Nature can provide for everyday needs such as writing ink.
Traditional ink sources include flower petals and tree bark, and though fruit
sources are less traditional, they also make for useful ink. Berries and
cherries, with their high juice content, are ideal for ink making. Unlike other
juicy fruits such as watermelons, citrus fruits or peaches, berry and cherry
juice are dark enough to show on writing paper. Use fruits that are commonly
available at supermarkets, or go hiking to gather wild berries such as
pokeberries or sumac berries if you'd like to take your eco-lifestyle up a
notch.
Items you will need:
1.
1 to 2 cups berries, 1/2 cup
liquid yield
2.
Blender
3.
1/2 tsp. salt
4.
1/2 tsp. vinegar
5.
2 oz. glass jar
6.
Mesh strainer
7.
Metal or wooden spoon
8.
Glass or ceramic bowl
Step 1:
Purchase or harvest your fruits. Ideal ink candidates include
blackberries, cranberries, blueberries, strawberries, pokeberries, cherries,
black currants, elderberries or sumac berries. Small, hard wild fruits such as
rosehips, winterberries or juniper berries will likely not yield enough juice
or will be too light to make effective ink.
Step 2:
Mash fruit in a bowl or whirl them in a blender or food processor.
If using cherries, you'll need to remove the pits first.
Step 3:
Put a fine-mesh strainer inside a bowl or balance a smaller
strainer on the rim of a bowl. Fill the strainer with fruit and any juice left
from the mashing or chopping.
Step 4:
Press the fruit pulp against the sides of the strainer with a
spoon. If you use a wooden spoon, it may become stained permanently. Don't try
to drain the fruit of all its juice. Forcing the juice from the skins of the
fruits results in cloudiness, affecting the final product.
Step 5:
Remove strainer and discard fruit pulp or set aside the pulp for
another use.
Step 6:
Mix the vinegar and salt into the fruit juice. Vinegar and salt
clarify and deepen the color of natural dye and ink products, as well as
preserve the juice from spoilage.
Step 7:
Pour the fruit ink into
a small, wide-mouthed jar. Recycled and cleaned 2 oz. baby food jars or
specialty jam jars are ideal.
Tips
1.
Make an old-fashioned quill pen for your
homemade ink with a bird feather found outdoors or purchased from a craft
store. Cut the tip of the feather at an angle with a craft knife, then use the
knife to create a small notch at the very top of the tip. Using this technique
allows the ink to be held better than simply using a rounded feather tip. To
use, dip the feather into the bottle of fruit ink, tap to remove any excess and
blot the tip on a paper towel or coffee filter before writing. Dip the feather
into the ink bottle when your tip needs more ink.
2.
Berry
3.
While berries and cherries yield the best ink
from the fruit family, you may wish to explore other classic natural ink
resources. Infused poppy petals yield red ink. For black ink, turn to oak galls,
the knots that form on oak trees. Oak galls are rich in tannin, which slows the
fading process.
Warnings
1.
The autumn-emerging berries of the wild plant
pokeweed yield such deep, rich colors that the plant was once nicknamed
"ink berry." But only use pokeweed berries as an ink or dye material
when working with adults or older children. The berries are extremely toxic.
Another wild autumn berry, the sumac, should not be confused with poison sumac,
an unrelated plant. Sumac trees yield fuzzy red berries ideal for making a
lemonade-like drink and for making dyes and inks. Poison sumac, which causes
skin rashes, is a small, shrubby plant.
