Tailpipe Carbon Capture Ink

I was washing my Mini Cooper a few days ago and I noticed that the soot I was cleaning off of the area by my tailpipe was this incredible dark black color. I knew immediately that I wanted to make ink from this soot. Moreover, I set out to solve a problem that I've had with ink drawing for a while. I don't like that I can't blend it. What I'm really looking for here is an ink that I can put down, blend, and then layer with more defined lines. I know I just described charcoal, but consider, I actually just described charcoal that you can use without emerging from your project with the hands of a preindustrial coal miner. If that's not what you're looking for, fear not. I'll show you an eco-friendly way to keep this ink firmly in place, too.

Carbon capture on its own isn't enough to reverse climate change. However, it's still an important part of the fight to keep our planet healthy and habitable. It seems pretty unlikely that we'll be able to stop producing carbon entirely. So we need to find ways to capture and use the carbon we've already created. This soot in my tailpipe is already here. If left in the tailpipe, it will either build up and reduce the efficiency of the vehicle, or it will make its way into the air and water. This ink is proof-positive that the carbon we do capture has a viable and exciting use and gives us a much more environmentally friendly option than modern acrylic inks.

This ink can be used with a dip pen or a calligraphy brush. If you want to use it in a fountain pen, follow this same recipe, taking extra time on the emulsifying step, then filter it through an N-95 mask to get the particle size down low enough to work smoothly with your pen. You may need to use a bit more soot to compensate for the loss.

This recipe is based off of a historic recipe called lamp black, however, I've added a few ingredients to improve the performance. (I usually make this with soot from candles, so if you don't have access to a car, but you do burn candles, that's also a viable choice. Fireplace soot may work, but it would produce a lighter ink that settles more quickly due to the low oil content. Historically, lamp black was made from the soot cleaned out of oil lamps.)

Materials you will need:

1. Soot from your tailpipe.
2. Powdered Gum Arabic. (This is available at many grocery stores, sometimes under the name "acacia gum". It's available in small bottles for a lot more money from craft stores.) (Don't go to the craft store.)
3. A sprig or two of rosemary. A few whole cloves would work, too.
4. White vinegar.
5. Water.
6. A coffee filter.

How much you need of these will vary by how much ink you're making. The recipe below is scalable.

Tools:

1. A paintbrush and a piece of scrap paper to collect the soot.
2. A small jar to hold the ink.
3. A flat-bottomed glass container or a real glass muller if you're fancy.
4. A flat, smooth surface. I used a plate that I keep as a paint palette. I've also used a tile sample in a pinch.

For the optional fixative:

1. Isopropyl alcohol.
2. School glue. (Elmer's normal school glue is biodegradable, but their Naturals line is compostable as well as biodegradable.)
3. A fine mister bottle.

Note: while the ink base for this is entirely edible, soot from a car is absolutely not. Skin contact is fine if you wash your hands. If you're using this with young children, if you play especially hard with your art supplies, or are simply looking for a non-toxic, edible or compostable ink, use food-grade activated charcoal instead. It will settle out faster than soot, but it's still a cheap, colorfast, and very environmentally friendly option. Grinding it with a mortar and pestle first will greatly improve the ink, as activated charcoal is much less fine than soot.

This step is pretty quick and easy. Simply take a paintbrush and use it to sweep out some soot. It's a good idea to wear a mask for this stage, as soot particles from this are extremely fine, and inhaling this isn't anyone's idea of a fun time. Soot collects pretty evenly along the inside of the tailpipe, including the top and sides. So, if you're making a big batch, you can get carbon from more than just the bottom. I stopped at around a teaspoon's worth. This whole thing took maybe 5 minutes tops.

Be careful when handling this, as it's extremely dark and can stain some fabrics.

The ink base consists of 4 ingredients. Here's why they're included:

Water: This is the bulk of the liquid in the ink.

White Vinegar: White vinegar acts as a mordant. Which means it helps the pigment stick to the paper after the ink has dried. Apple cider vinegar is also an option, but it doesn't work nearly as well.

