The Girl And Her Cat are at Yorkshire Cove Malham Cove loving the blustery early evening painting @ InkTorrents.com by Soma

Wild Child

The Girl And Her Cat - Lost Pages watercolour paintings by InkTorrents Graphics Soma Acharya

 

“Hey child, stay wilder than the wind” is a line from one of my favourite songs by Duran Duran. This painting from my Lost Pages sketchbook always makes me think of that.   I don’t consider myself a wild child, but I do love to be outside travelling and walking everywhere with my camera.  When I am at home,  early mornings, I work in the garden quite regularly while listening to the trees talking to each other.   I often also bring little treasures back inside.  That’s how I got started with botanical ink making.

 

 

Botanical Ink Making Soma Acharya InkTorrents.com

 

 

When I was sharing my Simple365 daily photos previously, you asked me about the process.  

 

 

 

Painting and Botanical Ink Making Soma Acharya InkTorrents.com

 

 

You can make inks using many of the things you can find in your garden or kitchen, rose petals and onion skins being a couple of common examples.  Please remember that many plants range anywhere from mildly to extremely poisonous.   So please be careful, specially if you are working with children or/and around pets.

Also, some of the inks might cause permanent staining.  Please make sure to take adequate precaution.

 

 

Botanical Ink Making Soma Acharya InkTorrents.com

Now on to the fun part – ink making.  It is super easy.  I highlighted the materials you will need below in the instructions.

Add your foraged items to a mixture of 1 cup of water and 1 tsp of vinegar in an old saucepan and add heat.  Once it comes to boil, turn the stove down to barely a simmer.  Too much heat will turn everything brown.  

Check the colour every now and then by dipping a strip of scrap paper in the liquid.  As you can see in the second photo, the color changes over time.  Once you have the desired colour, use a strainer to collect only the liquid in a heat resistant bottle like an old jam bottle.

You can stop here.  For a cleaner ink, you can further filter the ink using a coffee filter set in a funnel.

Lastly, you can put a clove or two in the bottle to preserve the ink.   That’s it!

 

 

 

Painting and Botanical Ink Making Soma Acharya InkTorrents.com

 

 

These inks are ephemeral.  If you want to preserve the artwork you create, I suggest you either scan or take a photo of it as soon as possible.

It will be so exciting to see what colour you would extract from the things you find around your home!  I think with proper supervision this would make a fabulous activity to do with children.   

 

 

I will wrap up the post with a few more paintings from the Lost Pages sketchbook.  These are all my favourites.  

 

Please Click on the image thumbnails to see the photos. 

I would love to know which one is your favourite from these four.

 

 

I also hope you would give botanical ink making a try.

Until next time,
-Soma

 

I am linking up with the linky parties on my Events And Links page.  Please pay a visit to some of them.

 

 

 

Leave a comment

 

The Girl And Her Cat sledging at the frozen lake painting @ InkTorrents.com by Soma

Little Stories

The Girl And Her Cat - Lost Pages watercolour paintings by InkTorrents Graphics Soma Acharya - Whims And Fancies

 

 

Hi Everyone! It has been a long time since I visited here, but I needed some time off.  During my hiatus, I did my best to keep busy.  Among other things, I finished a quilt, made a print for a charitable donation, worked on bookbinding, and finished one painting daily.   The Girl And Her Cat in the picture very much led the way the last few months and I am happy that they did.

 

 

Watercolour paintings by InkTorrents Graphics Soma Acharya - Whims And Fancies

 

 

I also worked with different art supplies.  I look forward to sharing my findings with you. 

I finished my Simple365 black and white photography project as well.  I will continue to post those pictures here.

 

 

Printmaking by InkTorrents Graphics Soma Acharya - Whims And Fancies

 

 

My husband often gets me art supplies for my birthdays.  This year I didn’t feel like celebrating, so I pulled out my birthday gifts from last year and made good use of them.

 

 

Printmaking by InkTorrents Graphics Soma Acharya - Whims And Fancies

 

 

Twitter Art Exhibit is an event where artists send their works to be auctioned off for different charities each year.  Instead of sending a painting this year, I decided to send a lino print called After The Storm.

 

 

Autumn Halloween quilt by InkTorrents Graphics Soma Acharya - Whims And Fancies

 

 

I finally finished this long overdue quilt.  Hand sewing the binding over a cup of coffee is a nice way to wake up.  Now I need to take a few photos for the show-and-tell next time.

 

 

Book binding for watercolour paintings by InkTorrents Graphics Soma Acharya - Whims And Fancies

 

 

Ever since I was a child, I loved making books.  I have been playing with different materials.   I decided to switch to making the cover for these little ones with fabric instead of paper.  They look so much nicer!

So far I have finished 151 little paintings in five of these books, and I just started on the sixth one.

 

 

 Lost Pages watercolour paintings by InkTorrents Graphics Soma Acharya - Whims And Fancies

 

 

I had an intense sense of being lost and helpless when I started painting in the first book.  The Girl And Her Cat was the very first painting, and they started to appear a bit more often.  They took me to different places, both near and far.

 

 

Here are the first 16 of those little paintings.  The parchment backgrounds and the firewoods are painted with my homemade walnut ink.  

Please Click on the image thumbnails to see the photos.

 

 

 

I will finish with a little story about the Winter Fairy and Charlie the cat with a snowflake wand.  

 

 

Winter Fairy - Lost Pages watercolour paintings by InkTorrents Graphics Soma Acharya - Whims And Fancies

 

 

The year was really dry and there was scarcely any snow.  Not nearly enough to tuck the trees and plants under snow-blankets for their winter slumber.  Without their winter slumber, the plants and trees wouldn’t be able to rest properly, and without rest they wouldn’t be able flower in the spring.  They were distraught at the thought of not being able to provide for so many birds and insects that depend on them.  The Winter Fairy was also very worried, until an idea came to her.

 

 

Charlie's Snowflakes - Lost Pages watercolour paintings by InkTorrents Graphics Soma Acharya - Whims And Fancies

 

 

She sent calls for help to all creatures near and far.  She gave each one a little wand.  All they would need to do is think of a pretty snowflake.  The snowflake would then appear from the end of the wand and travel to wherever it was needed. 

These creatures would need to have the disposition of a youngster.  How else would anyone think of pretty little diamond-glinting snowflakes?  During an overcast day here, I found our little 17-year-old Charlie, who is the perpetual kitten of our home, sitting by the door staring outside.  When I asked him what he was looking at, he told me of his important mission of helping the winter fairy.  I gave him lots of love and wished him much luck.  The mountains did get a good amount of rain and snow afterwards.

 

I hope you enjoyed the visit.  I am looking forward to seeing my friends and familiar “faces” here again.

 

Until next time,
-Soma

 

 

I am linking up with the linky parties on my Events And Links page. Please pay a visit to some of them.  I have joined a few new ones recently and they are a wonderful bunch!

 

 

 

Leave a comment

 

Enter your email to receive new inspirations, product reviews and pro-tips
icon
error: Content is protected !!