A bit of lemon juice takes the reed closer to the purple of the flowers, which is the reason I decided to extract colour from reed as I love the plum purple colour #naturalInk

Here’s the dried colours. I love the yellow of the shallot skin. The purple reed flowers have produced a lovely shade of green, with an unexpected blue outline. There’s a bit of a pink-orange visible on the rosebay willow herb. I’ll need to extract more plant material in to this batch to increase the colour. The viburnum is more blue-purple now. I’ve applied a second coat to all to see how the colour deepens or changes.

#naturalInk

First application of just the extracted, unamended colour. Viburnum berries are slowly turning purple. Shallot has become orange. Rosebay willowherb is barely visible. I’ve used it before and it needs a thick application but it van get to a really nice multi-tonal pink. Reed is a pale green that is hard to see. I’ll also try thickening it with cornflour and gum arabic to see how the colour changes.

#naturalInk

Here’s the inks - red/pink 4 ways. Clockwise from top left:
Common reed (just the flowering parts at the top which are a beautiful red-purple)

Viburnum opulus berries. I’ve tried this on basic printer paper, now i want to see how the colour changes on this cartridge paper.

Shallot skin.

Rosebay willow herb stem.

I’ll follow up with photos of the plants and what the ink looks like on the paper.

#naturalInk

Much more concentrated colour than boiling. Marigold so far has deepened as it’s dried so I can’t wait to see what colour this will turn out. I was going to do a pattern but I like the brush marks #Bookbinding #pastePapers #Endpapers #NaturalInk