Creative Practitioner Anne Gee
Creative Practise Visual Artist
Yule Brook College
Teacher Maria Farrell
Year 7s
Bunbury Regional Community College
Teachers Karen Hart and Marissa Smith
Year 10’s
My parents still recall finding molding jars of magic concoctions that my sister and I would brew up to make perfume from rose petals, jasmine and red flowering gum blossoms. We’d test the petals for colour by rubbing them on rocks to see if the juice would bleed a beautiful hue. Our cubby house had shelves of these treasures and we would delight in presenting these potions, made with love and hand drawn labels, to anyone brave enough to dab it on their wrist. It seemed the sooner these perfumes were used the better as they usually proceeded to become a mud puddle colour or ferment in the jars popping off their lids to emit odours of a less than palatable nature.
Growing up in Albany with the sea on our doorstep and the magic of the bush in our backyard meant that our free time was spent mostly outside in an environment full of natural beauty. So perhaps this is where my love of foraging, collections and creating began.
SHMICo – the Student Handmade Ink Company was first delivered in a Creative School setting, in 2021. I worked with Yule Brook College (YBC) Year 7s and Bunbury Regional Community College (BRCC) Year 10’s across the year. BRCC is a CARE school (Curriculum Reengagement Education) for ‘at risk’ and in many cases disadvantaged youth. YBC, based in Maddington is a Big Picture school. Both of these schools cater for students who in many cases have substantial gaps in their education due to myriad reasons including mental health, low socio-economic backgrounds and disruptive, trauma-based behavioural concerns. For many of these students the classroom has not been an environment of success resulting in low self-esteem in terms of their own view of themselves as learners, contributors, and collaborators.
In an initial Artist’s Talk session, I shared my latest interest and experimentation making my own ink from natural materials mostly native or found in WA. I shared my Ink Journal with the group and talk about some of my trial-and-error efforts and some of the research I have done. I explain that the great thing about making your own inks is that it costs very little, many materials are found in the environment and recycled bottles and cheap kitchen tools, that can be found in second-hand stores or garage sales, are really all you need. We look at the very early ink called Lamp Black, made for nib pens, that used the soot from oil streetlamps - this is a simple genuine pigment of carbon black - the students handle the charcoal that we were to use to create our black ink.
Sponsored support from the Healthway Go For 2&5 campaign enabled us to purchase a visual feast of berries, exotic fruits and vegetables bursting with colour and potential. Our workshops took place in the schools’ kitchen or classrooms with benchtop portable hot plates. Staff were enthusiastic and assisted by ensuring many of the cooking utensils and basic equipment (easily obtainable through Op Shops and Buy Nothing pages) were ready to use. Students would gather around a central bench, and we would play a simple game identifying well known and lesser known fruit, vegetables and herbs. Students use their senses to feel, smell and touch as part of the identification process. Basil stumped a few students, and most were befuddled by the tamarillos. A range of bush nuts, bark and seedpods had also been seeped prior ready for use. Then the choice was theirs. In pairs students select their base colour ingredient and follow recipes to create liquid colour. Soup and juice are how it tends to start out and with trial and error and a little ghosted support the students work through stages of filtering, boiling down and repeated testing.
The room was a cacophony of creativity, with a generous bounty of noise thrown into the mix, the joy and simple awe was palpable. Adults and students alike learn alongside one another. Groups offer other suggestions, feedback and share inks to mix new colours. It’s messy, it’s noisy but it’s learning at its secretive best.
Once the cook-up and clean-up were complete the students settled to conduct further tests, write up their findings, processes and hypothesise. Pantry staples such as citric acid and bicarb soda are used to change vibrancy, Ph levels and resultant colour morphing. Bottles were sterilised, ink names imagined and labels produced to create a final product. We discuss the impact of clever design and packaging and the creation of product blurbs that capture the imagination of consumers.
Students then research authors, artists, designers, tattooists and various creatives that appealed to them and wrote to them explaining SHMICo and asked if they might like to test their inks. In 2021 we had over 15 creatives from all over the world who agreed to test the student made inks and sent back their own artworks and feedback regarding the use of these inks. These creatives also wrote about their own beliefs around the creative process, the setbacks, problem solving, experimentation and not giving up.
The SHMICo works formed part of Form’s Creative School’s exhibition ‘Now I Own’ at Kidogo Art House in late 2021. Student-made works were exhibited alongside professional artists’ works and their feedback documenting the process of discovery.
The beauty of SHMICo is it doesn’t look sound, smell or like schoolwork. It doesn’t require expensive equipment or materials and is something all students could tackle with success the very first time they experienced it. Some students even touched base with me after these sessions to say they had continued with their own experimentation at home. Synthetic inks are consistent, lightfast, and won’t change. Natural inks and the ink making process is unpredictable – the ink is alive; it will react and change. You never know what life will throw at you. One day life is mangoes and berries the next it is rust and lemons. We hope that what students take away is that life is a process of solving problems and imagining and actioning creative solutions. You can deal with anything if you tackle it one step at a time.
“Ink making is easiest when you are patient and remain open to everything. If the process seems slow and moves only a drip at a time, you’re doing the job right. Some of the most interesting effects of handmade ink happen when the unexpected happens. Wherever it takes you, the ink you make yourself can only be your colour. Follow your instincts - there is no wrong path.” - Jason Logan – Toronto Ink Company Canadian author of ‘Make Ink’ and tester of SHMICoInks
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