About 10 years ago, I was fascinated with the idea of making my own ink. We have several black walnut trees in the neighborhood, so walnut ink was an obvious choice -- I now have a lifetime supply! I was also interested in making textures, so the possibilities were endless ... Recently, I stumbled upon a new book called:
Make Ink: A Forager's Guide to Natural Inkmaking by Jason Logan.
He read the same book on Color: A Natural History of the Pallette by Victoria Finlay. I remember appreciating the stories behind each color, and her world travels to track down those stories, but Logan made me realize that color is all around me -- I don't have to go on great adventures; I can find sources of color right in my back yard.
From peach pits and avocado pits, to beets to buckthorn, grape juice and lumps of coal, or even crumbling gypsum drywall, ink sources are all around us!
With the renewed interest in making color, I've been assembling the items needed to make ink, many of which I already had in my stash:- jars (spice jars from Penzys, or jam jars)
- thyme oil (for preservation)
- wintergreen oil (for preservation)
- cloves (for preservation)
- rubbing alcohol (for preservation)
- Vodka (for preservation)
- gum arabic
- paper
- eye shadow for a little sparkle
- liquid metallic watercolors (more sparkle)
I had to purchase a mortar and pestle, as I didn't want to get a food grade one sooty with lampblack. This one is made of iron, and quite heavy. I should be able to crush anything from salt to stones!
I had a glass pen from years ago, because most of the ink I can make, I would not trust it in a fancy / expensive fountain pen. Also had the calligraphy pens from years ago ...
I've been trying to make blue ink for a while now ... but I'll leave that for a future post!
Did you know there are multiple ways to make black ink? Years ago, I used oak galls and iron sulfide with good success.
For today, Prussian Blue Ink! Sky Blue!
This week, I made some Prussian Blue Ink out of Mrs. Stewart's Laundry Bluing and water (Yes'--that's it!) I had wanted to try this during the pandemic, but bluing was not available anywhere at any price. I'm glad it's back in stock!
I added a little gum arabic to thicken it up a little.
Here are 2 inks I made this weekend: Prussian Blue (on the left) and Avocado Pit Ink (right).
And of course, what to do with said inks?
Abstract Textures ... on paper! These were all made by dripping some ink on a teflon sheet and then pressing paper down onto the splatter.
In this case, the paper is a blank library card. It's a lovely blue, but it needs a little sparkle ...
Perhaps a drop of liquid metallic watercolors? Or some eye shadow scraped into the jar?
I'll save that for another day ...
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