Explore the Stenton Museum with natural materials artist, Nicole Duprée, to identify sources of color to make botanical ink. Bottle sensory experiences and connection with nature, then experiment with shifting the color of your handcrafted ink to create a plant-based color palette for drawing, printmaking, and fine writing with dip pens and brushes.
Workshop Space is Limited! RSVP Required to Participate.
Learning Experience & Objectives
Through participating in this introductory workshop participants will learn the basic process, tools, materials for natural ink making.
We will spend time outside, exploring the grounds of the Stenton Museum to connect and build relationships with the abundant plants of the season. We will discuss the colors they can provide for creative materials as well as honorable methods of foraging and collection for color that sustainably contribute to the care of ecosystems of which we are a part.
The hands-on portion of the workshop will focus on a basic recipe for handcrafted drawing ink. Participants will work in small groups to create ink from different plant materials available and abundant in the season. These materials might come from cooking in your kitchen, weeding in the garden, or foraging in green spaces in support of maintaining diverse and healthy ecosystems.
Participants will have time to experiment with the different plants, shift pH to create new colors, and test their inks out on different kinds of paper.
All will leave with a small bottle of black walnut ink as well as a bottle of their own ink, their drawings or ink samples, and a reference zine.
Participants will leave with knowledge of colors that can be extracted from a collection of local plants and how to make their own natural ink for drawing, writing, and botanical printmaking.