Botanical Ink Making

Description

Join us for this practical workshop where we’ll guide you through the process of creating your own inks using plants, flowers and other natural materials. We’ll look at how to forage responsibly and safely, the equipment you need, basic recipes and methods, and how different modifiers can alter and shift colour. We’ll start by examining the materials themselves and their origins. We’ll also consider what they reveal about the seasons and how working with natural colour can transform into a partnership with the landscape rather than simply extracting pigment. You’ll learn about: • Safe and responsible foraging • Health and safety when working with natural materials • Equipment and preparation • Basic botanical ink recipes and methods • Modifiers and how they can transform colour • Light, colour and the changing nature of natural inks • How to store and care for your inks There will then be time to experiment and create with the inks we have made, working from a seasonal still life display. You’ll be able to explore mark-making, layering and the subtle shifts that happen when different modifiers are introduced. Natural colour is a living colour. It can be nuanced, changeable and sometimes wonderfully unpredictable. A plant might produce one colour in the pot, another on paper, and something entirely different as it dries or meets another material. Rather than trying to control every outcome, we’ll explore how to observe, respond and work alongside these changes, harnessing colour while allowing the natural materials to behave in their own unique way. This is an opportunity to connect with nature and the seasonal materials around us, and discover the surprising breadth of colour held within plants.