November 2020
This fall was an exciting time to be a rookie ink maker. I went for long walks to look for all types of berries and nuts that I could use and found that 2020 was a bumper crop year for so many of the plants that are great for making ink. So far, my 3 favorites turned out to be wild grape, buckthorn and pokeberry. The galleries below are a photo log of the process I used to make the ink.
Foraged Pokeberry 
Pokeberry mash 
Pokeberry filters and test strips 
Pokeberry after juicing 
Mashing has to happen outside, messy business. 
Buckthorn tree with wild grapes 
Buckthorn berries 
Buckthorn mash 
Testing of buckthorn in different ph water
Bottled buckthorn and test strip. 
Reducing the grapes 
Wild grape test strip before it oxidized 
Making ink gets messy 
Wild grapes after the first freeze
Spring, summer and fall have been rich with color that I was able to bottle up into ink. Winter will be different; my foraging will be for nuts and bark that I can still find before the snow comes or later in the season when it starts to melt. Then there are all the other inks I want to try and make that aren’t made with plant matter.
If I was going to give someone advice on how the process works best I would say ” experiment, play and make the ink-making part of the your creative process. It isn’t about what you get in the bottle as much as the act of making ink; from the foraging and cooking, reducing and filtering and all the nuances and small things that happen in between. When I look at all the little bottles lined up in my studio fridge I am so excited to know I made it and now I get to make more art with it!” Till the next time,
Leah
Leah McCloskey's Art Blog 