How Do You Make Gypsy Walnut Ink For The Skin?
Gypsy walnut ink is a commercially produced ink but you can make your own from scratch. Walnuts have been used since the Middle Ages to make ink. The walnut tree produces a substance known as juglone. While toxic to certain plants and animals, juglone is what produces the dark color of the walnut hulls. Traditionally the juice from walnut hulls has been used to make an excellant dye and ink that’s colorfast and lightfast. Once it stains the skin, however, it’s very hard to remove it. Collect walnuts in the fall after they start falling to the ground. If the hulls have started turning black that’s good. Put 13 walnuts in a rusting, cast iron pot. Cover them with water. Slowly simmer for 8 hours. Turn off stove and allow walnuts to steep in the water for another 16 hours. Put on rubber gloves and strain the mixture by pouring it through a sieve set in a stainless steel bowl. This will remove any solid matter. Put the solution back in the cast iron pot and simmer on the stove until the li
