Filament library

Silk PLA print settings

PLA in a party dress — glossy, metallic, and a little divaish.

Silk PLA is regular PLA with additives that create a glossy, metallic sheen — the filament behind those liquid-gold vases and chrome-looking dragons. It prints almost like normal PLA but rewards slightly different habits.

The sheen comes alive with slower speeds and a slightly hotter nozzle. The trade-off nobody mentions: silk additives weaken layer bonding, so silk parts are noticeably more brittle than standard PLA. It's a display material — treat it as such.

Difficulty

Easy

Best for

Vases, sculptures, gifts, anything where the finish is the point.

Skip it for

Functional parts of any kind — silk trades strength for shine.

Starting settings

Nozzle temperature205–230 °C — hotter than regular PLA
Bed temperature50–60 °C
Print speed40–80 mm/s — slower speeds deepen the sheen
Cooling fan100%
EnclosureNo

Drying

45 °C for 4–6 h — Same as PLA — and the same brick warning above 50 °C.

New to drying? Read how to dry filament first.

Bed adhesion

Identical to PLA: clean PEI or glue stick. Glossy surfaces show first-layer flaws more, so a well-leveled bed pays off double here.

Mistakes to skip

  • • Printing silk fast and cold, then wondering where the shine went — speed and temperature are the sheen.
  • • Using silk for hooks or brackets; the pretty layers delaminate under force.
  • • Mixing leftover silk into functional prints to empty the spool — same brittleness applies.

Common questions

Why is my silk PLA not shiny?

Too fast, too cold, or too much irregular surface. Print 10–20 °C hotter than your normal PLA profile, slow outer walls to ~50 mm/s, and the gloss returns. Large smooth surfaces show the effect best; tiny detailed models barely can.

Is silk PLA weaker than normal PLA?

Yes, meaningfully — the additives that create the sheen also reduce layer bonding, typically by a noticeable margin. For anything structural, print regular PLA or PETG and save the silk for showpieces.

Can I mix silk colors in one print?

Dual-color silk filaments (two colors coextruded) are popular precisely because they shift hue by viewing angle. Multi-material printers can also alternate silks freely — they're all PLA underneath and bond fine with each other.

Not sure Silk PLA is the right call for your project? TheFilament Pickerdecides in five questions — and thecost calculatortells you what each print costs.