Art Practice-Last Day of January-Update Ooops Correction on the Woodpecker

   I am actually pleased with this attempt of the red bellied woodpecker-which we enjoy watching here.

   I used mostly inks-black walnut, iron gall, and Winsor Newton watercolor ink of red, white and peat brown. The colors on the tree trunk are mostly watercolor paints with highlights of black walnut ink.

Inspiration photo on the bottom from a bird magazine

OOOPS I just messed up this bird is the red headed woodpecker, not the red bellied I should have known that sorry  The wings are totally different

this is a photo of the red bellied, We have both of these birds visiting us along with the little downys

Monday Art Practice

 Good morning Monday, brrrr it is really really cold here along with a glaze of ice everywhere-Our front door is even iced in. So needless to say I had to reschedule my doctors appointment to next week.

  During these cold days, I have been reading books that are on my kindle, and also a couple large hard cover novels, as I don't have allot of get up and go with this latest arctic cold blast.

  This morning, I played with ink and watercolors. I try to do these art practices several times a week.  This one I covered the background with the left over watercolor paint on my pallet. Once dry I drew with dip pen and iron gall ink. Highlighted with watercolor paints when it was dry.

Happy Monday

Congratulations to the Kansas City Chiefs

   Wow that was a nail biter of a game, and they played in bitter cold weather tonight.  Congratulations!! 

   I will be watching the super bowl game this year since they are in it.

    I am also proud of the Chief's team for Not answering back to all the trash talk given by the Cincinnati mayor and the Bengals team this past week.  

start of the game

T Stands for Tuesday & Update on Inks & Turkey Out of the Smoker

  It is time for T for Tuesday where we share a drink related photo in our post and share over at Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog-find link in side bar.

  Last week I made the avocado ink and was totally thrilled with it. It writes really well too with with the glass dip pen. Part 1 here and Part 2 here  I took good notes in my journal and would make again when I run out of it.

 I am intrigued with the flower petal inks, so have read what I could find online. Some are using fresh but most are drying the petals first and then making the inks. Of course the recipes are all different too-so one just needs to experiment. I had dried lavender petals in my stash that I had picked up at the Amish store a few years ago. They work great to infuse in my soaps, and they still had allot of color-so thought I would try it. 

  Sadly this was a total fail photos will enlarge just click on them These dried flowers may have just been too old to extract color. also I did make the mistake of using tap water instead of distilled which could have contributed to the fail as well

most recipes were using alum to coax the color I still had a big bag of it in my dye supplies You can also use the alum you find in the spice aisle

Got a little color, but the testing strips showed nothing

after letting it sit for several hours with no color, I found this in my dye supplies, I had dyed some cotton blouses with it-so thought I would add a couple tablespoons of it to the pot to see if I could salvage something

Gave a little color on the test papers, but when I used dip pen and "ink" on paper it was very very light Just not an ink worth saving so dumped it out.

  I think I need to wait for spring and summer for fresh flowers This pot sure looked like it would give a nice deep red.

I also found a jar of indigo crystals which sadly I never got around to dyeing with. I contacted the company I bought it from to see if I can mix it with water to make ink-I saw a couple videos of people doing that with a similar product-sounds fun to try and would give a pretty blue I would think.

  With frigid air returning here to the ozarks-and a little ice on everything Sunday morning I made a pot of potato soup with smoked clams. I love potatoes, one of my favorite foods but we rarely eat them any more do to the high carbs. 

This soup was delicious.

Over the weekend pretty sunrises

You can see this sunrise reflected in the window behind the smoker. The turkey came out of the smoker around 11 am Sunday-soooo good-of course I had to try it

   See end of post for smoked turkey photos-google won't put them where I want them 

My drink share is decaf coffee with mini marshmallows-this was an experiment and turned out delicious

The marshmallows melted pretty fast and stirred in like cream with a hint of sweetness. I usually drink my coffee black so this was a little something different

 I can not get my photos to load under the smoker and google three times now is not putting these two photos in order either-oh well 

  Sooo delicious and not as salty as I thought it would be from the brine, These smoked meats would go well with cheeses and appetizer type foods, etc This is really tasty but too rich for a dinner meal.

Happy T

Avocado Ink Part 2-Love the Results

   I know it's 2 am here in the morning-but since I couldn't sleep, perfect time to finish up making the avocado ink. Also Larry needs the kitchen sink for turkey early  morning to rinse off the brine and spices and get it in the smoker.

