the feeds and causing issues for some, so I was wondering whether xanthan might be a solution.