The trees also use the leaves to discard waste (“because trees can’t wee” says my biologist partner). Label the ink with a sticker, give it a name, and list the ingredients, time, and location of the harvest. I poured the mixture into a couple of small bowls and let the paint evaporate on a windowsill for a few days. The ink can be applied with paintbrushes or straight from the bottle itself, or even with leaves, sticks, sponges, fingers, or by holding the edges of the paper and sliding it around. I have ditched the plastic single use biro for a fountain pen for a year now, and there is something quite different about writing with a fountain pen.

It’s really useful to have a flask that you can see through, that doesn’t break, that you can put boiling water into. adding about 1 tbs soda ash (sodium carbonate) brings out the vibrancy of the color and shifts pH toward Alkali creating a longer lasting color. For rocks, charcoal, or other dry pigments: Grind 1⁄4 cup of the material down to the finest dust using a mortar and pestle or similar.com A 2018 Best Book of the Year—The GuardianThe Toronto Ink Company was founded in 2014 by designer and artist Jason Logan as a citizen science experiment to make eco-friendly, urban ink from street-harvested pigments. Although I was hoping for a more of a reference book than a guide book I found this book inspiring - I have done natural dying and foraging but this is an exciting idea - especially with my current love of fountain pens.

To keep a pen writing smoothly, you will need to filter out little grains of plant matter very carefully, and use less binder, which can also gum up the nib. The author makes sure to explain in detail where the materials are sourced from, how to work with them, and then takes you step by step through how to make a certain colour of ink. You will then have 4 'leaves' of the tissue paper at one corner, separate them to be 3 on one side and 1 on the other as shown.

And also I’m very keen to reduce the dye liquid down for a pen ink, to see if I can use my own home made natural sustainable ink in my fountain pen, so that my plant notes are written with plants! If you like, you can add a small swatch of fabric into the dye and check the colour of this each day and monitor the depth of colour of your dye. Design of the book is particularly great, and the projects seem pretty approachable for anybody with a beat-up old pot and an eye for foraging.