 I am very very pleased with the results of this ink. I did just warm it up a bit before straining.

After all strained, I added 1/2 teaspoon of gum arabic,  5 drops of wintergreen essential oil-stirred and poured into the bottles with one whole clove per bottle I have read pros and cons of storing botanical inks in the frig so choosing to store in a cool area in a box away from light in the closet in my craft room.

I ordered a case of 24 of these 4 ounce bottles and got them in this week. I wanted screw cap lids and wanted 4 ounce jars as I think I will be ending up with around a cup or a bit less of ink for each recipe.  These will be nice to work with and won't tip over.

Of course I Had to try the ink to see the color-I am very happy with the end results

Oh and I did rinse out and save the coffee filter. It will be a bit lighter once dried but a soft color

Avocado Ink Part 1

  I started early in the morning to make my first batch of avocado ink. I had saved a weeks worth of the stones from very small to large around 6 so I used them all. 

  Peeled the brown skin off and chopped small. I don't have a small pan in my dye-craft stash, so with a little regret I grabbed one of my usa copper bottom revere ware pans that has been missing the wooded handle for years. I do have another the same size-so this is now my ink making pan with the lid too.  My set of copper bottom usa made revere pans come from my Mom and my Grandma, some I bought for myself in the early '70's and I have picked up a couple large dutch oven size pans over the years too. So thinking that I have loved and used these pans over many years now, some with history before me-it's ok to add one for making inks etc. Smiles  I do feel better about it afterwards.

  I covered the chopped stones with distilled water (so as not to alter ph with the water from faucet) and kept it on low heat for about 30 minutes. After lots of reading in books and online and many sites-better to Not let inks boil or cook-we are coaxing color instead.

  Most of what I read about this ink, added in soda ash. I thought I had some in my natural dye stash but I didn't  Then I remembered I still had a little bit left of the arm and hammer washing soda which had the same name as soda ash-sodium carbonate so I took a chance and used it.

  Almost immediately I got a lovely dark maroon color. I let it heat for another 15 minutes or so-below a simmer. I made test strips from watercolor papers-and tested every 15 minutes. I have learned from natural dyeing that sometimes if you heat too long-that is a fine line sometimes-you will lose the color and will go brown or not what you wanted.  I don't think I would have gotten any color at all without adding in the sodium carbonate (soda ash or washing soda)

So after the 4th test I pulled it off the heat with the lid to cool down.

Several of the different sites I read online suggested to let sit overnite before straining and adding the gum arabic (binder for the ink)  Others just strained it off right away. One site, the one I shared that gave herself a 30 day challenge for making inks let sit overnite and then reheated for two hours the next day-I personally don't like the idea of heating for that long the next day. I think I will bring it up to just below simmer tomorrow and then strain and add the gum arabic which I have now. For the preservative I will add in one whole clove and a few drops of wintergreen essential oil to the ink bottle.

When I was in my craft room looking through my dye supplies I found a journal I had started about the eco prints I did on papers I totally do not remember that at all. So I grabbed the book and started with taking notes about my avocado ink and taped in these test strips-I never take notes on dye projects because it has always been an adventure in color, but I think I will expand and take notes with these inks-as I think I am going to enjoy making and using these-and perhaps repeat the recipes.

Stay tuned for the reveal tomorrow of the finished ink-I am excited as it is a gorgeous dark maroon right now in the pan with the chopped avocado stones

Art Practice with Inks & Linking up with Rain

   Early yesterday evening, while waiting for the Blues hockey game, I decided to do a little art practice. 

   I used the blackberry ink to cover the background, let dry and then grabbed dip pen and iron gall ink, and a flower photo for inspiration

The ink blob to the far right-was just that-a huge drop of ink fell from the pen-so I just blotted it and kinda looks like a heart now

When I first started drawing with the iron gall ink it was picking up some of the blackberry ink from the background. Then when I went over it in areas all black ink showed

I decided to add a little bird to a branch

 The other day when it was warmer, we grabbed our electric smoker and cleaned it up in preperation to smoke a small whole turkey. We made a brine that Larry has used forever when he would smoke pheasants that he hunted for and also fish. So we have the turkey in the brine now (2 gallons of water, canning salt, brown sugar and pickling spices)  We have a large flat rock that we brought with us from the woods to weigh down the whole turkey.  Hopefully we can set this up to smoke Friday and Saturday as after that bitter cold will be returning for over a week-ugh

chips soaking for the smoke-these are Jack Daniels whisky barrel chips

The  smoker set up near the door, and a plug just inside-perfect to watch over it We got lots of rain here at the lake.  No snow though as some areas near us had-all this rain will change over to ice-not good either.

