Why I Switched to Water-Based Inks After 26 Years

I spent the first twenty years of my career printing with plastisol.

It was what I learned at Central Saint Martins. It was the industry standard. It sat on the screen for hours without drying. It gave predictable results, batch after batch.

But it never felt right.

The Feel Is Everything

Water-based inks soak into the paper fibres rather than sitting on top. When you run your hand across a finished print, you feel the tooth of the stock, not a plastic skin.

That tactile difference matters. Collectors notice. They pick up a print, turn it in the light, and feel the surface. A hand-pulled screenprint should feel like paper, not a transfer.

I use Somerset Satin 300gsm. Water-based inks bond to that surface in a way plastisol never could. The colours stay rich, but the hand stays soft.

Opacity Without the Build-Up

People assume water-based inks won't give you solid coverage. That's outdated.

Modern water-based formulations deliver full opacity in two passes if you prep your screens correctly. I use 90-thread monofilament mesh for my base layers. The ink flows through cleanly, and I get clean edges without flash curing between hits.

Plastisol required me to build up layers to avoid pinholes. Water-based inks let me work faster and with less material. My average edition uses 30% less ink than it did five years ago.

The Washout Changed My Studio

Plastisol cleanup meant solvents. Fumes. Rags soaked in chemicals that couldn't go in the regular bin.

Water-based inks wash out with warm water and a soft brush. I reclaim my screens in ten minutes. No respirator. No ventilation worries. No hazardous waste pickup.

I installed a simple washout booth with a sediment trap. The ink particles settle, the water recirculates, and I'm not pouring chemistry down the drain. It's cleaner for me and cleaner for the Hertfordshire water system.

Detail and Registration Improved

Water-based inks are thinner. That sounds like a disadvantage until you print fine linework.

I can hold detail down to 0.3mm without ink bleed. My registration tolerances improved because there's no thick plastisol layer throwing off the next pass. I get tighter overlaps and sharper transitions between colours.

One of my recent editions had nine colours with hairline gaps between each layer. Water-based inks made that possible. Plastisol would have muddied the edges.

Colour Mixing Is More Intuitive

I mix every colour by hand. No Pantone charts. No pre-mixed stock.

Water-based pigments behave like gouache or watercolour. I can see the hue shift as I add white or transparent base. The wet colour is close to the dry colour, so I'm not guessing what the final print will look like.

Plastisol was opaque in the tin. You couldn't judge a mix until it cured under the heat lamp. I wasted hours printing test swatches. Now I get it right in the first pull.

They Dry Too Fast, Until They Don't

The biggest adjustment was open time. Water-based inks start to dry on the screen within twenty minutes if you're not moving.

I keep a mist bottle next to my press bed. A light spray every few pulls keeps the screen wet and the ink flowing. On humid Hertfordshire mornings, I don't need it. On dry winter days, I'm spraying every edition.

Once you learn the rhythm, it's not an issue. You just have to stay present with the work. No long tea breaks mid-edition.

My Studio Air Cleared

The first thing I noticed after switching was the smell, or the lack of it.

Water-based inks don't off-gas. There's no plasticky odour clinging to the prints when they come off the drying rack. Collectors comment on it. The work smells like paper, not chemicals.

I used to leave the studio with a headache after long print runs. That stopped. My sinuses cleared. I could taste my dinner again.

The Switch Took Three Months

I didn't change overnight. I ran water-based inks alongside plastisol for a full quarter, testing different mesh counts, squeegee durometers, and drying times.

Some of my early attempts were patchy. The opacity wasn't there because I was using the wrong mesh. I was flooding too lightly. I wasn't giving the ink enough time to set before handling the prints.

But I kept notes. I adjusted. By month three, I wasn't reaching for the plastisol anymore.

Not Every Printer Will Agree

I know printmakers who swear by plastisol. They've been using it for forty years. It works for them.

But I make work I want to live with. I want the prints to feel like prints, not plastic. I want my studio to be a place I can breathe.

Water-based inks gave me that. The learning curve was real, but the results justify it. Every edition I pull now feels cleaner, sharper, and more honest.

If you'd like to see the prints I'm currently making, visit olifowler.com. Every edition is strictly limited and hand-pulled. Once they're gone, they're gone.