HISTORIC IRON GALL INK

We hosted Thomas Little of A Rural Pen as our Artist in Residence, for the 2024 season. Thomas spent the week making inky magic bringing history to life at Claire’s kitchen table. Transforming old iron fragments from the property into Iron Gall Ink with a light scenting of Lavender Essential Oil. Thomas enchanted visitors with a fascinating lecture on the history of Iron Gall Ink and co-taught an inspiring workshop on Ink Making and Book Binding with Margaux Kent of Peg & Awl. Scroll down to see all that transpired...

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Thomas Little is an amateur ink historian and ink maker who explores mystic and scientific concepts through the lens of ink and our relationship to mark making. He gathers threads from alchemical imagery, chemical phenomena, and mystic observations to incorporate them into a holistic synthesis theory of art-science-magic. Through operations in the chemical theater, he hopes to encourage excitement and dilate the mind to the wonders of the psyche and the cosmos that reside in the humble inkwell. His work has been featured in the CNN Style section, American Craft magazine and Dark Mountain magazine. He has presented workshops and lectures at the New Orleans Pharmacy Museum, the Delaware Contemporary, the Rochester Institute of Technology and other institutions. His inks have also been collected for the material libraries of the University of Massachusetts and University of Pennsylvania.

Follow along on Thomas’ creative journey via Instagram: @a.rural.pen