There are two possibilities.
Either he carefully chars the kukui fruits and catches the soot coming off,
which forms a near pure carbon black pigment, which is good for relief printing ink.
Or he chars the fruit at 400 °C until it is complety charred,
grinds the charred fruit to fine powderded pigment
and grinds this with some burnt plate oil #00 of Graphic Chemical to a basic intaglio printing ink.
Depending on the results he want he can further experiment with different mixtures of pigment and burnt plate oil #00 with some #3.
The consistency of the ink depends on the plate he wants to print, the kind of impression he wants, his skills in inking and wiping, and the pressure of his press. It takes a lot of experimentation to come up with something good, but it is fun.
Basic recipe:
glass plate
two ink knives
2 parts in volume of pigment
1 part in volume of burnt plate oil #00
slowly and bit by bit mix the oil with the pigment with the ink knives
if too stiff add a little more oil, until you like the consistency
grind with ink muller until a stiff paste
add a drop more of oil to loosen it, until you like the consistency
try printing with it
adapt your recipe
Either he carefully chars the kukui fruits and catches the soot coming off,
which forms a near pure carbon black pigment, which is good for relief printing ink.
Or he chars the fruit at 400 °C until it is complety charred,
grinds the charred fruit to fine powderded pigment
and grinds this with some burnt plate oil #00 of Graphic Chemical to a basic intaglio printing ink.
Depending on the results he want he can further experiment with different mixtures of pigment and burnt plate oil #00 with some #3.
The consistency of the ink depends on the plate he wants to print, the kind of impression he wants, his skills in inking and wiping, and the pressure of his press. It takes a lot of experimentation to come up with something good, but it is fun.
Basic recipe:
glass plate
two ink knives
2 parts in volume of pigment
1 part in volume of burnt plate oil #00
slowly and bit by bit mix the oil with the pigment with the ink knives
if too stiff add a little more oil, until you like the consistency
grind with ink muller until a stiff paste
add a drop more of oil to loosen it, until you like the consistency
try printing with it
adapt your recipe
(Dr.Ad Stijnman)
* Ink Conditioners & Modifiers
Burnt Plate Oil; The most common ink conditioner. Depending upon the grade that you choose, you can reduce the body of an ink or body it up without materially affecting the tack of the ink. We carry a wide range of grades from #0000 to #8. The lower the number, the thinner the Burnt Plate Oil.
* Ink Conditioners & Modifiers
Burnt Plate Oil; The most common ink conditioner. Depending upon the grade that you choose, you can reduce the body of an ink or body it up without materially affecting the tack of the ink. We carry a wide range of grades from #0000 to #8. The lower the number, the thinner the Burnt Plate Oil.