Happy Mid Week I am linking up this post with Rain's Art and Dinner Date  tomorrow

T Stands for Tuesday & More On Botanical Inks

 Happy T everyone, find link to our hostess in my sidebar, and share a drink related photo to join in the fun.

  I almost didn't post as I don't have too much to share this week. I did allot of reading about botanical inks both online and in the book Make Ink. There are several different but similar ways to "brew" up the inks-so I think you just have to have fun with it and see what happens.

 Along the way I found out about botanical watercolor paints made from flower petals here This was so interesting I will need to try it.  I wanted to make turmeric ink but sounds like it could be a real mess as it stains. I have found recipes for alcohol or water based but I think I will pass on this one.  I have read that dyer's coreopsis flower petals will make a pretty orange ink, and dandelions, marigolds, and daffodils will make yellow ink-I will try those this spring-article found here about how to make these. I was surprised how many blog posts are out there online sharing how to's for making these botanical inks. I also ran into artists making their own botanical paints.

  I mailed out a few slow mail letters Friday and Saturday with my blackberry ink. Fun to write with for sure-It wrote as a light pink but as it dried it changed colors to a soft purple. Fun!

 Sigh-- I am not happy with my newest glass dip pen I picked up on amazon. The nib is not as fine as the one that broke. It does take the black walnut ink and India ink pretty well but not the blackberry ink. 

     I took the name off the box of the glass ink pen that broke and for the heck of it did a search at Amazon-and found it! Several different colors to choose from and half the price-$9.00. At check out said they were on sale for $4.00-wow that makes me happy-this one has a finer nib that is nicer to write with. I should go back and buy another one for that price lol.

  I have lots of small canning jars but none of them are quite right for ink bottles. So I broke down and found 4 ounce narrow bottles that I think will work much better for the inks with screw on lids. 

  I haven't been feeling well since mid December, I can't seem to get warm, my b/p is a bit high for me too, and my chest is still tight and congested and my temperature is running around 95.6. My normal temperature is 97.6 so don't know if that lower number is a concern or not.   I can't get in at all to our family doctor-sigh so last Friday I remembered there is a brand new health-dental clinic that opened up last year near us-so I thought I would call them. They can get me in but the doctor was going on vacation for a week so I will need to wait another week.  I do feel better at being able to get an appointment at least-never in my life have I ever had a problem getting in to see a doctor when I needed one.

My drink share the week is hot cocoa-I still have cocoa mix I made last year and mini marshmallows-so perfect to warm me up I kinda got it too hot in the microwave so it spilled over, made a bit of a mess too on the sides of my cup.

The smaller birds are really loving the new bird feeder-so far the squirrels have not bothered it during the day-I do bring it in every night as we have raccoons here too who would destroy it on me. The downy woodpeckers love this small seed too

and a little practice with blackberry ink and Winsor Newton watercolor inks This was playing around from the book I have been using again-the purples are the blackberry ink

Happy T  and have a good new week

Art Practice with Inks and Watercolor Paints

   We woke up to rain this morning-feels like a cold spring rain. Timing is bad though as we had help driving up to work with Larry on the dock and could finally get all of those Christmas goodies to them. Oh well such is life.

  For a couple days I have been playing with watercolor inks and paints.  The blackberry ink was interesting-ended up with three different colors-thought that was crazy at first, but the ink book arrived and it noted that there will be surprises with botanical inks. So I am just going with it and will have fun making and using these inks. 

   So far the black walnut ink is my favorite, I love the color and seems more stable too opposed to the berry ink. When using the black walnut for dye you don't need to use a mordant so that is probably why the ink is nicer too.

  The section to the right in this practice piece below, is mostly watercolor paint with black walnut ink-inspired by a page from the book I am working with.  

