Art Media: Ink

The Grief quilt turned into Angel, and that name gives me new energy. A purple shape in it resembles a wing; puzzling over how to emphasize this, I started layering feathery pieces. For some, yesterday I dyed snips of lace and silk with purple ink. I forgot to wear gloves; when I glanced at my hands they were deltas of color, so I sat in the sun watching rivulets of ink flow down the creases from palm to wrist. It scrubbed off, but my fingernails are still colored. I love it!

April started this, with her Le Moyne class on ink. Here are the facts:

You cannot completely depend on ink to stay where you drew the line. It's like watercolor -- if there's water adjacent, the ink will follow it. Also, you should spend enough;  don't buy cheap ink because -- I can't remember! -- maybe it is not as color-saturated. I bought a little jar of India Ink at Utrecht. April has a bigger bottle, which she decants into a little ink bottle for convenience.

Which leads to pens: We're not talking ballpoint, and not even fountain pen. An art pen is essentially a point on a stick. Or a pointed stick. Or a stick (handle) with a little circle at the tip, for fat marks. You could use a sharp twig.

Dip the pen into a tiny bit of ink. Don't waste the ink! It's amazingly concentrated.

I will try this on stabilized cotton. Hope I remember to pre-wash it because sizing is an impediment. Who knows what that means? Maybe it's harder to write on. I don't intend to wash the fabric after I mark it up, which would introduce new considerations.

This is peripheral to the purple ink I used yesterday. That was for my old fountain pen. Today I read that ink is for paper and dye is for fabric, but the ink seems to like my fabric. I suppose it could wash out or bleed, so I'm not going to wash it! To heat-set the color  I ironed it. It's an experiment; other people know the answers. I'm having purple fun.