Blackberry Ink with a Feather Quill Pen

Have you ever made your own ink? There are many natural materials that can be boiled or juiced to make inks and dyes in a variety of different colors. Blackberries (the state fruit of both Alabama and Kentucky) produce a beautiful reddish-purple juice that kids can use directly on paper as ink. For extra fun, use a feather as a quill pen! Affiliate links below.     

Blackberry Ink with a Feather Quill

Materials: 

• fresh, ripe blackberries
• cheesecloth
• coffee filter
• large feather
• watercolor paper

Steps: 

Wrap several very ripe blackberries in cheesecloth. Tie an extra strip of cheesecloth around the bundle to use as a handle (unless you don't mind purple fingers!). Put the bundle in a glass bowl, then press the blackberries with the back of a spoon. Continue to press until you've extracted as much of the juice as you can.

Discard the bundle of blackberries. Place a coffee filter over a second container (hold it in place with a rubber band, if necessary) and slowly pour the juice over the coffee filter. It will catch any bits that made their way through the cheesecloth. Now you can use your ink for drawing, coloring, and writing.

A note about feathers: I used what I had on hand, which were dyed. For a project about natural dyes, I'd use natural feathers, which is what you'll find above in the materials list. I used my feather straight out of the package; occasionally, you'll need to prepare the feather by pulling off any bits near the writing end and possibly trimming the very end to make it smooth. 

If you let the paper dry between layers (naturally or with a heat gun), you can add more ink on top to get darker colors. I did this several times to get my final blackberry drawing, although I didn't trace over my writing. 

Obviously, it is imperative to have extra blackberries on hand for snacking! So good. 

When you are done with the project, discard your ink. Because it wasn't boiled and there are no preservatives, it's not meant to last long-term. If you would like to make ink that will last, I recommend this excellent tutorial by Dana Driscoll. Enjoy!