30 July 03
Walnut Ink
I’ve been learning how to dye fabric. Not in a very elaborate way—the kind you throw in the washing machine and keep the poor thing returning to the beginning of its cycle for half an hour, till all your cheesecloth is a tangled shroud. The fun part, though, has been learning how to dip the ends of the cheesecloth in some walnut ink I made last year (I had three quarts left, which was never going to get used on paper—a small bottle can last three years; it’s a full sepia color).
The walnut gunge just seeps up into the cotton—it’s beautiful, a deep rich brown fading into buff. I don’t know quite what to use as a mordant, a chemical that forces the pigment to adhere permanently to the fibre, though alum and tara (whatever that is) appeared in a Google search this morning. For the moment I’m not worrying about the mordant—just enjoying the beauty of the process.
How to make walnut ink:
1) Run around at least five yard sales till you find a pot large enough (4-gallon canning pots are ideal).
2) Gather as many black (not English) walnuts as will fit in the pot, husks, stems, maggots, and all. Late October is best. The husks should be turning black.
3) Cover the walnuts in the pot with water and soak overnight.
4) Bring the pot to a boil and then simmer all day.
5) Turn off heat and allow to sit overnight.
6) Remove nuts and husks from dark murky liquid, being sure to squeeze out every last drop of dark murky liquid. There is no way to do this without making a mess. It’s very like making mudpies, so you might as well dig in and enjoy it.
7) Bring to a boil again and simmer all day till the liquid is the consistency of Turkish coffee.
8) Run through a sieve.
9) Run through a finer sieve.
10) Run through a stocking.
11) Bottle.
12) Label bottle so nobody mistakes it for hibiscus juice!
13) Without toxic preservatives such as formaldehyde, a mold is likely to grow on the ink over time. Just stir it in. Strain again before using.
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As a child, I used to make quantities of pokeberry ink: a gorgeous color but sadly quite fugitive. Probably there’s a way to “set” it but I don’t know what it is.
Thanks for the recipe and your time.
How permanent is walnut ink on surfaces besides paper?
I met a man on a trail one time while I was doing an ink wash drawing. He told me of the glories of this recipe for walnut ink and gave me a bottle of his own home brew. AMAZING. I just found this site and am going to make my own. Every one should use this ink!
I hope you don’t mind…I put a link to your blog on my blog entry about my walnut trees. I’m glad I found your blog…best wishes!
I’ve been facinated with black walnut ink since reading Eric Sloane’s “Diary of an Early American Boy”. I made a batch a few years ago adding a tsp of vinegar to set it. It turned out ok, but I didn’t cook it nearly long enough.
I read somewhere that adding 5% denatured alcohol will prevent some of the mold and cooking it in a cast iron pot and adding a handfull of rusty nails (reacts with the acid in the hulls)will provide a darker version.
Black walnut dye is color fast naturally, this is why it was so widely used by native peoples. Vinegar inhibits mold growth. I am thinking of canning it in mason jars for long term storage as I am a carpenter and will use it for staining wood. The green husks can be used, they turn brown and black upon breaking them up, the maggots creep me out. If you can put a depression in the flesh with your finger it is ripe and ready. When steel oxidizes, water will turn bluish black but it will turn orange if left to long. I am hoping to find a source of butternut and pecan for orange and yellow, if anyone knows of some trees in the boston area please let me know. Also I found allot of refrences to antique corn huskers as a way of de-hulling the walnuts quickly. I have ordered one and there are a bunch more on ebay. the black hawk seems to be the model of choice for walnut de-hulling. The walnuts did well this year and I look forward to eating the spoils. Is there a easy way of cleaning the nuts? The wire brush is awful tiresome.
black walnut should not need an mordant, it’s so full of tannin, it’s practically a mordant in and of itself! I’m steeping some wool in a black walnut dye as I type. I gathered the husks black, in the spring, since my father’s land is full of them! (no maggots!)
We dried the husks and walnuts in black husks near the boiler for a day, then tumbled them in a concrete mixer to separate the hulls from the nuts. (nuts are good for baking, if a bit bitter for eating and very tough to crack!)