Over the summer, a friend gave me a few rogue amaranth plants, which were doing well until I transplanted them from one area of the allotment to another. I was looking forward to harvesting them as an ancient grain, but when they didn’t recover from their droopiness, I decided to harvest them for ink instead.
And the willow leaves were the byproduct of growing their canes for future sculptures.
Ink-making process:
Willow + alum made the most amazing bright fluorescent yellow. And I love the red of amaranth without any added chemicals. I accidentally sprinkled some iron sulfate over my willow samples, which inspired me to do some more abstract colour experiments.
I also left some scraps of Bockingford paper in jars of ink for about a week, and these are the results. I love these dreamy little landscapes; they are reminiscent of my friend Sarah Tew’s work.
Anyway, fun things are happening on the periphery. We’ll see how this plays into some larger work.