Ink Experiments

In fall 2023, I began creating my own homemade ink by following the guidelines of Make Ink: A Forager's Guide to Natural Inkmaking by Jason Logan as well as some miscellaneous online recipes. (In years previous I had experimented with making pokeberry ink and had painted with it, but this was my first foray into delving into inkmaking at a more serious level.)

In this section, you'll find a gallery of photos of my experiments, which have thus far (as of 9/21/23) involved the following plants:

Pokeberries
Grapes
Red dahlias
Amaranth
American wintergreen (teaberry)
Slender scratchdaisy
Treasure flower
Wrinkleleaf goldenrod
Siebold's vibernum
Buckthorn berries
Rowen berries
Orange jewelweed

The painting Flight (pictured above) is the first painting I created using (almost) exclusively homemade inks (grape and pokeberry). Dancer is the second piece, made with pokeberry, grape, and slender scratchdaisy inks as well as Birmingham Pen Co.'s "Agave" ink. I'll be posting more pieces and photos from my experiments as I continue.