Silk Screen Glow In Dark Info

[Drawingablank]

Melodiousdirge asked about our findings on glow in the dark silk screening and rather than pm him I figured I'd post this for anyone interested. Note: ready mixed glow screen printing inks are available, but are very expensive and I had doubts about quality since most commercial glow paints leave a lot to be desired as far as the glow.

Ink - Ryonet mixing base. This is a clear non acrylic sceen printing ink. Can also be used to create your own colors with pigments.
Glow powder - Super Phos Green From Glonation - http://www.glonation.com/glow-powder.php
Screen - 110 mesh

Mixing - We found 1.25 ounces of glow powder to 5 ounces of mixing base to be optimal as far as glow and ease of use. Adding more may improve the glow but might necessitate a different screen mesh as there would be more solids in the ink. We measured them precisely with a digital scale accurate to .1 ounce. Mix up no more than needed at the time as it likely won't store well over extended periods.

The glow ink is nearly invisible in normal light, but does have a slight color so we screened and flash set the glow ink first.

The second screen is opaque and does a pretty good job of covering any overlap with the glow ink isf you get careless with the screen design or registration.

I wore the shirt all afternoon and the glow was plainly visible for hours after dark. I have not timed the total glow duration but it was still glowing after about 4 hours when I went to sleep.

The stated light charging time for this powder is 10 - 15 minutes, and they claim it glows for 15 hours but I have not tested that.

When choosing colors be careful - some colors have a very short glow duration (15 or 20 minutes). Luckily we needed green which has the longest duration.

The actual printing was done on a 4 station silk screening machine, although we only used 2 stations.

I think that about sums it up, if you have further questions I could ask my son since he is in the screen printing business.

[Drawingablank]

I just want to update this post burn - the glow in the dark stuff worked well here, but was a complete fail on the playa.

I suspect it had something to do with the coating of dust because it would not glow there, but after washing it does glow here in defaultia.

So basically if your are thinking of this for use at TTITD, save your time and money for something more useful.

And to think I nearly made a dome skinned with glow in the dark imbued canvas. Glad I found out this was a fail before I got up the ambition to do that.

[trilobyte]

Good info to know. One question though, was your choice of a 110 mesh screen because of the material you were using, or is it necessary for the mix of ink & glow powder?

[junglesmacks]

Wondering how much it had to do with the necessary "charging up" with sunlight in order to glow.

You know..another option may be to use day glo/black light resistant inks combined with a few UV LEDs..


You've seen workinonit's glo face paint highlighted by a small collar of UV LEDs around his neck? Sick sick sick. Saw it in person finally and tripped. So cool..

[Drawingablank]

Good info to know. One question though, was your choice of a 110 mesh screen because of the material you were using, or is it necessary for the mix of ink & glow powder?

My son is the screening expert but I believe he chose to start with a 110 mesh rather than something finer because we expected the glow pigment to make the medium behave similar to white screen ink. Since it worked fine and was sufficient for the level of detail we required we didn't experiment with other screen sizes.

[Drawingablank]

Wondering how much it had to do with the necessary "charging up" with sunlight in order to glow.

You know..another option may be to use day glo/black light resistant inks combined with a few UV LEDs..


You've seen workinonit's glo face paint highlighted by a small collar of UV LEDs around his neck? Sick sick sick. Saw it in person finally and tripped. So cool..

Somehow I suspect the dust was not a problem with the charging, but the glow is so subtle that the thin film of dust simply blocked any light it radiated.

The UV leds is a cool idea, but I was originally attracted to the glow in the dark stuff hoping for a solution that didn't need batteries or wires - especially since some of the glow in the dark stuff was bandannas for gifting.

I will come up with some cool lighting for next year though as a powerless glow seems unattainable.

[trilobyte]

I've been on the lookout for a nice UV glow or invisible-yet-UV reactive fabric paint/pen/treatment for a while, but so far no luck. Back in my first year, I saw someone with a really rad dress that looked normal by day or under regular lighting (no glow in the dark paint/dye marks), but when exposed to UV all these patterns emerged. The effect was incredibly cool. I asked her about it, and she said she made it, and drew the designs herself on a dress that she liked. One of these days I'll figure out how she managed to do it.

[Drawingablank]

I've been on the lookout for a nice UV glow or invisible-yet-UV reactive fabric paint/pen/treatment for a while, but so far no luck. Back in my first year, I saw someone with a really rad dress that looked normal by day or under regular lighting (no glow in the dark paint/dye marks), but when exposed to UV all these patterns emerged. The effect was incredibly cool. I asked her about it, and she said she made it, and drew the designs herself on a dress that she liked. One of these days I'll figure out how she managed to do it.

I have actually had good results with this stuff from Glonation called pigmented glow paint. It is nearly invisible under normal light (unless painted on a white background) but is both UV light reactive and glows in the dark. I painted all the stitching on my patch pants with it.

Unfortunately it glows in the dark everywhere but the Playa. I was not near any UV light sources when wearing them at the burn so can't say how that aspect would work on the playa though. It is much brighter under uv light so may actually do what you are looking for.
http://www.glonation.com/pigmented-glow-paint.html

I'll see if I can get some photos of them in various light conditions.

[trilobyte]

Ooh, could work nicely!