Making Ink: Transcript

Includes Casey Kaleba, Folger teaching artist, and Mary Schaller, Folger docent.

CASEY KALEBA: Hi, I’m Casey Kaleba. I’m here with Mary Schaller and we’re going to talk to you about how ink and pens were made during the days of the King James Bible.

[Displays modern, inexpensive pen]
Now today, when you buy a pen, it’s got the ink already inside it, but for the writers of the King James Bible, they had to make both their own homemade ink and their own homemade pens.

MARY SCHALLER: Before we get started, I think it’s really important to point out that this particular ink that we’re going to do today, stains. It’s not toxic, but it will stay with you for the next several days.

[Displays ingredients]
What we’re using today is blackberries, good old blackberries. We’re also using salt and vinegar. The blackberries are the agent that will give us the dye for the ink. It gives us a really beautiful color. The vinegar binds the color so that it will last longer on the page itself, that it won’t fade immediately, that sort of thing.

And some of the vegetable and fruit dyes that were done 400 years ago, you can still read those pages today, so this ink can last a very long time. The salt is used to keep the ink from getting moldy, because it is an organic item, so the salt preserves it. So that’s the three ingredients, salt, vinegar and really, really messy blackberries. Okay!

[As Casey fills half cup with blackberries]
We start off first with a half a cup of fresh blackberries. [To Casey:] We want to make a lot of ink.

CASEY: Generous!

MARY: Generous! All right.

[Displays sieve and bowl]
And what we’re using is a sieve and a bowl. We put the blackberries into the sieve, and then you have to squish or crush the blackberries. [To Casey:] So, I will hold this and you do the hard part.

[As Casey crushes the blackberries in the sieve]
You will need one person at least in the group to hang onto the sieve.

[Displays crushed blackberry fluid]
We have a nice dark color. That is roughly a half a cup of blackberries and that’s adequate for ink.

[Opens vinegar bottle, measures amount]
All right. Now the next step is to use the vinegar and to add a half a teaspoon. [Casey hands her a half teaspoon] Thank you, Casey.

[Adds salt] And then we add a half a teaspoon of salt. This keeps it. This is a preservative.

[To Casey:] Okay? Stir. [To students:] Oh, he’s very good! And voilá, we have our ink!

CASEY: [To students] All right. So, let’s go ahead and start this. So, let’s put our berries in our measuring cup.

[Casey, voice-over as students fill measuring cup with berries]
Most ink was made from ingredients people could find in or near their houses. This could include soot from fireplaces, lumps on oak trees called galls, or other natural materials.

MARY: [To students measuring berries] Okay, that looks pretty good.

CASEY: There were many recipes for making ink and these were often written in books that had recipes for food, too.

[Students squish berries in sieves]
MARY: Any teacher, any activity person should make the ink themselves first and have a test run in their own kitchen to find out if this is going to work for them. We found that blackberries worked considerably better than blueberries.

[Students add salt and vinegar and stir the ink] Even though blueberries was the first recommended berry for this particular activity, I found, at least with the blueberries I had, which were fairly fresh, that I wasn’t getting that distinctive blueberry color that you would expect. Whereas the blackberry not only gave you a deep, rich beautiful color, but it’s lasting.

[Displays ink in bowl]
[To students] Want to show everybody? We have ink!

CASEY: In 1611, when the King James Bible was printed, there would have been a different ink used for the printing press than for the handwritten translations. We’ve given you an ink today for handwriting. And the great thing about this recipe is that when you're done, and you’ve got a couple of berries left over, you’ve got a tasty snack.

[Everyone eats a berry]
Mary, Casey, and students: Mmmm!