When rain thwarted our forest school plans, we brought the enchantment of the outdoors inside our school. With our Samhain celebrations just around the corner on October 27th, we used objects collected from our forest to create decorations. One exciting activity was making oak gall ink, which we used to create spooky bunting. Here’s how we did it:
- Gather Your Materials: Oak galls, hot water, a glass jar, cloth or filters, and a teaspoon of iron sulfate.
- Prepare the Oak Galls: Crush or grind the oak galls to small pieces.
- Extract the Ink: Place the crushed galls in a glass jar, cover them with hot water, and let it sit for a week to develop the ink.
- Filter the Extract: After a week, strain the liquid using cloth or filters to remove any remaining oak gall particles.
- Add Iron Sulfate: Add a teaspoon of iron sulfate to the darkened liquid, turning it into inky black oak gall ink.
