Wild Studio - Making inks from Botanicals

We visited Sarah’s impressive eco garden and saw the huge range of produce that they produce there. While there we gathered marigold flowers and dark purple dahlia flowers to make ink back at base.

When we returned to base we pulled the petals off the flowers and made two dye baths, one of yellow marigold and one of purple dahlia petals. We also peeled and cut up a number of avocado pits to make dye from.

One complete the individual pots were covered with boiling water and put to simmer on the open flame. They would be simmered for some time and the liquid would become infused with the botanical dye particles from the host.

Like the charcoal ink, before using the dyes was added so the dyes would sit on the surface of the paper rather than sinking in

The gallery above shows our gathering baskets, foraging in Sarah’s prodigious garde, The petals from the dahlia, petals from two shades of dahlia and marigolds waiting to be processed, covering the petals with hot water - because we were away from electricity this initial hot water was supplied via a hot water flask, The last image shows the cut up avacado pips with water added ready to simmer on the open fire