# Color white Plastisol with food coloring



## flany13 (Jun 30, 2011)

I was thinking extremely out of the box today and i wondered of the possibility of implementing food coloring/dyes into white plastisol ink to create different colors.... Let me remind you i am going out on a limb on this idea, totally out of creative thought/cheapness. anyone thought of this before or have even tried it? Thoughts on the possibility of it?


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## flany13 (Jun 30, 2011)

I also had an idea of using pen ink inside a red or blue pen as well.. IDK if any of this is logical in any ways but im just trying to come up with some creative way to make colors instead of buying them.


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## Flagrant-T (Nov 11, 2009)

I have no idea if this would work or not (I would guess not) but the big problem is red ink is not a red dye mixed with white ink. It is a red pigmented ink. If you mix red dye with white ink you will get pink, not red...no mater how much dye you ad.


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## flany13 (Jun 30, 2011)

That is a great point, you probably would never get any true colors out of dying a white ink. I will test out a few methods and see what i find. Maybe i can make a great discovery for the forum haha...


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## DNeeld (Sep 8, 2010)

Sounds like a waste of white ink to me.


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## fdken (Nov 27, 2006)

I've never tried this, but I am assuming that food coloring is water based, and that means that it will not mix with plastisol, it will just sit on top. Not sure that this would save you money considering white plastisol costs more than colors, generally. You may want to buy plastisol base and pigments to color them.


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## flany13 (Jun 30, 2011)

Hey guys so this is my first test result, and i actually did not use any of the methods i mentioned above. I ended up using ink from a purple sharpie. I tested it with a very small amount of white ink and it printed, cured and washed fine and looks purple in person. The picture gives it a blue sort of look but it came out purple. Here is a link to a picture of the print.

http://s306.photobucket.com/albums/nn265/flany13/?action=view&current=IMG_0627.jpg#!oZZ1QQcurrentZZhttp%3A%2F%2Fs306.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fnn265%2Fflany13%2F%3Faction%3Dview%26current%3DIMG_0627.jpg


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## Celtic (Feb 19, 2008)

I'd say that's fine to do these experiments for your own stuff, which I'm sure that's what you're talkin about......of course, no way would you used this for any paid work for customers.
I agree with buy a color system if you want to mix your own inks (base +pigments).
And yes, food coloring is waterbased, so, no that definitely won't work.
for your own experimenting, absolutely, go for it...but yeah, expect to waste a lot of ink.
Have fun


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## BroJames (Jul 8, 2008)

fdken said:


> I've never tried this, but I am assuming that food coloring is water based, and that means that it will not mix with plastisol, it will just sit on top. Not sure that this would save you money considering white plastisol costs more than colors, generally. You may want to buy plastisol base and pigments to color them.


I have used waterbased pigment on plastisol base when I was first trying out plastisol. Based on my wash tests the colors held up well.


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## fdken (Nov 27, 2006)

BroJames said:


> I have used waterbased pigment on plastisol base when I was first trying out plastisol. Based on my wash tests the colors held up well.


Was the pigment you used a liquid or powder?


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## BroJames (Jul 8, 2008)

liquid pigment


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## tpitman (Jul 30, 2007)

For the small handful of colors you really need on a regular basis, and as relatively inexpensive as a quart of plastisol is, and with respect to the hit-and-miss color mixing using something like food coloring, you're likely to waste more ink and time trying to save a few bucks.


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## johnbol1 (Aug 19, 2010)

Hey at least you gave it a shot...good thinking.
Give me a man that tries and fails....than a man that never tries at all


john


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## Btprinter (Apr 25, 2017)

I was wondering the same thing! I pulled a case of blue ink out of the dumpster that was used for graphing medical charts. It's a beautiful shade of blue. Was wondering if it could be added to screen printing ink to get that color. I have a lot of it!


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