Join artist Polly Bennett to cook up oak gall ink - an ink recipe so old it was used by Gaius Plinus Secundus, Pliny the Elder (AD 23 - 73), and make traditional feather pens that create unbelievably fine lines. Use your historical recipe and tool to make observational illustrations of the The Amelia Scott's fossils, shells and insects. Think old Victorian black and white diagrams!

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Oak gall/apple/knopper is the name for a round or knobbly gall found on oak trees. They are 
caused by chemicals injected by the larva of gall wasps. Female wasps lay single eggs in 
developing oak buds and the larvae feed on the gall tissue modifying the oak bud into the gall. 

The ink's continuous use is thanks to its various properties: 
1. Waterproof 
2. Permanence - the the combination of iron water, ferrous sulphate and the tannic acids means it darkens with age, making it perfect for important documents, such as the Magna Carta
3. Readily available and cheap

On the workshop participants take home:
Oak gall ink
Observational ink drawings