I love the color blue in all its varieties. Blueberries and black beans can make nice blue inks and dyes but are fugitive and the color fades when in the light for a long period of time. I have read about the indigo plant and I plan to try making ink from the dry pigment.
Since I adore the aqua color of patinas I found a recipe and decided to try making copper oxide ink. The recipe seemed fairly easy: take some copper scraps put them in a jar with white vinegar and salt, leave it standing without a lid and soon you will see color brewing. Stir the mixture every few days, test the color until you get what you want. Easy peasy right?
Not quite as easy as I had hoped. It took many failed batches and 2 months to figure it out.
The first batch sat for 3 weeks, I kept adding vinegar but nothing happened. I thought the pennies I used weren’t 100% copper so I went and picked up a few small copper pieces at the hardware store. Still nothing. Then I tried switching the salt, again, nothing. Then I thought the vinegar might be old and wasn’t strong enough, so I switched that. Nothing.
Then it dawned on me; I had to use “iodized” salt! I live with a chef and although we have many types of salt i.e. Himalayan pink, kosher salt, sea salt, black salt even maldin salt! You won’t find regular old Morton’s iodized salt in our cupboard.
I made up a new batch and used the iodized salt. It finally worked and it is a wonderful thing to watch. The colors are astounding and get more beautiful everyday. I plan to keep a jar brewing all the time.
Leah's Notes on Ink and Art 
Thank you for the iodized tip! I had thought it was best not to use this, since my recipe didn’t say either way. But I see now that’s where I went wrong! Thanks for sharing :-).
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You are welcome. Glad I could help.
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Having recently purchased (and the proud owner of) one of your custom ink prints…I love reading about your process of making the ink.
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Having just recently purchased one of your beautiful handmade pigment/ink pieces…and absolutely loving it by the way…I loved reading about your process of making the ink.
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Thank you so much. The process is really fun and incredibly exciting. Enjoy your inks!!
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is this ink waterproof ??
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It dilutes with water and it needs to be fixed
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This is very helpful, thank you… i’m wondering, did you dump your previous batch and start fresh? I simply added iodized salt to my original batch… and it started kind of fizzing, which was exciting and made me feel as if something was happening, but then… it’s been a couple of weeks now and all i’ve got is a kind of gross froth at the top and nothing has changed color! Any thoughts? It’s pickling season and i’ve been having a hard time finding vinegar at the store. smh.
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I think you might need to let it sit. It takes a while. If you don’t see any action ie some colored mud forming on the bottom you should start fresh. Then it’s easy you just add vinegar and salt every so often. If you leave it long enough it starts to form beautiful blue crystals. 💙
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Can you use the crystals for ink or paint?
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Yes absolutely. Add some gum arabic and spring water. Honey too if you want to make watercolor. I try to fish out the crystals and Dave them till I have enough to make a bottle of ink.
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It seems that when you added your iodized salt you restarted the whole brew from scratch, is that right? i read your post and thought Aha! And, then i simply added the iodized to the brew i already had going… it fizzed delightfully at first, but now it’s been two weeks and all i’ve got is some kind of grody froth at the top of the brew and otherwise nothing else has changed… i haven’t been 100% faithful about stirring it either and i’m wondering if this could also be part of my issue? Any thoughts appreciated! Thanks!
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Hello, I am thrilled to have successfully made this beautiful ink. How Dr, I notice that my ink is very “powdery” when it dries on paper. Should I add a binder, or spray a fixative on anything I paint with the ink?
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It is naturally powdery, I add a bit more gum arabic when it is too powdery on my test strips. and I have rubbed on cold wax. I haven’t found a fixative that doesn’t create marks in the color.
Glad you got the color it’s so amazing it isn’t it?
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