Making Ink: Coffee Bean Ink - Folgers Decaf

 

Coffee Ink (Folger's Decaf)

What can I say?  We are not coffee people at my house. We drink tea.  The Folgers instant coffee (decaf) was leftover from years ago when my Dad came for Thanksgiving ...  Since it is what I had on hand, I wanted to give it a try ...  wondering if the decaf. and dissolving processes would impact the quality of the ink? [It also makes me wonder how to make water-soluble walnut ink crystals?  but I digress ...]  I think I was also using this to age paper and create textures that way years ago ...

 Coffee Bean Ink

from Jason Logan [The Make Ink Guy]'s workshop handout.

Coffee Beans make a great ink pigment.  Grind the coffee beans, or use dark espresso powder, and you have your pigment!

• 1/2 cup ground coffee
• 4 cups water
• 1 tsp vinegar
• 1 tsp salt

Put the coffee and water in a pot and simmer on low for 1 hour.  Remove from heat and allow to steep overnight.  This step is not necessary, but the longer it steeps, the darker your ink will be.  

Strain the ink through a fine-screened sieve and return to the stove. 

Simmer the ink on low until it reaches the desired consistency and color. Add the vinegar and salt to lock the color in.  You should have about 1 cup of ink when you're done.  Store in a small glass jar with a lid, such as a baby food jar.

Coffee Ink (Folger's Decaf)

 Samples of Coffee Ink

Samples of Coffee Ink with copper watercolor.

Coffee Ink on a library catalog card.

Old Worlde Aged Paper

 

I found this wonderfully simple tutorial for aging paper to come up with some easy and serendipitous surface designs.  Great textures!

I worked in the kitchen with a very strong cup of coffee, with 3+ heaping teaspoons of Folger's instant coffee.  [I'm not a coffee drinker, so yes, I bought the cheap stuff.]   I used a tray as my work area, painting on the coffee.  Then I laid the wet sheets of paper on a cookie sheet and baked them in a 200-degree oven until dry.  This worked great!  I kept going until I ran out  of the coffee.

I used 3 types of paper :
     Watercolor Paper
     Regular old copy / printer paper
     Hand-Laid Stationary (which I use in my hand-made journals)

The watercolor paper was so thick, it was hard to manipulate.  I think if I continue to work it (crumpling and crinkling it), it will become more like fabric.  Probably best to "work" the watercolor paper BEFORE applying the coffee.

Here are some of my favorite pieces from the session :

 

On watercolor paper.

Salt added to wet coffee painted paper.  It created the star patterning as it dried.

The full sheet with salt patterning at edges.

Some of them even came out looking like old leather.

What an enjoyable way to spend a Sunday afternoon in the kitchen!