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Plant and Ink

Make Your Own Plant-based Ink

Author Judith Rosema
Paperback
$24.95 US
Search Press
7.5"W x 9.25"H x 0.69"D   | 22 oz | 18 per carton
On sale Apr 15, 2025 | 192 Pages | 9781800923102
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Color your world with nature’s palette. Create a rainbow of vibrant, sustainable inks from the plants and flowers around you.

Plant-based inks are fuller and richer in color than synthetic types: they are not one uniform color, but instead contain the whole spectrum of pigments found in abundance within each plant. They give you a far greater choice of colors, a unique palette and stunning visual results.

Extracting and storing the inks ready for use is made simple in this beginner-friendly book. The 27 seasonal plant ‘recipes’, which yield 49 colors of ink, are ordered seasonally, to accompany you through the creative year. Discover:

• Warm yellows from daffodils in spring;
• Rich reds, pinks and indigo from poppies in summer;
• Light blue and mint green from sage in autumn;
• Warm orangey-browns from hazel in winter.

Each recipe contains a guide to the plant used, the lightfastness of the ink created, written step-by-step instructions for extracting the ink, and beautiful visuals to illustrate the colors available; handy tips are also included for working with plant-based ink.

For artists who like to work with different mediums, the book also includes guides to creating pigments from your plant recipes, then using different binders to create oil paint, egg tempera, watercolor, gouache, chalk pastel and screen-printing ink.

Plant and Ink is an invitation to embrace sustainability, to see the world around us in vibrant color and to create with love and attention. Whether you’re an experienced artist or a curious beginner, this book will open your eyes to the creative possibilities that nature has to offer.
Midwest Book Review - August 2025

Extracting and storing the inks ready for use is made simple in "Plant and Ink: Make Your Own Plant-Based Ink" -- a beginner-friendly instructional book by Judith Rosema. The 27 seasonal plant 'recipes', which yield 49 colors of ink, are ordered seasonally, to accompany you through the creative year.

Each recipe contains a guide to the plant used, the lightfastness of the ink created, written step-by-step instructions for extracting the ink, and beautiful visuals to illustrate the colors available; handy tips are also included for working with plant-based ink.

For artists who like to work with different mediums, "Plant and Ink: Make Your Own Plant-Based Ink" also includes guides to creating pigments from your plant recipes, then using different binders to create oil paint, egg tempera, watercolor, gouache, chalk pastel and screen-printing ink.

Critique: Original, extraordinary, and thoroughly 'reader/user' friendly in organization and presentation, "Plant and Ink: Make Your Own Plant-Based Ink" by Judith Rosema is an unusual, invaluable and recommended addition to personal, professional, community, art school, and college/university library collections. It should be noted that this large format trade paperback edition of "Plant and Ink: Make Your Own Plant-Based Ink" from Search Press is also readily available in a convenient digital book format (Kindle, $21.83, Amazon).
Judith Rosema is a botanical artist, illustrator, multi-disciplinary creative and sustainable entrepreneur. She was trained at an art academy in the Netherlands, where she specialized in graphics (lithos, lino prints, wood prints and etches). Afterwards she started her career as an artist and has exhibited her work in the Netherlands and Belgium.

In 2009, concerned by the suffering inflicted on the planet, Judith decided she no longer wanted to work with materials that harm our world, so began to experiment with plants and flowers found by roadsides, exploring their dyeing properties.

In 2017 she founded Het lnkt Atelier [The Ink Atelier], a sustainable company which focusses on the production of botanical inks, and organizes workshops, courses and group trips.

Judith lives in 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands.
Judith Rosema View titles by Judith Rosema

Flip through the book

Foreword: My love for ink and nature; Introduction: The history of paper and ink; Discovering nature; What is ink?; Handy to keep in the house; Bottling ink; The basis of plant-based inks; Three top tips for working with plant-based ink
 
Dye plants / tutorials
 
Madder; Woad; Weld
 
Ink / tutorials
 
SPRING; Bracken; Cow parsley; Gallnuts; Daffodil; Tulip; Black hollyhock
 
SUMMER; Tansy; Dahlia; Goldenrods; Hibiscus; Poppy
 
AUTUMN; Birch; Privet; Horse chestnut; Saffron crocus; Sage; Walnut
 
WINTER; Grape; Alder; Hazel; Holly; Red cabbage; Rose
 
My journey to plant-based printing ink
 
Paint, chalk and printing ink / tutorials; Pigment; Lake pigment; Oil colours; Egg tempera; Watercolours & gouache; Chalk pastels; Screen printing ink;

Photos

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About

Color your world with nature’s palette. Create a rainbow of vibrant, sustainable inks from the plants and flowers around you.

