Making Ink
My favourite Christmas present this year is the book ‘Make Ink – A Forager’s Guide to Natural Inkmaking’ by Jason Logan. http://www.torontoinkcompany.com/
What an inspiring book it is.
I gathered fresh plants from the garden including bay leaves, red hibiscus, plantain and peach leaves and foraged nearby for old acorn hulls. My friend Kim found some golden rod flowers we dried last summer.
Jason’s beautiful book is full of brilliant images as well as specific information and requires careful study. I am not a very scientific person. I set up the barbecue on the back deck and carefully labelled each jar. After boiling everything for two hours, I realised I had forgotten to add the mordants and then a massive thunderstorm completely disrupted my careful labelling.
Undeterred, I rendered everything down further to get a denser quality to the ink and played around adding a bit of vinegar and salt. I am really happy with the results. Even though I can’t say for sure exactly what is in each jar and they may still be ‘fugitive’ inks by Jason’s standards.
Next I plan to boil up some copper and vinegar (to make blue) and dissolve some turmeric powder in alcohol (for yellow/orange). I will show you the results!
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