Plant and Ink

Midwest Book Review - August 2025

Synopsis: Plant-based inks are fuller and richer in color than synthetic types: they are not one uniform color, but instead contain the whole spectrum of pigments found in abundance within each plant. They give you a far greater choice of colors, a unique palette and stunning visual results.

Extracting and storing the inks ready for use is made simple in "Plant and Ink: Make Your Own Plant-Based Ink" -- a beginner-friendly instructional book by Judith Rosema. The 27 seasonal plant 'recipes', which yield 49 colors of ink, are ordered seasonally, to accompany you through the creative year.

For artists who like to work with different mediums, "Plant and Ink: Make Your Own Plant-Based Ink" also includes guides to creating pigments from your plant recipes, then using different binders to create oil paint, egg tempera, watercolor, gouache, chalk pastel and screen-printing ink.

Critique: Original, extraordinary, and thoroughly 'reader/user' friendly in organization and presentation, "Plant and Ink: Make Your Own Plant-Based Ink" by Judith Rosema is an unusual, invaluable and recommended addition to personal, professional, community, art school, and college/university library collections. 

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@londonpigment

As I set up a new dye garden, Ive been uprooting and relocating a lot of ferns, leaving me with heaps of leaf debris. Instead of letting it go to waste, I turned to Judiths book to see if there was a way to transform this plant material into ink. And there it was, a recipe for Bracken Ink.

I had to give it a go. I followed the instructions (admittedly skipping the filtering step, hence the added texture), and it worked beautifully! I modified the process by adding sodium carbonate, which shifted the colour to a stunning orange rust brown with a soft yellow undertone. (See swatches) Intrigued, I experimented further, introducing iron sulphate (which deepened the ink to a dark teal green) and copper acetate (yielding a gorgeous sap green). Safety note: I wore gloves for protection, just in case. I'd love to hear if you have tried any recipes from the book or even tried making a fern lake pigment?

Im incredibly grateful for this book, especially as Ive been expanding my ink making practice with weekly experiments. Plant and Ink is a richly illustrated, user friendly guide that not only offers fantastic ink recipes but also includes binder formulas, perfect for anyone passionate about natural inks. I would highly recommend checking this book out, especially if you want to broaden your botanical ink horizons.

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The Artist

If you go down to the woods todayyoure sure of some good supplies. I think its fair to say that only the most dedicated muesli-knitter is likely to source all their materials this way, however... Lets get the elephant out of the room first, shall we? I do not for one moment think that youre going to abandon your local art shop and start combing the forest floor for inks, colours and brushes. Nor should you. However, once upon a time that was exactly what you would have done, and those earth colours you love so much? Well. Plant and Ink by Judith Rosema will provide you with all the information youre ever likely to need about making plant-based inks, pastels, pens and brushes, as well as surfaces you can draw and paint on. Do you need, or even want to? I think youll find that, whatever your requirements, these are instructive and worthwhile explorations of the natural world.