Janice in GA (@archergal.wandering.shop.ap.brid.gy)

Acorn Cap Ink- Part 2 This Time with Iron My first foray into acorn cap ink was a total success. It produced a lovely golden brown ink. I worked quickly and knew the caps had more tannins to leach out. I attempted a slightly longer extraction method- I put them into a jug with far more water than strictly necessary and let them sit for a few days. I then repeated a boil and steep for a couple of more days. That is to say when I arrived home from work I turned on the burner and brought the caps to a boil, then let them steep over night and repeated the process of boiling in the AM. I did this for 2 or 3 days. This was quite low effort, I set them to boil while I was making my morning coffee and evening tea. Then I strained the caps out. Once strained I ran some boiling water over the caps to remove any tannin rich liquid clinging to them. Yes this added more water that needed to be boiled off but I think was worth the effort. After this process I reduced the liquid by 50%. I then divided this into 2 part. One I boiled down just as I had for the first round of ink and added that to my container of plain acorn cap ink. The color is slightly more brown than golden brown. Still quite nice. The second batch I reduced down with the addition of a large rusty nut I found while out on a walk. Pretty much anything with some rust on it will work. I added an additional cup of water to the mix to get the tannins more fully covering the nut. The tannins react with the rust to create a deeper darker ink color- in this case it is quite black when you look at it but goes on the page as a rich gray with a blueish cast. It’s quite lovely. Again the smell of the ink as it was cooking down was pu-erh tea and the woods. Really quite lovely. A couple of notes- I will reduce the ink far more the next time I make it. The color isn’t as intense as I’d like and the first application with a cheapie brush pen is quite thin and pale. It does layer quite well. I suspect that there is a sugar content to the caps as there is much more of a sheen than there should be given the amount of gum arabic I added. Gum arabic impacts how the ink clings to the pen and the brush as well as flow on the page. I use it for the cling properties. The ink does lift quite easily. Again I suspect the sugar content acting like honey or glycerin does with watercolors- increasing the water solubility of the ink. Thus far my favorite way of using it is in a cheap brush pen. (Link to the pens I’m using.) It can clog quite easily so I have altered my brush pens by removing the thin fiber tube that slows waterflow. Next year when I make another batch I will add in a fermentation stage to allow some of the sugar to ferment off. I believe this will reduce the lifting and water solubility on the page.“ https://comfortableshoesstudio.com/2025/10/86159/