Blend it - Blur it - Blot it - Brush it - Drip it - Feather it - Layer it - Mix it - Modify it - Roll it - Smudge it - Stipple it - Splash it - Swirl it…

In the video on this page, you can see all the various ways we use our botanical inks. At the beginning of the film, you can see Sarah using brushes and a feather to make her drawings and paintings. Then you can see Elizabeth’s oil-based inks used to hand-burnish collagraphs, as well as en plein air, in various frottage and direct printing methods, similar to the Japanese Gyotaku method, which allows us to take prints straight from plant matter. There are even a few cheeky shots of our dear friend Jay experimenting with some of his lino fragments. There are many examples of the inks in use in workshops and, finally, in screenprinting processes, including Elizabeth’s one-of-a-kind printmaking machine. We hope this gives you some inspiration!

(Footage of the ‘In Contact’ project courtesy of Joe Brown)

General Guidance:

When you use our products, you are entering into our world of making. To a new way of being and thinking with the land. We hope you get enormous pleasure from it, as we do.

There are a few guidelines, as well as health and safety notes, that it is essential you know when using our inks:

  • Please note these are wild inks - many will change with time, with interaction with other materials, and they will have less of a shelf life than industrial inks. This is particularly true of our water-based drawing inks. They are alive, they are alchemy, they are magic! To work with natural pigment is to engage in a collaboration with our extraordinary planet. Instead of imposing our will, we learn from the materials we work with; they surprise us, teach us and draw us in to a more intimate relationship with them.

  • All our inks are hand-ground and hand-filtered. Because we do not use machinery, they will not be as fine as industrial-grade inks, and you will be able to feel the pigment suspended in the medium. For us, this is all part of how we work with these inks; we let the properties of each pigment have their own character when we are working with them. We lean in to this character rather than seeing it as an imperfection.

  • The relief pigments use a non-traditional oil medium made from several oils, shea butter, and soya wax to make them as safe as possible on the skin. This is because Elizabeth uses these in performances and is, therefore, regularly in direct contact with them. The base of these inks is essentially a moisturiser, and we use it as such! We regularly have a pot of medium on the go to restore our skin after a long day in the studio. You can even buy yourself a tub to use for this purpose. This again characterises our unique relationship with these inks. This approach has been part of reducing waste in our studios, particularly getting rid of disposable gloves, which are, obviously, terrible for the planet!

  • Anything, however natural, in powder form is carcinogenic; please use appropriate PPE when using lake pigments, even if you can't see them spreading dust, they are, and you do not want to be regularly breathing this in. We use respirators when grinding this material.

  • Minerals are present in the ground earth pigments, and in the alum and soda ash used to make lake pigments. Whilst these are natural elements, they can be mild irritants. Mostly, this will be no more caustic than bicarbonate of soda, but should be treated with caution on sensitive skin and should definitely never be consumed.

  • Good hand-washing practices between the use of these inks and the consumption of food or drink are key.

  • Mushroom-based pigments are highly likely to contain active spores, and so should also be handled with the respect that requires.

  • Our inks are not suitable for use in fountain pens; please use dip pens and/or brushes.

  • Please keep out of the reach of children and animals.