Removing Shimmer from shimmer ink

[The_Beginner]

6 hours ago, namrehsnoom said:

Super interesting post - seems like a lot of fun to try and find a practical way to get rid of that pesky shimmer. 
A question: did you start with a pre-filtering stage, where you e.g. use a syringe to pull ink from an undisturbed bottle with most of the shimmer at the bottom. That  way you start out with ink that is already mostly shimmer free.

So i performed another experiment with two more inks sadly life got in the way so i wasn't able to post the images or results.

Tldr: If you do a fully shaken body of ink it will take more filters to clear it out than one that hasn't been disturbed. That being said. It was +/- 1 filter variable so p <0.5 making it overall insignificant however I will note that sample size is small which can elude to a bias and/faulty variable of filters used. I have to set up a new post updating as well as other things i have been doing on the side to help others. Thank you for messaging on this post as i forgot to visit the fourm in a bit!

[Just J]

I dont mean to be overly blunt here but, I can't help but wonder about a couple of things. 

1 What is it you're hoping to achieve out of all this? And why?? 

2 Is what's gained by doing it worth the labor & materials, & mostly, the most precious of ALL non-recoverable commodities available to us poor humans - the TIME spent, worth it? 

I realize it's YOUR time, to spend as you see fit, & bless ya for doing it....but it all seems far too extreme for me, considering what I might derive from doing it.

 

With one driving consideration: IT'S INK!!! Available in literally THOUSANDS of other forms without glitter!! If you WANT to write with some other hue or form of it, just buy a different bottle of ink & WRITE WITH IT!   

 

Again, I don't mean to be 'ugly' here, but I just don't get it. And look at all the waste being generated -- is even that worth, to you and/or others, what knowledge might be gained from it all?? 

 

If it were something I would have desired, my first effort would've been to contact the ink maker and ask how I might obtain an un-glittered version. All they would have had to do (apparently) would be something akin to merely dipping some out of the barrel before sending it thru the glitter-additive process - a savings to him. Or, put you in contact with HIS supplier - the actual ink-maker, which is a far more common practice (I believe) than most ink users realize. I know Diamine (eg) will work with private entities to create batches of custom hues, even bottle & label it for ya. I'm more than a little sure others do it as well. 

 

Looking forward with high curiosity to the responses! 

Warmest regards, 

~J. 

 

[The_Beginner]

52 minutes ago, Just J said:

I dont mean to be overly blunt here but, I can't help but wonder about a couple of things. 

1 What is it you're hoping to achieve out of all this? And why?? 

2 Is what's gained by doing it worth the labor & materials, & mostly, the most precious of ALL non-recoverable commodities available to us poor humans - the TIME spent, worth it? 

I realize it's YOUR time, to spend as you see fit, & bless ya for doing it....but it all seems far too extreme for me, considering what I might derive from doing it.

 

With one driving consideration: IT'S INK!!! Available in literally THOUSANDS of other forms without glitter!! If you WANT to write with some other hue or form of it, just buy a different bottle of ink & WRITE WITH IT!   

 

Again, I don't mean to be 'ugly' here, but I just don't get it. And look at all the waste being generated -- is even that worth, to you and/or others, what knowledge might be gained from it all?? 

 

If it were something I would have desired, my first effort would've been to contact the ink maker and ask how I might obtain an un-glittered version. All they would have had to do (apparently) would be something akin to merely dipping some out of the barrel before sending it thru the glitter-additive process - a savings to him. Or, put you in contact with HIS supplier - the actual ink-maker, which is a far more common practice (I believe) than most ink users realize. I know Diamine (eg) will work with private entities to create batches of custom hues, even bottle & label it for ya. I'm more than a little sure others do it as well. 

 

Looking forward with high curiosity to the responses! 

Warmest regards, 

~J. 

 

Hiya J it's not ugly as a scientist, I see you are genuinely curious. So let me see if i can answer this as best as i can.

 

1. What i hoped to get out, was is it even possible to begin with, I love the statement of there are x amount of inks and soooo many colors. While this is true, another statement is some inks dont have a 1:1 dupe( duplicate in color or sheen in this matter or properties and saftey standards of certain brands). Some inks also only come in that format with shimmer. For instance, the ink here is J herbin CDE, its a lovely orange with a lean to brown with some lovely shading. Now to find a 1:1 dupe, which was my first step was not as fruitful as i would hope. Second i did contact them but as they stated to me they do not make a shimmer free version to their knowledge of the ink so that was a bummer. So  that landed me on this trek.

 

2. To answer the second question yes it's minimally labor intensive for about 30 min± however you feel you have enough of that shimmer free ink, is it worth it i would say yes. Now that company may down the line resell a limited number shimmer free but most do not. So in this case it's more of do you love this ink enough to spend x time to filter it if yes then heck why not. If no then use it as it is. 

 

Now i did pose the question of " contact the ink maker and ask how I might obtain an un-glittered version. All they would have had to do (apparently) would be something akin to merely dipping some out of the barrel before sending it thru the glitter-additive process - a savings to him" similar to what you said but was also told that the process is mechanized and to ensure that the quality of the product is similar between all batches of ink they wouldn't stop the process just to make a few bottles shimmer free as it would affect production time and possible quality of the batch. This was to j herbin in this regard. As for diamine i asked them of this and was told it's possible though at a cost that to me wasn't as equitable as me just take 30 min when doing some other work to decant via my filters.

 

Hope this clairfied it if not please let me know!

 

[Christopher Godfrey]

@Just J:

 

<Let me share why I went on this journey. I love all inks, including shimmer inks. However, sometimes I prefer the base ink without <the shimmer, but the equivalent non-shimmer version isn't available from the same company. Some inks are limited editions and <only come in shimmer form. As we all know, shimmer inks are beautiful but a double-edged sword—they look amazing but are a <pain to clean and are usually best suited for specific pens unless you dedicate one pen to shimmer ink. So, I embarked on a <journey to remove the shimmer>

 

Sometimes it pays to read the entire thread, J, with all due respect!  😉  I myself have a bottle of Herbin Vert Atlantide and wish they made something similar sans glitter.

 

@The_Beginner: 

 

I did not really understand why centrifugeing did not work -- it seems to me that it should have been the easiest route...?

[The_Beginner]

3 hours ago, Christopher Godfrey said:

 

@The_Beginner: 

 

I did not really understand why centrifugeing did not work -- it seems to me that it should have been the easiest route...?

It works but not to a solid degree, the mica powder used in these ink suspension even when centrifuged has a tendency to be easily disturbed. So as i removed them from the holder the vial would be alittle jerky causing the mica to be disturbed a bit and remix with the ink suspension. In theory it works if you have quite steady hands though!

[musicman123]

I would imagine a combination of techniques here would be better suited for a full removal. Probably start with the centrifuge to get the vast majority of the particles settled and then carefully syringe out the liquid. Then, go with the syringe filters. 

 

That should hopefully cut down on the number of filters that get clogged up and tossed - those aren't cheap little things, whereas a centrifuge would be a simple fixed cost. Alternatively, perhaps letting the bottle sit flat for a few days before opening/syringing it up initially would be the best bet if one is centrifuge-less, rather than shaking the mica into suspension first. Though, I assume you would've tried that already.

 

I for one am keen on adding shimmer to inks these days, despite my original disdain of them, ruining the "purity" of the medium of expression. 🤣