prairie ink

prairie ink

“Nothing is art if it doesn’t come from nature”.

-Antoni Gaudi

I love researching and am always up for a new project. Not long ago I ran across a gorgeous book by Canadian author Jason Logan, entitled Make Ink : A Forager's Guide to Natural Inkmaking . Yay….a new project! I often paint prairie landscapes, and would love to incorporate prairie earth, leaves, blooms and bark by creating my own “living” inks and dyes. So far, my daughter Sara and I have created ink from pink and coral peony blooms as well as purple iris from our yard. I’d like most of the inks to be sourced from local ingredients, however, we also plan to start a batch of ink made from copper ( a 2 week process), as well as buckthorn and avocado pits (apparently it turns pink….who knew?!). Here are some pics from our progress so far. Feel free to follow along on our creative adventure!

 

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