I had fun playing with some mica powder today. I had picked up some from temu last year and I’ve been meaning to experiment with adding it to ink to see if I could make my own shimmer ink.
On my last trip to Japan I had picked up a few shimmer inks so I have been busy playing with my store bought ones and didn’t like the idea of ruining my new pens. So when I found an old fountain pen today which looked like it had run out I decided today was the day to play with mica and make some shimmer inks.
My old spatula from my trusty old dissection kit came in handy and I had some spare bottles to mix inks in.
I used my old essential oil bottle stand for holding the bottles and the cards to dry. I find refilling my fountain pens with the ink on this stand really helpful as it allows the bottle to tip at an angle and I don’t need to juggle the bottle.
Literally I poured some ink in the bottle (approx half) and then took the spatula and picked up some powder then added it to it. I popped the lid on a shook for a bit and then tested it out.
The sample cards are old business cards that I used an acrylic stamp to an auto stamper to make the sample cards.
The inks were tested with a dip pen using my Leonardo pumpkin nib which makes the messiest handwriting look amazing.
It’s hard to see with my poor camera quality but on the left the purple is a deep purple it’s quite dark almost blue. But the middle with the mica powder, it is a shade or two lighter and has a beautiful blue shimmer to it. The blue parts shimmer so much more nicely in real life.
This dark brown ink was quite interesting when adding the mica it turned out to be almost copper or green. I guess yellow and blue make green. Brown is more on the yellow and red spectrum.
This Waterman blue ink normally has quite a nice shading (ie you can see different shades of light and dark blue depending how the ink flows) but when adding the mica it makes it shimmer.
I also managed to ink up my old fountain pen and it works well. Because it’s a cheap one for temu I don’t mind testing it out with the shimmering inks.
Everything that I write now seems magical with the little bit of shimmer dust. It would be interesting to see how this works with watercolour painting and even premix my own pans with mica powder I could create my own shimmer paint!
The possibilities are endless.
Disclaimer: I’m publishing this just after an interesting experiment. I haven’t yet tested long enough in my cheap pen to see if it clogs so please exercise caution before using this in more expensive pens and use at your own risk. Perhaps you can reduce this by choosing pens that are easy to clean and flush. Or just stick with dip pens.
Also the reason I bought mica powder is because it’s super fine not like glitter and is no less likely to clog.
I also bought this on temu so I wont be expecting quality and will not be surprised if this clogs any of my pens and will obviously be prepared to clean them out.
Update: one week later – I made my favourite ink! It reminds me of Cinderella and is a light grey shading sailor ink which when water is added separates onto purple and green. So adding shimmer makes it sparkle and look like Cinderella’s dress.
However I was a little disappointed to discover that when the ink is dry the shimmer can be rubbed off! At first I thought perhaps it’s because it’s DIY and I needed some special binder. But when I tested the store bought shimmer ink it also rubbed off! Some inks did not. Perhaps it’s a mark of quality but think going forward I might look at just buying the colour combo unlike.
I got so excited with my new colour I inked up my fude Mann but have now found the extra mica powder tend to dry faster in my pen and it doesn’t start unless you dip it in some water. It also causes problems with the flow which interrupts my thoughts. I’ve started looking into fountain pens again that are compatible with nibs that are usually only used with dip pens.
It’s down to the Ackerman which has just been released with a blue pumpkin nib and the Osprey which comes in some pretty colours. Let me know if there are other compatible pens that are lightweight and allow for continuous use of the pen.
Rachel Fong Art 