Making Your Own Ink
Made by me…with my own ‘branded’ name, Le Nikko Nile & Merian. Not to sell, just for fun.
Making ink from scratch and almost scratch…
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. I would suggest looking on pigment sites for recipes or even better, buying a book.
There’s a book I got from the library called ‘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.
Color chips with notes to remind how I made them. 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, not sure that was necessary, but I don’t want moldy ink.
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.
Most of these ink colors were made with berries.
Berry Ink
I’ve made ink with berries which usually produces a less intense color, paler and more delicate. I’ll post more results when I get them bottled.
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.
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!
Okay, that’s all the ink news for today, but I will post more as I gather and forage new color making materials both from my backyard and around the kitchen.