Since I was doing some watercolor from natural pigments I thought about giving it a try to make an ink from pure charcoal. The intention was to get a dry ink that's water soluble and that I can use my nip pen as well as the paint brush to get some nice drawings and texture on paper.
So here is what I took as ingredients:
- Pure Charcoal powder
- distilled water
- Gummi arabicum liquid (Binder)
- citric acid (preservative)
What I was aiming for was a texture - so that the ink is running over a knife smoothly and evenly. Knowing that it will dry in the storing box after a while.
I started with putting some distilled water and right next to it the powder in a mixing palette. Mixing them carefully together until I had a quite dry pastry. Then I added the fluid gummi arabicum until I had the texture I was aiming for. At the end I added just a little pinch of citric acid. Usually I would have taken Sorbit Acid, but that was not available.
It will need some time and patience until the solution is ready to go into the tin box. Leave the tin box open until the ink is dry. I hope it is an inspiration doing it by yourself. It is definitely worth giving it a try. Just the feeling of going back to basic, nature and simplicity.
Taking some nice packages and have it lovely wrapped. Put some nice letterings and tagging with the own handwriting makes it much fun to give it away or use it by your self.
In this tiny drawing I used the charcoal ink with a nip pen for details, such as hair and eyes etc. The watercolor that I used are as well from natural pigments and are available in my store. Have fun - stay creative!
