Ink making workshop: Tree to Ink

Make ink from the hedge, then draw with it. You take home three or four bottles of ink you made. Screveton, five minutes from Bingham. We make ink from whatever the hedge has that week: rowan, elder, sloes or hawthorn as the autumn goes on, or berries I picked and froze when they were ripe. We start with tea, cake, and the tree. What it is, where it grows, what I picked from it, and what people have made of it besides ink: the food, the medicine, the stories. Then the berries go in the pan. We simmer them and strain them. Then the part I'd call witchcraft if it weren't just the kitchen cupboard. A pinch of one thing, a drop of another, and one tree gives you three or four colours, and I'll tell you why as we go. We bottle them up. Then there's a sheet of paper. Mine has the swatches along the top and a drawing underneath. Yours can look like that or nothing like it. What you take home You take home three or four small bottles of ink you made, labelled with the tree and the date. They go on changing in the jar for a few weeks, mostly deeper, and that's part of it. They do keep, and I'll show you how to look after them. You take the sheet: swatches along the top, whatever you drew underneath. And you take the knowing. Next autumn you'll walk past a rowan and know what to do with it. There are only four seats because the studio is small, just the one table. It makes for an unhurried morning, and there's time to help each of you at the pans. Who it's for No experience needed; if you haven't drawn in years, this is the morning for it. Under-18s are welcome with a parent or guardian who books a seat too and stays with them: one child per adult, around eight and up, but you know your child. A child's seat costs the same as any other, and anything hot is the grown-up's job. If you end up the only one booked, I'll email you two days before and you choose: move to another date for nothing, or come anyway and it'll be just the two of us. What to bring Nothing but yourself, and clothes that don't mind ink. Everything else is here, and there's cake. If you have allergies or access needs, there's a box for them when you book. Finding us Pod 3, The Eco Centre, Home Farm, Screveton, NG13 8JL. Directly opposite Caffe Velo Verde, with free parking on the farm by the café. Five minutes from Bingham, a quarter of an hour from Newark, about twenty-five from Nottingham by car; the nearest station is Bingham, a short taxi ride away. There's no step into the studio, and it's heated. There are toilets on site, including an accessible one with a ramp by the Eco Centre. I'll send you the rest of the details when you book. Changing your date Can't come? Cancel at least 7 days before for a full refund. Up to 48 hours before, you can move to another date instead, or send someone in your place: reply to your confirmation email. Inside 48 hours the seat can't be moved or refunded. If I ever have to cancel, you choose a full refund or a free move to another date. Buying it as a present? Gift cards are on louiseclark.art, and that's where you book with one. The Imperfect Circle is a trading name of Cassette Creations Ltd.