Make Ink: A Forager’s Guide to Natural Inkmaking

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Avoid pouring in the very last of it, as this may have grit, or other stuff you don't need blocking your filter paper. So one woven scarf later, I was still left with my bucket of black sludge and no idea what to do with it all. In Make Ink, Logan delves into the history of inkmaking and the science of distilling pigment from the natural world. Inks can be a simple mixture of pigments and water, like ancient Roman ink made by soot and water, or they can be complex mixtures of oak galls, salts, water and resin, like iron gall ink. Another option is to pour the paste into a large flat dish (you could reuse plastic food packaging) and stamp into this to pick up the paste.

A big part of why I enjoyed this book so much was the fact that it wasn't treated like a compilation of blog posts nor a food cookbook. These recipes are not final and I will probably be tweaking them in the future, but having a basic recipe in place is always a great start. It also feels like a radical act to reclaim a traditional craft in this way and step away from consuming mass-manufactured stuff.Design of the book is particularly great, and the projects seem pretty approachable for anybody with a beat-up old pot and an eye for foraging. I had great fun doing this, and even though I'm no artist, there was something nice about seeing the ink flow and react on the pace, and together. Directions: Boil the raspberries with the water and alum for about 15 minutes then mash the berries really well to release the juice. Logan shares his tips and recipes on hand-making inks and foraging in his book Make Ink, in his newsletter The Colour, and in the documentary The Colour of Ink (out in spring of 2022).

For myself, if there's anything this book has convinced me of it is that I just don't have the time and energy I'd need to dedicate to creating an ink I'd be satisfied with. Organized by color, and featuring lovely minimalist photography throughout, Make Ink combines science, art, and craft to instill the basics of ink making and demonstrate the beauty and necessity of engaging with one of mankind's oldest tools of communication.I say recipe; you pop a bunch of rusty screws into a pot of vinegar and let it stew for a few days, taking the screws and nails out to oxidise in air every so often. As a newbie though, it was a very approachable introduction that has me very excited to continue learning. Aside from it being used wildly in the floral design world, it’s also commonly used in fabric dying because the leaves are rich in tannin compounds.

L'autore è molto chiaro nelle spiegazioni, ci sono diverse tecniche facilmente realizzabili e l'approccio agli accostamenti cromatici è stimolante. A 2018 Best Book of the Year-The GuardiannnnThe Toronto Ink Company was founded in 2014 by designer and artist Jason Logan as a citizen science experiment to make eco-friendly, urban ink from street-harvested pigments. This Instructable is part of a project I completed for the RISD Museum, for which I copied Luca Cambiaso’s drawing Deposition from the Cross (ca. that use color from the kitchen: carrots, black beans, blueberries, turmeric, and onion skins all make beautiful ink colors. A whole section was dedicated to examples of different pairings of inks or just how ink behaves on paper in general and I think it was one of the best parts of the book.

You start seeking out hopeful green spaces under a highway overpass or in a back alley,” says Logan. But then you might mix the flower with vinegar and salt and pound away at it with a mortar and pestle, and after an hour or so get a beautiful blush-pink liquid. Similar to creating ink with other flower petals, try to simmer on low heat or suspend in hot water to avoid color burning. It was important for me to document each day, its beautiful results and the simplicity of slowing down and appreciating what is around me.

Logan moves on foot around New York City, foraging everything from rusty nails to wild berries and taking them home to make ink. The alternative is to keep heating the paint on a low setting on the stove, and very carefully evaporate more of the water.All through the making of that first batch, one image stayed with Jason, who works as an artist and creative director: “I had that little square bottle of black walnut ink in my head. I absolutely cannot wait to start ink alchemy with my own foraged finds and this book will have been the catalyst. Each ink has its own personality, unique smell and texture – when they meet on the page it is a whole different alchemy to other inks. We are aiming for a thicker paint consistency than what we currently have and need to allow the extra water content to evaporate.