Walnut Ink

I have been reading a lot of blogs about natural dyeing and found myself continuing the experimentation. I was walking around my backyard yesterday and found what I discovered were black walnuts. I've seen some things written about how to make walnut ink and how some people even buy it. So I mixed up my own concoction of walnut, fall leaves, rust and such together in a pot and boiled it up and then strained it. I decided to bottle it. I found this great old gin bottle in the backyard junk pile and decided since the lid came off so well that I would use it. In raised letters of glass on the bottle it says: Federal Law Forbids Sale or Re-use of This Bottle (in three lines, next) FULL 1/2 PINT then in cursive writing angled from the lower left side of the bottle to the upper right front it says; HJA Gilley ltd. and then on the botton right of the front in cursive is the word Gin. Pretty bottle and it's a clear bottle but as you can see in the photo it is pretty black from the walnut ink inside. I even held this in front of a strong light and couldn't even see through it. Which surprised me and makes me think that this ink is pretty strong. The tree painting that is in the photo is all stained with the walnut ink the darker lines are black ink pen and white gesso for the white. I was very pleased with the result. It's a rich brown that I will be using for a long while. I have alot more waiting to be bottled. Probably another two or three pints. Fun!!!!