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Discussion
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Hi y'all, I'm back with more ink. Decided to finally go about making some gall ink and it was a lot easier than I expected! This ink also has myrrh resin in it, not just the bare bones.
If you want to try to make your own it's fairly straightforward. Right now is the ideal time to forage oak galls, these small balls that form on oak trees and on their leaves (they're left from wasps! Very interesting, I reccomend looking it up). Combine crushed and boiled oak galls with any ferrous sulfate compound available to you. What might be the easiest is just a simple vinegar + rusty nails / iron wool combo. This combines with the tannins in the gall mixture to instantaneously create a dark black color. This can then be thickened with gum arabic! I added crushed myrrh resin, a whole clove (helps it not mold), as well as some essential oils.
The process of making an ink is very intensive and personal, and this hands-on process always makes me feel more connected to the result than if I bought some from a store, so I always reccomend at least trying to make your own at some point just for the experience! If you do try to make this, please let me know how it goes.