Gum Arabic: This is a natural emulsifier. It suspends the particles in the ink so that it flows smoothly and reduces any settling of the particles, so you don't need to constantly stir it. It also acts as a mild mordant.

Rosemary or Cloves: These both help to keep the ink from getting moldy. If you skip these, consider keeping your ink in the fridge.

This information should help you adjust your ink to meet your desires.

The recipe I used. Double or triple it if you have more pigment:

2-3 sprigs of rosemary. (5 whole cloves would also work.)

1 1/2 tbsp hot water.

1/2 tsp vinegar.

1/8 tsp Gum Arabic powder.

Start by muddling your rosemary or cloves with your muller or glass container. I'm using an old Avon perfume bottle. The goal here is to bruise the rosemary to help it release more of the essential oils. If you're using cloves, just smush 'em a bit. Heat your water in the microwave until it's gently steaming. This took about a minute and a half for me. Steep the rosemary or cloves in this mixture for at least 5 minutes. Use your coffee filter to filter out the solids. Stir in your Gum Arabic until it dissolves.

For some reason, some Gum Arabic powders seem stronger than others. To test your ink base, swirl it around the cup a bit. You're looking for it to have a consistency like whole milk. If it's too thin, stir in a bit more Gum Arabic. If it's too thick, thin with vinegar. Do not thin with water, as it will weaken the ink base.

You've made it to the fun part! Pour your soot into the center of your smooth surface. I'm using a ceramic plate that I thrifted for use with art supplies.

Add a few drops of your ink base to the soot. You want to add just enough to make a thin paste. Then use your flat glass container or muller mull the ink. Applying mild pressure to the mixture, move your muller in small, circular motions. This will grind the pigment even smaller and combine the pigment evenly with the binder and mordants. Slowly add the ink base a little at a time until you've reached your desired color/saturation. This batch is on the light side because I like the interesting texture you get with thinner ink, but you can get a rich, dark ink with a slightly higher soot to ink base ratio.

The last step is to pour your finished ink into an airtight container. Make sure this is a container you can have some confidence in. Just because you can clean this up with some Dawn dish soap doesn't mean that's a fun way to spend 20 minutes.

I used an old Avon solid perfume bottle, (I bought a large collection of these bottles for $10 at an estate sale a while back. It was a fantastic find.) because it has a nice gasket and makes for a beautiful inkwell. But I also like the little glass bottles from MauMau and trust them enough to store small batches of leather dye. I don't usually recommend brands, but considering how many I use, it's impressive that I've only ever had one fail on me. (I sat on it. It was full of red dye. Bad times.)

To test this ink, I sketched a few quick lines with different pen tips. Even on this terrible dollar store paper the results are really cool! I did a little finger-blending test on the thick line on the right, (a blending stump does work better.) and I really enjoy working with it.

Store-bought spray fixatives like those pictured above will work for this ink, but they have the downsides of being both expensive and relatively environmentally unfriendly. They're generally sold in aluminum aerosol cans and contain synthetic polymers with chemical solvents of varying noxiousness and flammability. They aren't necessarily terrible, and they do generally perform really well. But I find that the recipe here works just as well, smells better, costs less, is biodegradable and is, depending on which school glue you choose, either biodegradable, or biodegradable and compostable like Elmer's natural school glue. (My personal bottle looks like it both participated in, and badly lost, a paintball gun fight. Some possessions must unfortunately become casualties of the artistic process. Please enjoy this stock photo instead.)

If at all possible, use a sprayer that produces an ultrafine mist. The smaller the mist particles, the better the coverage, and the less likely you are to damage parts of your artwork by waterlogging the paper. Reused bottles from hair products or perfumes are often good enough. We're using alcohol instead of water because it evaporates much faster and is therefore a lot harder to damage your paper with.

Recipe:

4 oz (1/2 cup) Isopropyl alcohol. Any drugstore percentage is fine.

1 tbsp school glue.

Measure these out into your misting bottle and shake it well until combined. Like most sprays, several light layers of this are better than one thick layer.

Have so much fun with this ink recipe! Be sure to let me know how you use it!