Wednesday, October 12, 2011

october



I do not know what the right path is. My mind is foggy. I envy the cypress for its certainty.
Moonrise.


a gentle slope, a young olive grove waiting for the moon to bless it
I've been making inks. Rhamnus, (persian berries), walnut, and the queen: pomegranate
my city looks like this a lot lately

9 comments:

Trace Willans said...

What do you do and add to make them inks?

Manya Maratou said...

hi! at this point they are much reduced, concentrated dyebaths. I have access to large quantities of these berries and fruit, rhamnus is like a weed here, and everyone has pomegranate trees, and there are walnut trees. rusty nails to darken, bad wine for acidity. the pomegranate is the best- thick and covers well. I add cloves and/or extracted rosemary oil as a preservative,and alcohol, 5-10 percent. and I'm thinking of adding gum arabic to thicken slightly.
I am reading recipies found on the internet, but my experiments are a bit more slapdash.
I let them ferment for at least a month before any boiling.
I strain through a cloth, towards the end, sometimes I boil some more to reduce further
now i'm looking at the sludge left on the bottom of the pan from the strained bath- could become a pigment when dried.
the rhamnus was great before the nails, but it was weak.

Martine said...

thanks Manya i'mm going to try this too. Have a great amound of walnuts to try with.

Manya Maratou said...

Hi Martine-
there are lots of recipies on the internet, historical ones are very interesting.
they work better on sized material
and the gum arabic woyld act as binder

Manya Maratou said...

I saw jude is trying something similar

jude said...

plants, i wish we could be more like them. love to you.

grace Forrest~Maestas said...

your city then is very quiet.

love....

Anonymous said...

i think of you and your world often, sending thoughts- oh to be a cypress.

Velma Bolyard said...

the anger in those walls,
and then your ink making, so different than the wild wall color.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...