Nicole Silvia

Painting that is done so far. I am maybe 2/27ths of the way done. I am excited to start the bags. It'll be a nice change in media. Even with the gum arabic and corn starch, the ink is still a bit runny and I am short, so I end up with stained hands and forearms. It goes on the canvas nicely though!

TWENTY FOUR jars of ink. 2 half pint, 9 pint and a half, and 12 quart jars later, I am finally finished. It has taken me about a pint of ink to paint what I have so far, so about 38.5 pints (almost 5 gallons) *should* be enough. I have spent at least 40 hours so far making the ink, but multi-tasking and doing homework while simmering it, plus the $40ish it cost in supplies, turned out to be much more cost effective than asking someone else to make this much ink for me. 

 Side project: the actual walnuts are of no use when making ink, just the husks. Walnuts are expensive. Plus, waste not, want not, so I took the usable nuts and dried them in the oven, 250* for about 3 hours. The outside is dry to the point that I am concerned about catching them on fire if I leave them in any longer, but the meat is still soft. Hopefully they will air dry to the point of being able to store them and give some as gifts to the people who donated them to me. Now that I know how easy it is, I kind of regret not saving any from the 5 previous batches. I couldn't get all of the husk fibers off, so they don't look as clean and pretty as store bought walnuts.