Oak Gall Ink with Kim Russo

Join us this Oak-tober as we familiarize ourselves with oak galls, the growths created when a gall wasp lays her eggs in the branch of an oak tree.

Explore the surprising alchemy of making natural pigments from locally sourced materials. In this workshop we will make oak gall ink, a purple-black or brown-black ink made from iron salts mixed with the tannic acid from oak galls.

This type of ink was the standard ink formulation used between the 5th and 19th centuries. Leonardo da Vinci used it as his drawing ink, and oak gall ink was used to write the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.

At the end of the workshop we’ll use oak gall ink to make drawings of acorns from close observation.

Participants are asked to bring their own mallet, small hammer, or rolling pin for smashing the oak galls and an 8 oz (or larger) clean jar with a tight-fitting lid for making your ink. Reusing empty food jars is encouraged. We recommend dressing in clothing you are fine getting messy.

Kim Russo is a Los Angeles-based artist whose current paintings address how our individual connections with nature predict our collective environmental future. In her current work she uses only pigments she makes herself from foraged natural materials.

Russo's watercolor paintings are in the permanent collections of the Hilliard Art Museum, the New Mexico Museum of Art and the Cornell Fine Arts Museum, as well as notable private collections. She lives in Topanga with her wife, Amber, a philosophy professor.

Studio website: kimrussostudio.com
Studio instagram: @kimrussostudio
Pigment making Instagram: @chromarama_pigments Teaching Instagram: @chromarama_studio

Refund Policy: If you are feeling sick or experiencing covid-19 symptons we urge you to stay home. Please note refunds/credit are not available within 7 days of the event.