# Add glitter to a print



## Silver Star DC (Oct 4, 2011)

Hello everyone. I had a customer ask for a 2 color front and a 1 color back design on a shirt using a glitter ink. The ink they decided to go with had very small flake to it, and to me looked more metallic than glitter. But I printed the shirts with the ink that they picked. I delivered them this morning and they were not happy with their ink choice. They said they thought that it would have more flake in it, like glitter heat transfer vinyl. So my question is...Is there any way to add more of a glitter effect to the shirts to make my customer happy?


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## Ripcord (Sep 2, 2006)

Did you use a coarse enough mesh? If it's too fine the glitter flakes won't pass through it and it will look like there isn't enough glitter. Also you didn't mention if you used an underbase, Metallics don't usually look good without one.


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## Silver Star DC (Oct 4, 2011)

Sorry about that. I used a 42 Mesh screen and there was an ivory colored underbase on a medium grey shirt.


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## Silver Star DC (Oct 4, 2011)

This is a picture of the shirt and the ink in the container. You can see small sparkles in the ink, but it's not large glitter flake. It's more of a red metallic.


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## Silver Star DC (Oct 4, 2011)

This is what the customer thought they were going to get on the shirts. Even after showing them the ink that they chose.


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## Silver Star DC (Oct 4, 2011)

Anybody have any suggestions?


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## DrivingZiggy (Apr 24, 2017)

I can only think of one thing. But it would be a nightmare! You would have to apply glue to the glittery parts and then press it with some glitter transfer. At best it would be very time-consuming trying to get things lined up.

Seems like it would be much easier just to start from scratch. But that's a lot of waste and expense!

I'm thinking that you won't be able to make this customer happy considering that they're "blaming" you for their mistake. They are obviously in a highly stressful situation and there is probably nothing that can make them happy. Except maybe a cure for cancer.


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## WGiant (Oct 15, 2015)

DrivingZiggy said:


> I'm thinking that you won't be able to make this customer happy considering that they're "blaming" you for their mistake. They are obviously in a highly stressful situation and there is probably nothing that can make them happy.


Yep, this. I think everyone has had one of these customers, and there is no winning, just minimize the loss and thank them for the educational experience.

Even the flakiest glitter screen print isn't going to look like heat transfer vinyl, but you could at least reassure them it will hold up better.

Here's an old post with quite a bit of info on glitter inks.


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## Silver Star DC (Oct 4, 2011)

Well I definitely appreciate all the help. I sat down with the customer and explained to them that they will never get the same look from ink that you would from heat transfer material. After explaining that, they have decided to reprint the shirts using standard colors.


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