Tag: oak galls

  • Threads

    Threads

      Cotton sheeting dyed with oak galls and iron. A lot of the projects I’ve worked on over the past few years connect back to my childhood and the activities that occupied me then. Making cords by plying together strands of knitting wool was something I’d tried before but until recently I’d never used found…

  • Accordion books

    Accordion books

    Accordion book with expressive calligraphy on white paper using oak twig and homemade iron gall ink. Additional marks made with watercolours. Board covers and supporting pages made from heavyweight brown paper painted with iron gall ink, watercolours and gouache. Measures 170mm high x 133mm wide x approx 20mm deep when folded. Fastens with cream cotton…

  • Oak

    Oak

    OAK At the back of the churchyard an oak has rooted beside a grave; each year the lichened slab is covered with galls. Searching among tussocks of wet grass I find celandines, primroses, violets, last year’s foxgloves springing again from the base of a plinth; Reginald William Hobhouse, Son of . . . Died Oct…

  • Rust prints and ink lettering

    Rust prints and ink lettering

    Following on from my previous iron gall ink making post, here’s a quick update on what I did next. After removing the linen wrapping I used the rusty metal to make several prints. For the darker one on the left it was placed onto cartridge paper and a tea was trickled over it using a pipette.…

  • Making Iron Gall Ink

    Making Iron Gall Ink

    Raw material – a mix of crushed oak galls and twigs. Ingredients assembled: selection of rusty iron objects, crushed galls, old linen cloth from charity shop, old saucepans. Combined fabric dyeing and ink making in progress. Oak galls and rusty nails in jar filled with plain water. Linen cloth soaked in clean water then folded…