Terroir Ink-Making
This project was started in the late fall, as the cold and the quiet set in after a lively summer. Through research, experimenting, foraging, distilling, heating, soaking and grinding, a miraculous alchemy takes place. Ink-making is as ancient as human beings, and there are many incredible sources of information to glean history and information from. I became particularly interested in obtaining ingredients for inks from places of personal importance. The concept I am drawing from here is terroir-a French term used in wine-making to describe the essence of a particular place where the grapes for the wine are grown. It encompasses a combination of natural factors including the soil, the climate, the topography, the water-table, the microbiome and even the human choices -our movements, the things we take and the things we leave behind. These inks have their own terroir as well. They are each utterly unique. The places and circumstances of their origin also form a unique story, a terroir of a single person. Here is a small sampling of experiments, recipes and photographs of this process.
-Ink ingredients foraged from Boston streets, March 2024
