Making ink

And just like that, months go by without posting. Plenty of art has been happening, but lets start first with the black walnuts. They were so abundant this year that while walking on the lawn you'd risk twisting your ankles on the dropped walnuts. I got the idea to make ink with them, and did some internet searches on how to do this. There are several websites, this is one of them.

I tried different ways of making the ink. In my first batch I cooked the whole nuts, in which the ink came out kind of light. I could have boiled it down more to concentrate the ink I guess. I also found out there are bugs in the shells, so in the next batch I peeled the blackened shells off and removed the bugs. I boiled the black walnut shells for a few hours, let it sit for a few days and boiled some more. Then I filtered this slurry. First through an old nylon stocking and then through a filter I use for maple syrup. This filter clogged very easy! Next time I will boil the walnut shells in a cloth bag, so I won't have to filter as much (hopefully).
Next I boiled it down to the concentration and darkness I wanted. In my first batch I did not take into account that you have to add alcohol as a preservative, so after the rubbing alcohol was added it was even lighter. So the second batch I boiled down darker than I needed, and when the alcohol was added it was the right color.

Boiling outside in an old pot:

Looks like motor oil!

















Second time filtering, a very slow process!

















I played around a bit using the ink with a brush and with a dip pen. I love using the ink with the dip pen! I also love that after drawing with the dip pen you can take a brush with water and soften some of the edges.

This one was done with a brush only.










In this one I drew the picture in ink with the pen, then went over the lines of the cat with a wet brush, dropping more ink in with the pen to make some parts darker.

A couple of Christmas cards.

If you are going to draw or paint with ink, have fun and experiment away!