My oak galls have been infusing into water for 3 weeks and at this point I’m supposed to add iron sulphate which turns it black and makes it long-lasting. I’ve not found any locally and am impatient to use it so whilst I wait for my iron sulphate to arrive in the post I am going to use a small portion of it as it is.

The natural colour is gorgeous. I’ve added Gum Arabic as my binder and will spend the day in the park doing some drawing with it - yay!

As with most of my projects over the last few years, even including my veg patch, I have the dilemma of whether using nature’s bounties for my own benefit is destructive for other species or habitats. Generally you can see a hole in the oak gall which signifies that the larvae inside has hatched and moved out - but one sorry critter was in there and I feel really bad about that.