Make Ink: A Forager’s Guide to Natural Inkmaking

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Color presence was pretty much immediate after simply adding hot water and mashing with mortar and pestle. You may have done this at school, but you can make Cabbage (and Beetroot) ink change colour by adding acid or alkali to it. At this point, you can either rinse the excess dye from your fabric, or you can leave it for a few days before rinsing, which might help retain more colour.

Th red seems a bit more of subtle brown orange, whereas the yellow peels definitely have more yellow undertones. It was quite quick to do this, and I was surprised that the process can be sped up by boiling one ingredient while the other is being filtered.I boiled down a litre of the remaining liquid, after draining, and bottled it without much idea what I would do with it.

An even simpler recipe, and one that produces a bold color, is this recipe for Prussian blue, which painters have been using since the early 1700s.

I actually think this would make a great all-weather “any occasion” gift for a visually inclined friend or loved one. From growing willow and hazel, planting apple trees, foraging the hedgerows, making medicines, experimenting with plant pigments, I am learning as much as I can about the many and varied uses of each plant in my landscape. I first got into making dyes for t-shirts when I was a kid, from cabbage, and using bleach to tie-dye.

But they would be perfect for temporary stationery pieces, like wedding place cards, table numbers, or envelope addressing. e. not art) I actually used tissue paper in tweezers, as this meant no washing/cleaning, and gave consistent flow between tests. The walnut ink without the iron is a delicious rich brown when used thick with the goose feather but a bit faded in the fountain pen so I'll have a play with the iron and maybe add some more gum Arabic powder. I cannot emphasize enough to always be certain that you’ve properly identified a plant and its properties before you begin.

It’s important to be knowledgeable about the toxicity of plants and that comes with knowing exactly what you are gathering especially if your ink studio is your home kitchen. The difference between poison and harmless sumac is most noticeable in the berries on the two plants.