Last year, I enrolled in an online ink making workshop given by Maiwa School of Textiles. It took me a while but I finally finished it this winter. Although I have been experimenting and making inks for a few years I wanted to learn more about the process of making lake pigments. A lake pigment is a pigment made by precipitating a dye bath with … Continue reading Lake Pigment
Walnut Ink 2022 A gift! Last fall my friend James dropped off a bucket of walnuts! After sitting through the winter and drying out. I was ready to cook. My set up was outside on an early April day. They cooked on a low temperature for 6hrs. Then sat overnight. Looks like it is ready. First strain through a metal strainer, the again through a … Continue reading Walnut Ink 2022
For ink making in 2021, I wanted to experiment with plants and other materials I hadn’t tried before, one of which was honeysuckle berry. These cheery red berries show up in July and are everywhere on the borders of the woods and fields near where we live in upstate NY. I was so busy with summer events and life that I decided to freeze the … Continue reading Honeysuckle Ink
This year I decided I would try to grow a few things in the garden for making inks. I chose 5. Safflowers for the pretty pinks they can give, calendula and marigolds for the yellows, amaranth for the intense fuschia and Hopi black sunflowers for the purple and turquoise colors. I also had to take into consideration that I live in a place where the … Continue reading Ink Garden 2021
Making safflower ink Continue reading Safflower Ink 8.2021
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 … Continue reading Copper Oxide Ink
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. Continue reading Ink Making Fall 2020
I finally dove in and made ink for the first time. It is as gratifying as any creative project I have ever done with the added bonus of making my own medium that is one of a kind. I finally got the supplies I had been waiting weeks for the day before I planned another visit to Pa to see mom, so I decided to … Continue reading First Ink
Last week my sister Carol who lives in Reading, Pa. posted pictures of some jelly and simple syrup she had made from violets she had foraged. I was intrigued by the idea of making the jelly so I asked her for the recipe. Although we are a few weeks behind PA in the season I knew we would soon have a lot of violets in … Continue reading Violets and the beginning of an artistic journey into natural color.
This weekend Dan and I went to get another couple of buckets of ramps before the season is over and they flower. After the rain last week and along with the couple of warm sunny days I couldn’t wait to see what else was coming up. I was thrilled to see all the bits of color peeking out, the violets were opened in full force … Continue reading The Woods in Spring #3
Leah's Notes and Art Blog 