Thanks to everyone who helped me with my foraging efforts for art supplies, my Earthpod artwork for The White Mulberry Project is evolving nicely! The goal for this foraged artwork is to explore the white mulberry tree’s most striking characteristics and to see how they can be transformed.
Now that I’ve had a little practice with making ink from black walnuts, I’m ready to try a new ink from the mulberries I foraged from a friend’s backyard.
I picked out all the the dark purple mulberries, heated them to soften them up to be mashed and strained. Added vinegar and gum arabic and they made a superb – and surprising – ink: a beautiful, deep cranberry red!
I had intended on painting the exterior of the gourd with the ink, but it didn’t cover as well as I thought it would even after several coats. And it got very STICKY even after drying for a few days!
So I had to find another way to use the mulberry dye. The point was to honor the physical attributes of the mulberry tree using foraged materials. So I finally decided to carve a few mulberries at the bottom of the Earthpod and then use the ink to give them a nice berry color! It was perfect.
Interestingly, when I later brushed the ink on paper for my ink notebook, it oxidized to an impressive purple!
It was a good lesson in observation: these mulberries are purple on the outside, but when you look at them closely, they have a red foundation. I will have to try berries from different trees when I have more time. The white mulberry is never what it seems at first glance.
Next up, making leaf skeletons from mulberry leaves.
Click below for all Mulberry stories:
Click below for information on The Mulberry Project: A Silk Road Runs Through It:
In 2023, Serena Kovalosky was awarded a New York State Rural & Traditional Arts Fellowship for the White Mulberry Project, administered by the Arts Council for Wyoming County in partnership with the New York State Council on the Arts. Funding for this project is made possible with support from the New York State Council on the Arts with support from the Governor’s office and the New York State Legislature.
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