Make Ink: A Forager’s Guide to Natural Inkmaking

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Incorrect proportions. If the proportions of the ingredients aren’t correct, the ink will not form or will be unstable. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to six months before use. This ink can be used for brush painting, dip pens, and fountain pens. If you want to make more than one bottle of ink at a time, double or triple this recipe as needed. By blending fresh grass with water, straining it, and storing it in a glass jar, you can make a rich dark green ink that can be used for painting. Experiment with different types of paper and techniques to make stunning effects. Keep the ink refrigerated and out of direct sunlight for optimal longevity. melissamaryjenkin 4. How to Make Invisible Ink Sigils and other magical work. Consider saving this ink for a special purpose such as writing in your spiritual journal or making sigils.

Other useful supplies: coffee filters, a wide-mouth jar, a funnel, strips of white paper, rubber gloves. It's just kind of the first moment where nature is waking up, so as the forager, you can be out there without hat and gloves — and there's stuff to collect!"

Test! Boil! Repeat!

I hope this post inspires you to try to make some of your own acorn ink! I feel like acorn ink making is a great practice for the aspiring bard or druid! Suggested colour pairings: Alcohol-based inks tend to repel water-based inks and refuse to mix. The effects can be interesting but difficult to work with, so I suggest making a range of alcohol-based colours to pair with your turmeric ink. Try using beets, iris petals, red peppers, or spinach leaves. Commercially produced printmaking ink is processed through a three-roll mill – something to dream of when your arms and shoulders are aching from mulling all that ink!

Oak trees are special, particularly to those in the druid tradition. The ancient druids did their rituals in groves of oaks. The ancient Irish considered the oak one of the seven sacred trees. Many cultures around the world venerated oaks, which we can see from the use in military symbols and coats of arms throughout the world. The oak is a symbol of strength, persistence, courage, wisdom, and honor. Acorns in the fall monthsThe color has a beautiful cool brown tone, light or dark depending on the amount of water added. You can draw very fine lines with this ink – it will be a bit scratchy with most nibs. I wouldn’t put it in fountain pens, since there can be sediment in selfmade inks, or substances that corrode the pen material, but I’d say it’s safe to use the ink in refillable brush pens, and definitely with dip nibs. If you want to make the color darker, let the liquid simmer again until you have reached the desired result. You can make a test writing with the ink from time to time on a piece of paper. The ink will be slightly darker when it’s dry. Unfortunately, this is one of those instances where the current fossil evidence and our tools and techniques for analysing them come up short. Irrespective of how the ink sac evolved cephalopods have possessed them for over 300 million years. As we’ve seen from the myriad of ways in which they use ink, with no doubt more ways to be discovered from observation, the production of cephalopod ink has been key to their success and survival in the ocean. Dye-based inks can be used for anti-counterfeit purposes and can be found in some gel inks, fountain pen inks, and inks used for paper currency. [21] These inks react with cellulose to bring about a permanent color change. [21] Dye based inks are used to color hair. If you have large pieces of plant matter, like roots and leaves, first remove this material with a colander placed over a bowl, with the bowl catching the coloured liquid. For a further level of filtering, place the small end of a funnel into the mouth of a glass container and fit a coffee filter into the funnel. Pour your strained liquid through the funnel slowly. The coffee filter should remove smaller particles, creating a cleaner ink. This step is particularly important if you plan to use the ink in a pen. To keep a pen writing smoothly, you need to use less binder, which can gum up the nib, and filter out any little grains of plant matter. On the other hand, for painters, some texture in the ink may be a positive—you can always refilter it if it seems too grainy.

Many recipes for iron gall inks are featured in A booke of secrets: shewing diuers waies to make and prepare all sorts of inke... tr. out of Dutch into Englishe by W.P. [i.e. William Philip], London, 1596. Sort through the broken up galls and remove any larvae or foreign objects. Weigh the galls and put them in a jar. a 3:1 molar ratio of FeSO 4·7H 2O to gallic acid [...] has been known to have the most chemical stability" It was a fun little process to experiment with mordants but I prefer using inks in their native colors! Using your ink and storage

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Many recipes suggest the use elemental iron (either as a cooking vessel or in the form of rusty nails). As I understood the process, ferrous sulphate (iron (II) sulphate) is a safer and surer reagent. It is inexpensive and can be bought, in crystalline form, from garden centres as a moss killer. The ink It is made from oak galls (deformities of the leaf, acorn or other part of the tree, caused by the larvae of a parasitic wasp). If you search the Internet, you will find many recipes for it, including several impressively venerable ones. If you dig a little deeper, you will find that the chemistry involved is only partially understood - but I found enough information from modern science that I was able to adapt the recipes to make my own version, based, it has to be said, on a series of assumptions and guesses. Once you have your ink, it is ready to use! Here are just a few possibilities for using your ink: Acorn ink dyed leather pieces in progress…these will be bag flaps for leather pouches. Add Rust garden vinegar or regular vinegar. If you take the time to make a rust garden (highly recommended, see next section), you can add a few tablespoons of rust garden vinegar (about 3 tbsp per cup of ink) to your mixture. This darkens the color and helps preserve it. If you aren’t going to make a rust garden, you still will want to add a tablespoon or two of vinegar to help preserve your ink. Adding rust garden vinegar to the ink

Bottle your ink: Once the preservative has been added, it’s time to bottle your ink. You can use any type of containers such as bottles, jars, or vials; just make sure it is well sealed to prevent the ink from evaporating. Glycerin: Glycerol is used to increase the ink’s glossiness and transparency; you may skip this step if you do not have any glycerin available at home.Have you ever wondered how ink was first made? How did the ancient civilizations make those beautiful colored inks? What were the pigments and dyes used in making inks? Many of the colorful dyes that were used by ancient civilizations came all from the natural world. These early pioneers created ink using fine carbon particles and natural pigments combined with plant gum to acts as a binding agent. Logan will often use his own finger or the bottom of an ink bottle as a utensil. “I also have a friend in Japan who sends me Japanese tools for applying ink. And I sometimes find things in nature to use for mark making.” Sometimes, too, “I’ll drop a puddle of ink onto the paper, then add a second color of ink to that arena and watch the inks dance.”