  To the left the flowers are with the blackberry ink. The blue flower on the right was the first one and I used a dip pen. The flower to the left I used a watercolor brush and got a little too much of the ink, as you can see how wet it is on the page

After the flower on the left dried I got this deep purple color

    The stems and leaves are black walnut ink with Winsor Newton green watercolor ink.

   The centers of the two flowers are black walnut ink

a closer look

  The next day I decided to make one more flower and see what color I would get this time haha   I used a glass dip pen for this one, also when I opened up the jar of blackberry ink it had a little film on top-I had forgotten to add the whole clove and wintergreen essential oil as a preservative.

    This is another color for the flower petals not sure if the wintergreen and clove added to the color change or the use of the glass pen made the difference.

  I am liking all three colors-it's just a surprise after they dry.

     Interesting that they were so different.

  I started reading a bit in the Ink book, It is a beautiful book , thick pages, but the type on the pages is very small so a little difficult for me to read. Not sure why they would do that. 

  I was a bit disappointed that there were not more recipes. The turmeric ink for a pretty yellow was made as an alcohol ink which I don't want to do-so will search for a water base recipe instead. There was also a recipe for a gorgeous blue from copper but I don't want to use any toxic chemicals for these inks. The book did have a good basic recipe and discussed different materials to use. Was very thorough for beginners setting up to make ink or dye as well. I have done allot of dyeing with natural materials in the past along with allot of eco dye experience as well-so may have been expecting more for making ink.

     Making ink is much simpler for sure.

   This is a beautiful and well written book. I am learning allot of little things and I am  enjoying the author, but I am glad I didn't pay full price for this book. If you have access to a library I would suggest reading it that way first.

 Happy Mid-Week

UPDATE:  browsing online I found an awesome site-30 days of making botanical inks here  She has 30 recipes for different botanicals and she was inspired by the Ink book I was referring to above. She uses the inks to make abstract art  I should ask her if she has a way to set the color in her paintings.

  When I can't sleep-I read-so I started really reading the Make Ink book tonight-and it's really written very well-like the author is talking to you He gives you the basics to just go out and make ink with a basic recipe-and then you adapt for your needs.

T Stands for Finishing up the Blackberry Ink

  T stands for Tuesday is where we join our hostess' Bleubeard and Elizabeth with a drink related photo in our post, and visit friends to see what we have all been up to. Find link in my sidebar to link to our hostess.

  I waited a couple days, as the recipe suggested, to strain the blackberry ink one more time. This was a good idea, I did not lose much ink and it filtered out a thick "sludge" I am very happy with the results.

I looked at this 1/4 pint canning jar and thought the ink should just fit in this smaller jar-and it did I have allot of these little jars when I would can up allot of wild mushrooms-miss that.

Watercolor inks and homemade inks need to be stored away from light. I had the perfect box for homemade inks and it has a fold over lid-so perfect

I did not save the coffee filter from the original straining as it was quite the mess, but I did save this one-rinsed it out and dried it and added to my mixed media papers stash

I did end up ordering the Ink making book I shared on last week's T post. I hunted all over for a used copy but this is still holding it's higher price. I ended up getting a new copy at amazon as I had enough money credits from last month to pay for the book except for 40 cents. So was thrilled about that.  I could probably keep searching for ink recipes online but this book looked really good. This is when a nearby library would be nice.

It has been very very cold here for most of the week what didn't get shoveled off is now a thick ice so am happy I cleared the steps right away and a narrow path up the hill. It will all melt away come Monday as we will be back to the mid 60's F again for a day or two and perhaps rain as well.

Saturday morning I asked Larry what he wanted for breakfast and he says if you are up to it I would love pancakes. I have a recipe from an old Tassajara Bread book that has a really good recipe for pancakes that I have broken down to one serving. So after I made his I made a batch for me with the gluten free flour-they turned our really good. We have pure maple syrup from a friend in Pennsylvania that gifted us a gallon many years ago-I am down to a little over a quart now. I had fresh blueberries so added those yum  and of course cast iron is the beat for these.

  Here is the recipe-when I was making all of our breads years ago, this was my go to book

  The photos are my gluten free pancakes

 I had been drinking so much of the herbal tea that I needed a pot of decaf coffee this past week. I found this coffee on Vitacost's site very delicious cup of decaf. I prefer a dark roast but this one has a rich flavor

Happy T

Oops I just realized I posted my T post on Saturday instead of Sunday all day today I keep thinking it's Sunday haha