since my younger years I have been fascinated by words... an avid reader, it was a natural progression to love writing as well
dictionary games in grade 5 instilled a love for said books, reading my
"Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged"
version as if it was a novel - all 1854 pages of it!
from there it was a hop, skip and a jump to making my own books as well as studies in calligraphy, so it should come as no surprise that I have also harboured a long-burning desire to make my own inks
this summer I finally set out on that journey thanks to a course from Tim McLaughlin at Maiwa called
"The Ink-Making Workshop"
So far I've made carbon black ink, water soluble as well as a permanent version, cochineal red and cochineal purple, and now indigo
I still have three more to make and then we're on to a module on penwork, working with dip pens
Friday the urge to mess with the inks was too strong to resist so I got out an eyedropper and some fabric I had done a soy milk mordant on as well as a skein of white embroidery thread, and dribbled away
the colours look grey in these photos no matter how much I try to edit them - they're actually a soft denim blue, a very pleasing colour reminiscent of the colour of jeans back in the 1970s
these two remind of a cloudy sky
as ever, I have no specific plans for these dyed pieces except the long narrow one under the thread - that will be the base for my next bookmark... fitting I think
the ink is deep blue-black, full of pigment, a beautiful, velvety colour
fresh off this success I'm going to try colouring a few small pieces with the cochineal inks next
I've already made a small book to record the ink recipes in along with any and all of the other experiments such as fabric and thread swatches, pen-work practices, sketching, painting...
and on and on it goes
5 comments:
I love the fact that you’ve made the inks. It’s all about the journey for me and not the end destination. It matters not what you do with it all as long as you have enjoyed the process. We can always plan to do more another time. The bookmark will be a super reminder of the process.
Well done Jillayne. Now to convince myself of the same thing as I look at the painted bondaweb ironed onto fabric haha xx
What a fascinating development!
On the photography, try putting something of a complementary colour in the shot (maybe terracotta, in this case). You can always crop it out of the picture we see..
We’ll said Lynn Holland. It’s the journey not the destination. If we have everything we wish for there’s nothing left to dream.
Carry on - looking forward to more ink projects.
And on it goes indeed… and if we ever come to the end of the journey when we have discovered everything then our lives are surely over. I 100% agree with Lynn. For me the outcome is just the ending to the story that has gone before and has been a blast and fascinating and another step up a learning curve. And then, if we still feel we are not done, we write a sequel, or if we have had our fill we start a whole new chapter.
Your inks are beautiful.
I can understand your fascination with this process. I once battled the squirrels in the local cemetery in order to gather some walnuts to make ink. The squirrels took a dim view of me stealing their food source (not that there weren't enough walnuts on the ground to feed a small army!). I haven't made any since primarily because living in an apartment that's pretty much fully carpeted is just a recipe for disaster, considering the fact that I'm quite often a klutz. Imagine the mess walnut ink would make on carpet! Mind you, I heartily hate carpeting so maybe it might be a good thing...???
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