Wild Ink Printing

WILD INK PRINTING

Small 9 x 9 cms prints onto Fabriano Artistico cotton rag paper

made using a process that uses natural ingredients to release their innate colours.

During lockdown nature has had a significant influence on my studio work. Especially important and engrossing for me, has been making my own inks from whatever raw materials I have found in and around my studio in Marsworth.

It has been a bit like alchemy, finding out how to create inks and how strangely they behave when exposed to elements like sun and rain; and what amazing changes occur with the addition of acid or alkali. Some of my dyes are made from soaking my copper and steel plates in a mixture of vinegar and salt; and in this exhibition I have experimented with exposing these plates for the duration of the exhibition – I will then print with the resultant plates.

Some of my favourite colours are achieved by boiling berries, plants, vegetables, and flowers.  The dyes created have been made permanent by the addition of binders like Gum Arabic or a little clove in the dye which prevents mould.