I've selected plants which are edible, and this takes out a lot of the inherent risk of dye making with chemicals and compounds you absolutely wouldn't want in your household saucepan! The recipe I followed recommends binders to stabilize the ink and help it adhere to paper or other substrates.

However, as is much of the 'way' of ink making, this was an unexpected 'win' in that the colour was really unusual, and it 'changed' colour on the page with time as it dried. Sometimes, too, “I’ll drop a puddle of ink onto the paper, then add a second color of ink to that arena and watch the inks dance. Note: In addition to the equipment and items above, these are the materials I recommend every ink maker have handy. I think for someone who just needs an overview of the basic idea of ink making but wants to put the time and effort into several experiments themselves, this is a great book. Woven on a Brinkley loom in the sunshine on the farm, in between feeding sheep and eating left over scones and clotted cream.

It's a nice activity to get kids learning to identify plants but also to consider their applications (beyond just food). Read on for two excerpts from the book, including the basic process for making natural ink and Jason’s recipe for Turmeric Alcohol Ink.

This book not only shares a story, it teaches the basics in the draft of ink-making, provides a history, displays photographs of stunning beauty, and ultimately is poetic. Like other readers here, I think the guide was great for making art and projects with others and also learning about the properties of our surroundings, but I’d want more tips on preventing molds and preserving the paint made, especially for the purpose of sharing them with others. It isn't about taking too much of something – the birds, insects and animals rely on this plant too.A whole section was dedicated to examples of different pairings of inks or just how ink behaves on paper in general and I think it was one of the best parts of the book. Indeed, it was a happy coincidence to see this Instructables Contest (Rainbows) pop up - so it prompted me to enter. The ink can be applied with paintbrushes or straight from the bottle itself, or even with leaves, sticks, sponges, fingers, or by holding the edges of the paper and sliding it around.

The downside of this is that you might lose detail in the stamp as the paste could overfill the stamp.However, I did a few tests with it and was satisfied with the results, so continued with this method. The only consideration is that you want to avoid it going mouldy, so try to find somewhere fairly cool. The hulls and husk have a high tannin content and make everything near them go dark brown or black pretty fast, so preparing them with gloves is advisable.