Beltane Ink Making Ritual ☀️

♉ Taurus season: Embodied connection to plants through my hands ✋🏽

My hands are still tingling from the nettles foraged on yesterday’s morning walk in Stanmer, East Sussex. It was worth it though! I’ve just bottled my final ink as part of my little homemade Beltane paint collection; comprising of a trio of Hawthorn, gorse and nettle. Taking just over a week, it’s been a slow ritualistic process.Connecting me to this time of year through a sensory experience with the land local to me.

My Taurus New moon intentions set on the 27th April last month had an overall flavour of embodiment; get out of your busy head (Aquarian moon) and more into your body (6th house in Taurus) . Let’s bring you back to your centre through touching, bashing, cutting, stirring, brewing and pouring. Working with plants in this way really brings a feeling of magic and alchemy back into my bones, feeling rooted into the energy of Taurus season through simple childlike pleasures. At this time of year it really took me back to a memory of making a concoction of Cherry blossom perfume from the trees outside my parents house and trying to sell it to our neighbours.

A poo bag filled with hawthorn leaves (Hove Park)

Snippet from my birth chart collage book: New Moon in Taurus 27th April

This year, I felt like celebrating Beltane quietly, rather than getting caught up with Jack on the Green and all the other very tempting celebrations in my local area. Feeling an urge to get to know the wild spaces near my home better, or rather build a deeper acquaintance with the hedgerows and trees in my local parks (which I sometimes overlook as they feel too public) I set an intention before my morning walks: to pay attention to the plants. Which ones wanted to be seen?

MY BELTANE INKS

1. HAWTHORN

   These Hawthorn leaves + branches were collected from a hawthorn tree in full blossom, nestled amongst the cow parsley and hemlock on the very edge of Hove park near where I live. I could hear the hum of the school run along side me on the road, usually a reason to go deeper into the woods. Instead I embraced the bustle of city life and thanked my new hawthorn tree friend for a couple handfuls of leaves.

I used the lake pigment method to make this ink, adding both soda ash + alum to pump up the colour.

I was happy with the nutty brown that I made, though would like to try it again with less soda ash as I remembering pouring in way more than I meant to.

The texture of this is more of a paint, but I like that as it can be easily watered down.

2. GORSE

The gorse was foraged near my parents house back in Yateley. I know this patch well as it’s right behind their house on common land that I’ve rolled around on since I was a kid.

I thought I was tripping on something when looking at the flowers which appeared fluorescent against the inky purple sky one evening. I even asked my brother ‘you see this yellow too, it doesn't look natural’. He agreed, And so the first colour for my ink was an obvious choice.

I made an ink with the same gorse around this time last year. It’s in this way of comparison that I can see how my connection to the plants near where I live has deepened and what I notice and care about. How I connect and retrace my memories of seasons gone by when so often previously they merge and melt together.

I ended up with three inks from the foraged gorse this year.

1. The first a lake pigment which yielded a lovely thick paste and lots of it.

2. The second was left over from this process. After adding the alum and soda ash to my pigment and letting it filter, I was left a thinner liquid which I didn’t want to waste.

3. My third gorse ink is from a second bag of gorse that I had foraged and forgotten about (there was so much). Not one to waste a gift from mother nature, this bag was a bit sweaty and stinky from sitting on my desk (probably in the sun too) and the leaves were more brown than yellow. Still it made a nice ink! Darker and a good amount of it.

3. NETTLE

I collected my nettles at Stanmer Park, heading there super early to avoid the crowds.

I was trying to be braver this time (without gloves) wanting to feel more connected to these tall green stingers, out in abundance swaying along the path on our trail yesterday. It felt kind of invigorating at the time; feeling. a little nip of a sting as I pinched the top young leaves and popped them into one of my dog’s empty poo bags (I always forget my foraging bits). Regretted it immediately as I got home as it even made typing hurt.

I was impressed with the depth of colour achieved for my first try (with no modifiers) .

For this ink I decided to simmer my nettles for 45 mins, leaving the mixture to stew over night. I then strained and reheated the mixture, letting the liquid reduce down to give me a more robust ink. When dipping my paper swatch into the heated pan, the colour was a surprise. A rich, dark charcoal grey seeped through the paper, much darker than I thought it would be. Once the ink cooled, I dipped another swatch, this time the colour was much lighter. Not sure if heat effects the richness of colour with nettle, but it’s something to investigate !

Here’s a couple hand painted colour wheels showcasing my Beltane colour palette. A little archival record to remember the early days of May and my memories with the hawthorn, nettle and gorse. I wonder if we will meet again next Spring?

(I ran out of time to take a picture- the reverse is labelled with all the different inks, including modifiers to help me remember the story of how each was made.)

Nikki x