Journal — Wild Inks & Colour

This is the sap from acacia trees. Gum Arabic helps: Keep the pigment suspended Makes the ink flow properly from a dip pen Helps stabilize black chemical compounds Without gum Arabic, you have a mixture that will separate and is difficult to write with. With gum Arabic, you have a stable, workable ink. (Thanks to Joumana Medlej for her elegant description of why we bother to use gum Arabic.) Basic recipe If you are working from lumps: In a saucepan, combine equal parts gum Arabic and water. Cook to dissolve. The final solution should be the consistency of double cream....

Chemical compounds are stored in plant cells. The colour-producing chemicals are called biochromes. The basics of extracting botanical colours In order to release these chemicals and make them available for ink, we crush and/or cook the plant materials in water to break down the cell walls. Once the chemicals are released from the plant cell, they become available to use as-is, or we can transform them to other colours by chemically altering their composition. Sometimes, simply exposing the biochromes to water, oxygen, and/or heat will transform them to different colours. Common biochromes and their sources There appears to be little...

Tannins are a family of chemical compounds found in plants. Different plants (and different parts of the plant) have different concentrations of tannins. E.g., galls > outer bark > sapwood. When mixed with iron, tannins form new chemical compounds (mostly importantly, ferric-polygalloyl glucose complexes). The chemical compounds are black, bond with paper, and are (relatively) waterproof after a few days. By adding gum Arabic, we protect these chemical compounds from degrading while in solution. Tannins fall into two groups of chemicals: Hydrolysable tannins Bonded sugar and water. Breaks down readily in water. Yellow-brown without modifiers. Black when iron is added....

Did you know there are more than 250 species of dandelions? Apparently they give botanists the cold sweats when trying to identify them. (I love knowing this. It triples my admiration for these flowers.) Personally, I've come to appreciate dandelions as an early food source for bees, and also cordage. If you're familiar with Alice Fox's work, you've been introduced to cordage. She has a great mini-series on how to make cordage on Instagram. I was first introduced to it last year on Caroline Ross's course. It is surprisingly addictive. Last year I plucked all the flowers and popped them...