Plant-based inks are fuller and richer in color than synthetic types: they are not one uniform color, but instead contain the whole spectrum of pigments found in abundance within each plant. They give you a far greater choice of colors, a unique palette and stunning visual results.

Extracting and storing the inks ready for use is made simple in this beginner-friendly book. The 27 seasonal plant ‘recipes’, which yield 49 colors of ink, are ordered seasonally, to accompany you through the creative year. Discover:

• Warm yellows from daffodils in spring;
• Rich reds, pinks and indigo from poppies in summer;
• Light blue and mint green from sage in autumn;
• Warm orangey-browns from hazel in winter.

Each recipe contains a guide to the plant used, the lightfastness of the ink created, written step-by-step instructions for extracting the ink, and beautiful visuals to illustrate the colors available; handy tips are also included for working with plant-based ink.

For artists who like to work with different mediums, the book also includes guides to creating pigments from your plant recipes, then using different binders to create oil paint, egg tempera, watercolor, gouache, chalk pastel and screen-printing ink.

Plant and Ink is an invitation to embrace sustainability, to see the world around us in vibrant color and to create with love and attention. Whether you’re an experienced artist or a curious beginner, this book will open your eyes to the creative possibilities that nature has to offer.

Praise

Midwest Book Review - August 2025

Extracting and storing the inks ready for use is made simple in "Plant and Ink: Make Your Own Plant-Based Ink" -- a beginner-friendly instructional book by Judith Rosema. The 27 seasonal plant 'recipes', which yield 49 colors of ink, are ordered seasonally, to accompany you through the creative year.

Each recipe contains a guide to the plant used, the lightfastness of the ink created, written step-by-step instructions for extracting the ink, and beautiful visuals to illustrate the colors available; handy tips are also included for working with plant-based ink.

For artists who like to work with different mediums, "Plant and Ink: Make Your Own Plant-Based Ink" also includes guides to creating pigments from your plant recipes, then using different binders to create oil paint, egg tempera, watercolor, gouache, chalk pastel and screen-printing ink.

Critique: Original, extraordinary, and thoroughly 'reader/user' friendly in organization and presentation, "Plant and Ink: Make Your Own Plant-Based Ink" by Judith Rosema is an unusual, invaluable and recommended addition to personal, professional, community, art school, and college/university library collections. It should be noted that this large format trade paperback edition of "Plant and Ink: Make Your Own Plant-Based Ink" from Search Press is also readily available in a convenient digital book format (Kindle, $21.83, Amazon).

Author

Judith Rosema is a botanical artist, illustrator, multi-disciplinary creative and sustainable entrepreneur. She was trained at an art academy in the Netherlands, where she specialized in graphics (lithos, lino prints, wood prints and etches). Afterwards she started her career as an artist and has exhibited her work in the Netherlands and Belgium.

In 2009, concerned by the suffering inflicted on the planet, Judith decided she no longer wanted to work with materials that harm our world, so began to experiment with plants and flowers found by roadsides, exploring their dyeing properties.

In 2017 she founded Het lnkt Atelier [The Ink Atelier], a sustainable company which focusses on the production of botanical inks, and organizes workshops, courses and group trips.

Judith lives in 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands.
Judith Rosema View titles by Judith Rosema

Media

Flip through the book

Table of Contents

Foreword: My love for ink and nature; Introduction: The history of paper and ink; Discovering nature; What is ink?; Handy to keep in the house; Bottling ink; The basis of plant-based inks; Three top tips for working with plant-based ink
 
Dye plants / tutorials
 
Madder; Woad; Weld
 
Ink / tutorials
 
SPRING; Bracken; Cow parsley; Gallnuts; Daffodil; Tulip; Black hollyhock
 
SUMMER; Tansy; Dahlia; Goldenrods; Hibiscus; Poppy
 
AUTUMN; Birch; Privet; Horse chestnut; Saffron crocus; Sage; Walnut
 
WINTER; Grape; Alder; Hazel; Holly; Red cabbage; Rose
 
My journey to plant-based printing ink
 
Paint, chalk and printing ink / tutorials; Pigment; Lake pigment; Oil colours; Egg tempera; Watercolours & gouache; Chalk pastels; Screen printing ink;

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