Our inks

Silkscreen printing

Our inks are from Spika Technology, a leading Russian manufacturer of all purpose screenprinting inks, developed in compliance with all technical and safety regulations. Spika has tremendous experience in creating stable, high quality inks and working with the Pantone mixing system, offers all colours based on the Pantone Formula Guide. 

Plastisol

With Spika we have access to 14 series of opaque and semi-opaque plastisol inks for printing on cottons, synthetic textiles, lycra, and polyester.  Plastisol is one of the most popular inks to use, due to its durability, bright clear colours, and ease of use.  Plastisol gives a high-quality result, even with very fine details and more tricky techniques, such as 3D and puff.  

Water inks

Water-based inks for silkscreen printing are thinner, softer, more elastic than plastisol and have a slightly more matt finish. Water inks by Spika do not include polyvinyl chloride and environmentally friendly which is especially important when printing on children's knitwear.

Synthetics

Inks for synthetics contain solvents for printing on polyesters, nylons, eco-leathers, metal, and accessories such as umbrellas, raincoats, jackets, bags, flags, banners, PVC and yoga mats.  

Some series of synthetic inks are reactive and give interesting results. For example, images that change colour when water touches them is an interesting concept for umbrellas and raincoats.

Elastic materials

Inks for printing on elastic materials allow for printing on socks, stockings, swimsuits, polos, sportswear,  gloves, and ribbed cuffs and neckbands.

Transparent 

Transparent ink acts like a coloured varnish.  They can be used to give a transparent high-gloss effect.  Such inks can be used with or without colour added.  When used without colour the result is a “wet” varish effect on the coloured T-shirt.

Special effect

Special inks are presented in four main groups

  • Metallic
  • Glow in the dark
  • Reflective
  • Fluorescent

Metallic screenprint inks sparkle in daylight, imitate the color of gold, silver and bronze. Silver inks give a pearl effect of various colour tones. Of particular interest are coloured holographic inks which give a shimmering holographic effect.  The bright, iridescent effect of sparkling metal inks create a festive mood, and are often used in merch for bands, bars and cafes.

Glow in the dark ink has a pale green tint in daylight or artificial light. In complete darkness, it emits a bright luminous color, with a green tint. The glow time of the paint print is 8 hours.

Reflective gray ink contains microspheres that create a reflective effect in the printed image. The inks reflect light and are historically used to create high visibility in the dark, partivularly for safety clothing.  However now they are popular in both commercial and designer brands, advertising products and merch.

Fluro inks are very bright transparent paints that glow in UV light.  They come in four main colours, pink, green, yellow, blue. But other colours can be added from the plastisol catalogue.

Puff and 3D

Puff and 3D is with foaming inks which expands during the curing process, resulting in a three-dimensional image with a strong, durable and abrasion-resistant surface.  There are several types 

  • suede – a stantard soft marshmellow finish 
  • flock - a soft fluffy finish,
  • gel – a transparent rubbery finish
  • and a hard finish that is semi-gloss.

CMYK 

Also called processor inks.  CMYK inks are transparent and come in the four colours cyan, magenta, yellow and black.  They are especially designed for layering on top of each other, where the colours blend I.e Blue and yellow layered become green.  These inks are designed for a images with a high-level of photorealism.

Thermotransfer

Since 2011, we use the high-quality thermotransfer films from the Oricle catalogue.  They come in a limited series of colours, but also include thermotransfer metalics, fluro, glitters and flock.

DTF

DTF printing is becoming increasingly popular. There is no need to pre-prime the material before transferring the image, which reduces the error rate that occured with digital printing. Preprimers can often react negatively with the textile dyes, leaving a bruised or damaged T-shirt.

DTF have the ability to achieve excellent results on both natural and synthetic textiles, and on any colour.  DTF inks are suitable for most product types, including printing on clothes, bags, backpacks, labels, souvenirs, baseball caps and other merch items.

DTF printing is considered sustainable and ecological method of printing that reduces the environmental carbon footprint. The inks are environmentally friendly, and safe for childrens clothing. 

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