Several years ago back when I was in graduate school, I was enrolled in an Art History class that dealt with ancient writing practices. Since I was a calligrapher and was primarily interested in studying how people wrote and what instruments they used to write with, I decided to do an experiment for one of my class projects. I decided that I would attempt to make my own ink. I knew that since ancient times, people relied on things they found In nature to create pigments for writing. I wanted to do the same thing, and I was determined to try to avoid resorting to too many "modern" conveniences. I did know that no matter what I planned to do, I'd have to use the stove. I rationalized that I was just using an improved form of fire since I'd be using a gas cooktop anyway.

The apartment where I was living had several black walnut trees, and for several years, I had been turning over the idea in my head that maybe I could turn those black walnuts into ink. Now I had the perfect excuse and justification to go to all the trouble. I was supposed to give a presentation to my class, and I wasn't the type of person who wanted to stand up in front of a class spouting off a slew of facts that no one would remember anyway.

My first attempt at making the ink was nothing short of an abysmal failure. I had NO idea what I was doing and didn't know a thing about how pigments were derived from their resources, so I peeled the outer green shell off of the walnuts. I must have had about a dozen walnuts. I put them in a dutch oven that probably held about 4 to 5 quarts of water. I allowed the walnuts to simmer on the stove for quite some time. I turned the stove off whenever I had to leave to go to class and allowed the nuts to steep there. After several days, I tried to use the pigment with a paintbrush. I had hoped I would have a rich, dark black walnut color.....I had a really pitiful looking pale brown that was too watery to work with anyway.That was the end of round one! Chalk that one up to total failure!

The next time, I intended to try something out first, so I took the outer green skin off the black walnuts and put that into a pan full of water. (Well, it wasn't FULL because I was only making a small amount to see if the outer skin was where the pigment was.) This time, I started to get someplace. There was some color there -- finally. I was beginning to think that I was on the road to success.

For the third try, I went and collected black walnuts. This time, I didn't peel any of them, and I carefully made sure that I only collected nuts that had the skins on them. I put about a dozen or more of the black walnuts into the dutch oven, covered them with water, and turned on the stove. Fortunately, this time, I had the weekend, so I wasn't going anywhere and could allow the would be ink to cook for as long as necessary. I started on Friday afternoon. By Sunday morning, I thought I was getting somewhere. After doing some research into what medieval scribes and earlier scribes used for ink, I discovered that I was lacking a very important component: tannic acid. How the heck could I find tannic acid? Then a light bulb went up in my head!!! Great Idea! The answer couldn't be simpler! I could use TEA! Tea bags would work best because I wouldn't get all the leaves mixed in with the liquid that I hoped to keep as free of particulate matter as possible. I preceeded to add about 5 tea bags (I used run of the mill black tea bags.) I allowed this to continue cooking for the rest of the day and over night. When I had to leave for class the next morning, I turned the stove off and just left the mixture there steeping.

When I came home, I raced to the kitchen to see if the mixture looked darker. To my amazement and delight, I had a mixture there that looked almost like a dark brown stain. I removed a bit from the pot and tried to work with it with a paint brush. It was watery beyond belief. I sat there thinking to myself "what can I do to turn this into a thick enough substance to make it workable as an ink?" I knew that I couldn't rely on modern resources. This would totally defeat the entire purpose of what I was trying to do. Then, all of a sudden, I had another light bulb moment! I could use Gum Arabic! What is Gum Arabic? It is a substance that is taken from two Sub-Saharan species of the Acacia tree: Acacia Senegal and Acacia Seyel. Gum Arabic

Artists frequently use Gum Arabic as a binder for water colors. I knew about it because I had used it many a time to thicken ink I was using. I used it most often when I was using Japanese stick ink which I had to grind on a stone. That ink was jet black. I found the stick ink much nicer to work with than ordinary bottled ink, and black gouache (which is much better for calligraphers to work with because the ratio of pigment to water is a lot higher than it is for water color, AND because gouache contains Gum Arabic.)

I strained the liquid I had and to make doubly sure that I wasn't contaminating my material, I used a cloth over the strainer to catch any residue. I then took a small amount of the pigment out and put it in one of my pseudo ink wells. I saved Carmex containers because they were ideal for mixing gouche to make ink. I mixed the black walnut and tea mixture with some of the Gum Arabic. Then I tried to write with it using a regular calligraphy pen. I had achieved success! I had managed to create black walnut ink in much the same way that ancient scribes would have done.

Now I could do a demonstration for my class -- but this time, to be true to what I was doing, I'd have to use a pen made from something other than modern day man made materials. I searched for some sticks that were long enough to be made into pens. I then shaved down one end so that it would be broad yet flat. This worked out fabulously. I could write with a pen made from a twig. I also had a pen that a well known calligrapher had made me from a pheasant feather and another that someone had made me from a piece of bamboo!

I now had succeeded in making ink with tree nuts and making pens with fallen twigs.

Happy Arbor Day everyone!