Happy Birthday, Sis!
I would like to dedicate this post to my big sister Karma on her 39th birthday ;) She is a creator of beauty in both realms of the personal and the professional, and I admire her very much. xoxo
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| A lovely collection of natural colour. |
Humans have been making ink for ages, and its evolution has been closely tied to that of paper. All manner of material has been used in the making of ink, most early and commonly lampblack or soot being the main ingredient. Flowers, beets and berries (for example) have all been used and are still used today commercially and by DIY crafters and artists; just Google "natural inks" and you will see the results for yourself!
If all goes well I will soon be able to put pen and ink(s) to paper, but I am getting ahead of my self :) These flowers and leafy bits are all from the yard: clematis, poppy, rhododendrons and ornamental plum leaves are just some of the colourful samples I gathered this morning. According to a number of different DIY sites I should let the petals soak in water overnight and by morning should see some colourful results - so that is what I have done!
I will be posting the results and a more detailed history of ink in a few days, thanks for checking in!
H.
If all goes well I will soon be able to put pen and ink(s) to paper, but I am getting ahead of my self :) These flowers and leafy bits are all from the yard: clematis, poppy, rhododendrons and ornamental plum leaves are just some of the colourful samples I gathered this morning. According to a number of different DIY sites I should let the petals soak in water overnight and by morning should see some colourful results - so that is what I have done!
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| Dark purple stamens from an orange poppy. Fascinating! |
H.
Gorgeous colours Haide! I am absolutely enamoured with plant dyes. I am constantly amazed by the vibrant colours of nature. I have made ink and dyes from organic materials in the past. I don’t always get the colour that I want, but it is always a nice surprise. Beets give off the loveliest shade of blood red. And blue is really hard to make from nature! (Blueberry does not come out blue!)
ReplyDeleteSummer is the perfect season to collect flowers. It sounds like you have a nice variety of flowers to play around with from your yard. Thank you for your lovely work to far. I appreciate your colourful photos. And your bowl turned out very pretty.
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ReplyDeleteThis ink-making process is fascinating! It reminds me of a book I read called "Perfume" by Patrick Suskind. The premise is that Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, the protagonist, was born with a sense of smell that was superlative, exceptional, and awe-inspiring. One thing leads to another and he becomes a murderer, but it also tells the story of perfuming as he becomes an apprentice perfumer and then a perfumer. He learns to use an alembic to distill scents. Your extraction process and the picture of the bowl of flowers reminded me of that. The alembic would also extract, not ink but the scent, from flowers. Your posts have been informative, colourful, and interesting!
ReplyDeleteThank you both for your thoughtful and enthusiastic comments, and I now want to read that book Lee Yongjun. I have decided that I don't have enough time to figure the ink out, nor the pen :( Well, not at least in time for the assignment, but you have renewed my interest and I think I will try again another time. The first samples I took went moldy - I think I had them in too warm a spot for too long.
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