Making Ink from Nature
Over the last few weeks I’ve been experimenting with ink making.
And when I say ‘ink’ I mean ink you can use as a paint wash, with a dip pen or in some cases a fountain pen.
I’ll be honest, I don’t ever use inks for fountain pens and there are some homemade ink recipes out on the web that I would certainly try out on a cheap pen before filling my Mont Blanc with it.
However, if you’re like me and you like to use ink for your artwork, or for using with a dip pen, these can be really interesting, fun and satisfying to make.
It’s historical…
One thing that drew me to making my ink was the historical aspect of it.
The Shakespeare Folger Library (Folgerpedia) has documents dating to centuries ago for various ink recipes.
I’ll put the link at the end of the post.
There is a bit of trial and error but there are so many things from nature that can be turned into color for inks.
There’s a book I have titled ‘Making Ink’ by Jason Logan that gives a number of recipes, along with the story of how he began his ink business, Toronto Ink.
I made the yellow from turmeric, using his recipe, though I did improvise a bit.
The color came out really beautiful, very vibrant - but of course, if you’ve cooked with turmeric before you know it STAINS. But the fact that it does, and any plant matter that has high staining power, usually means it will work well for ink or a dye.
His recipe calls for the use of rubbing alcohol and while it was easy, I have to say I don’t love the smell. It reminds me of being in a clinic.
Color chips.... I spelled turmeric wrong, left out the first ‘r’ - oops.
The Walnut Brown (Brun Noyer) was made especially simple because I bought walnut crystals from Pen & Ink Arts, a web shop that sells a lot of calligraphy supplies.
I ordered the 2oz jar, which was more than enough, and you simply dissolve the crystals with distilled water. I added one whole clove as a preservative.
The yellow was a little more involved as when you are using spices or anything that requires more processing, that processing is usually straining.
The turmeric was mixed with isopropyl alcohol (90% or higher) and then left to meld overnight.
The following day, you shake it, strain it through a coffee filter into a glass jar with lid and label it.
Because this is in alcohol, you don’t need any preservative.
If you look at the photo below, you’ll see a turmeric shade that is a quite a bit lighter to the far left. That was not made with the alcohol and I did not let it sit overnight.
BUT…
You’ll note that under the colors it either says cold or cooked. I was experimenting with colors that used heat to draw out a deeper hue vs not.
I have also made turmeric ink with white distilled vinegar, let it simmer for 5 minutes only and it came out quite bright. The yellow below was made in this method.
Making ink with berries usually produces color that can range from pale and delicate or quite dark.. I would say blackberry, for example, can get fairly deep in shade.
The chip here (the one that says BB+Bals.) I made with crushed blackberries, simmered with balsamic vinegar. You can see the paper you use to put the ink on also effects the color. The torn off top sheet was regular copy paper. The chip to the left and the imprint right above it, was on watercolor paper.
One of the first sets of inks I made
The above image are the first sets of inks I made.
Some of them look a little grainy….straining is important. I’ve seen improved my natural ink-making and the wonderful thing about this project is that you probably have everything you need to get started already.
Below are tips and a short list of possible ingredients and supplies.