Making Ink: Sumac (Or Things Don't Always Go as Planned)

Image from here. 

[In the interest of sharing some experiments that have not gone as planned, I offer this post on my attempt to make sumac ink. 

When I was at my Dad's place up north in March, I found a bunch of sumac berries on the snow at my feet when I took a walk through the woods.  I carefully and lovingly brought them home with the idea of making ink from this foraged item.  And here was the universe telling me to start here!

I let them sit a few weeks while I gathered the needed supplies -- and the berries sat in my basement workshop, along with bits of charcoal and other items until I could revisit them later.  In the meantime, a critter seems to have absconded with my stash of sumac berries.  They made off with the entire seed head except for a few telltale seeds left behind to prove it wasn't all in my head.

So we stopped at the local Mediterranean grocery store where I knew they sold sumac as a spice.  I was able to get a 1-pound bag of it for $4 -- a lifetime supply for ink purposes!  I will keep it in a glass jar so the critter can't get to it.  It smells citrus-y and light. I think we might even adopt it ourselves as a spice!

 

I am using the general purpose spice ink recipe in Jason Logan [The Make Ink Guy]'s workshop handout.

[Sumac] Spice Ink (such as tumeric or paprika). 

This also works well with crushed charcoal.

Put 2 Tablespoons of your chosen spice in a jam jar and cover with boiling water.  Replace the lid and shake regularly over the next day.  Strain the liquid through a cheesecloth or old t-shirt (You may need to repeat this step several times).

Add a pinch of salt, a tsp of vinegar, and a tsp. of gum Arabic.  Shake to mix and leave overnight so the gum Arabic can dissolve.  The salt and vinegar act as preservatives.

This did not actually work for the spice version of sumac.  I let it sit in water for about 4 weeks, but no real color transferred to the water.  After so many weeks, the water on top of the sumac bits was white.  It smelled nice enough, though -- citrus-y.  I think it's worth trying again, when I can get the fresh sumac berries.

I might also try to see if other solvents dissolve the sumac -- like rubbing alcohol or vodka.  More to come on this one ...