Sap Green Ink from Ripe Buckthorn Berries

Ripe Buckthorn Berries

Foraging for ripe buckthorn berries here in town.  There are ample sources, now that I know what to look for.  Since they are considered invasive, no one minds someone picking the berries because it takes them out of circulation.   For collecting ripe buckthorn berries, I recommend wearing a glove of some sort.  The berries have some sugar in them, and are slightly sticky, more than they stain your hands. 

Warning: Do not eat buckthorn berries.  They may look like something good to eat, similar to blueberries, but they'll give you the trots. So save it for ink!

For the recipe, I consulted Jason Logan's book Make Ink: A Forager's Guide to Natural Ink Making.  

I also consulted this recipe from Threadbourne, which differs slightly from Jason's recipe.  Turns out there are multiple old recipes for extracting color from buckthorn berries.  I did the usual color extraction by covering the berries with water, and then simmering until the water was a deep rich purple.  I did 2 rounds as the mash still appeared to hold some color after the first round.

 

The lovely purple color left in the pot.  This is THE perfect purple in my mind! 

I was careful to collect all the spent mash, and any stray seeds, as I did not want them to get loose on our compost pile, or cause havoc in the park next door.  I double-bagged it all and put it in the garbage ...

 

Here's the fresh buckthorn berry ink -- a nice purple color. 

This is another one of those "living" inks that change by the minute as it dries.  

 

Theadbourne used alum to modify the ph -- which I also have on hand for dyeing fabric.

One of the goals of this exercise was to achieve the perfect sap green -- which I did by adding about 1/4 teaspooon to about 4 Tablespoons of the fresh buckthorn berry ink.

 

And this is what I got!  It worked beautifully! 

 

 

 

 

 

It's a bit hard to see the green here, but it's there!

   Here they are next to each other -- 

Sap Green on the left, and original fresh buckthorn berry juice on the right.

Here's another experiment in PH:

 

Another small jar of the fresh buckthorn berry ink (purple), to which I added some vinegar ...

  

The vinegar immediately turned the purple juice red!

 

I was expecting a magenta ink, but that's not quite how it dried on paper ...

 

The vinegar made it come out more of a teal green.

This ink is susceptible to color changes according to PH levels.  You can get colors anywhere from blue and purple to green to yellow to magenta to browns and yellows.  Jason Logan recommends adding lye (sodium hydroxide, or Red Devil Lye) crystals, which I have on hand for soap-making and clearing clogged drains.  Actually, he recommends adding lye water (1/2 tsp lye in a 1/2 cup cold water) by the dropper-ful until you get the color you want.  I did not use lye for these color experiments.

Jason also talked about soda ash -- which is another ph modifier used in hand dyeing fabric-- also on hand from a long history of crafting and color experiments.  I did not actually use soda ash for these experiments.

Purple Ink from Concord Grapes

 

Concord Grape Ink

One of the sellers at Farmer's Market this week had a luscious box of concord grapes.  I thought it would be perfect for making a purple or blue ink.

I used this recipe from Ruth Siddall.  

I also consulted Jason Logan's recipe in Make Ink: A Forager's Guide to Natural Ink Making.  Here is a version of Jason's recipe for wild grape ink.  The recipe seems deceptively simple -- no extra vinegar, salt or other mordants to make purple.  

 I added about 1/2 cup of water and set the grapes to simmer.  When the water got hot enough to bubble, you could start to see the grape skins pop off, leaving naked grapes behind.  The color is in the skins!  At that point, I mashed them to extract more of the goodness out of them.

 

After 10 minutes, it looked like this.  You don't want to overcook this mash, or I think it gets too thick to use.  You may be moving on into jelly / jam - making territory by then. 

 

Here are the leftover solids that were strained off.  

I did not bother to remove the grapes from the stems. 

There was quite a bit of pulp that I could not push through the strainer / coffee filter (not pictured).  It seemed like a liquid, but was a bit thicker.  Is that pectin?  Is that why you aren't supposed to over simmer this ink? Otherwise the pectins would make it all gummy?  That's just my conjecture ...

 

I always like to get a shot of the color left in the pan, knowing that this may not necessarily be the final color. 

 

Here it is after it dried a bit.  I like that deep, rich grape color on the left side.

 

I used a small canning-type jar, which I boiled ahead of time, as you would for canning and preserving food.   I also added a clove as a preservative.

This ink is essentially fresh grape juice, and won't keep for long.   I added a clove to the jar for preservation sake.  This one should also be kept in the fridge.

 It makes me wonder if you can use red wine for ink?

 I thought this was an interesting shot during the cleanup.  The ink color in the jar is more of what you see on the plate -- more magenta.  When I started to wash up, the remnants in the jar turned a bluer purple.  Not sure if that was a result of the soap hitting it or the "fresh" tap water changing the ph?

What happens if I add a drop of Dawn dish soap to the ink?  Would it turn more violet?

 

 

This one is sort of an "action" shot showing how the ink changes colors as it dries.

It's pretty amazing to see these "living" inks in doing their thing!

It doesn't show in this photo, but there are some sparkles in that grape-y field.  The sugars in the grape juice crystalize and sparkle in direct sunlight.

The colors change according to how fast they dry -- If they dry before they finish oxidizing, that's the color they will stay.

This one is Concord grape with a little sap green mixed in.

Making Ink: Hibiscus Tea

 

Hibiscus Tea Ink with Gum Arabic, writes red, then turns purple as it oxidizes.  

This is after the ink had dried, and oxidized.

 

I made a batch of Hibiscus Ink, using Hibiscus Tea, which includes not only hibiscus, but also blackberry leaves and Indian lemongrass.

 Hibiscus Ink, red as blood in the pot.  

Here the leftovers dried in the pan, before it had a chance to oxidize and turn purple.

I used a recipe that advised 1/2 cup of hibiscus flowers (in my case the whole box of tea) with 1 cup of boiling water.  I let it steep for a few hours, then squeezed out the tea bags, and simmered the remaining blood red liquid down until it reduced to about 1/4 cup.  

I then separated it so I'd have 2 small spice jars with about 2 tablespoons of ink in each jar.  

I added about 1/8 tsp of gum arabic to one jar, and a few drops of tung oil to the other jar.  

Here's the recipe that advised adding tung oil.

The ink is a deep red color--like Ox Blood, but when you write with it, or set it to paper, it quickly oxidizes as it dries and turns purple. Nice!

 

Do I have a preference for the gum arabic ink over the tung oil?  Yes--I have to say I prefer the gum arabic -- but prob. only because I'm used to it in other inks, and the fact that it makes for a smooth flowing writing ink.   

Did I go out and buy tung oil specifically for this experiment in ink-making? No -- It was left over from another wood finishing project a few years ago.

 

Here is a blot print where the red ink is still wet.

 Here are some of the other ink sample tests, along with one of the spent tea bags that was died a lovely red. color.  This was a mercurial ink, in that sometimes it changed to purple, and sometimes it stayed red on paper, as you can see int he samples above.  The only thing I can think of to say about that is the speed at which it dried.  If it dried on paper BEFORE It had a chance to oxidize, it stayed red -- This was more likely to happen if I spread a thin layer of ink.  If it took a long time to dry (meaning I applied it thicker than not, it took a longer time to dry and turned purple on paper.

 

This one dried on paper before it had a chance to oxidize, so it kept the red color. 

I love how this card turned out.