Avocado Ink

I’ve been wanting to start experimenting with making natural inks and pigments for quite some time and I finally made a start. I chose to make avocado ink as it seems like this is one of the easiest so that would seem like a good place to start from.

Soda Ash

The first thing I needed to do was to make some Soda Ash to use in the process. Soda Ash is really easy to make and it acts as a mordant to help bring out a more vibrant colour from the avocado pips.

To make soda ash you simply need some bicarbonate of soda (also known as baking soda) and put it on a baking tray in the oven for 1 hour at 200 degrees.

Avocado ink recipe

Ingredients

• 3 avocado stones - chopped

• 240mm of rain or distilled water

• 1 teaspoon (5ml) of Soda Ash

METHOD

1. Place all the ingredients in a stainless steel pot and bring to the boil and then reduce heat to simmer gently

2. Test the colour by dipping strips of paper in every 5 minutes

3. Take the pot off the heat once you are happy with the colour (Mine took 25 minutes)

4. Leave everything to soak and cool for at least an hour

5. Strain the mixture - first through a sieve and then through a coffee filter, muslin cloth or tights

6. Add about 10 drops of gum arabic (this depends on the volume of ink you have made)

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Avocado stones of varying ages

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Test strips to check the colour

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The colour of the ink after resting

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Filtering the ink through a coffee filter

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The ink with gum arabic added

Testing & Adding

The next step is to add different ingredients and mixtures which will change and shift the colour of the base ink.

Testing how different ingredients will change the colour of the ink

I added the following to the base ink and each yielded varying results in changing the depth and tone of the ink

• Vinegar

• Lemon Juice

• Soda Ash Water

• Alum

• Copper Water - I’ve had a jar of bits of copper piping and vinegar & salt on the go for a while, so this is what I use for copper water

• Iron Water - This is a mixture of rusty nails and what not and vinegar that’s been on the go for a while too

My favourite mixes were the Iron water and the lemon juice mixed with the base ink. I didn’t strain my ink off properly and that’s why there’s lots of granules in it, but I quite like the effect - I would never have thought I’d get this beautiful deep rich red from Avocado stones.