Making Tannin Inks
An Online Demonstration With David Begley
Tuesday 25th March 4-6pm GMT
JOIN LIVE OR WATCH THE RECORDING
Join artist, writer, and filmmaker David Begley for a demonstration and talk on creating natural inks from tannin-rich plants. Focusing on eucalyptus and New Zealand flax—two widely accessible species in urban environments— exploring the process of preparing and cooking these versatile inks.
Sharing painting techniques that bring these natural inks to life and demonstrate how to use iron water to deepen and expand your colour palette.
David will also demonstrate how these natural inks can be used in practice, sharing techniques to bring their unique qualities to life. The session will conclude with a Q&A, offering the opportunity to delve deeper into the process and ask questions. PDF handout included.
This demonstration will cover:
An introduction to tannins and their role in ink making.
Harvesting New Zealand flax and eucalyptus for optimal results.
Making ink and combining it with iron water to deepen and expand the colour palette.
Preparing gum arabic as a binder for ink.
Choosing and working with paper for ink painting.
Exploring painting techniques and the creative effects of salting.
A discussion of David's artworks created using Eucalyptus and New Zealand flax ink.
About David Begley
David Begley is an Irish artist, film maker, writer, and arts educator. He has exhibited his animations, drawings, paintings, monotype prints and films, nationally and internationally since 1996.
In 2020 David was commissioned by Wexford County Council to create The Monk’s Garden, a visual art, heritage, and gardening project with St Edan’s National school, Ferns. This project gave the children the opportunity to grow and harvest food, dig an archaeological excavation, explore medieval ink making, and by using the garden as source for visual art workshops, create an exhibition of paintings and drawings. Inspired by this work, David made his short documentary The Keepers highlighting the importance of art and gardening for children. The film has been screened at film festivals in Czech Republic, Greece, Ireland, UK, and US.
Immersed in ink making, David created a short film and series of paintings titled Small finds exhibited at St David’s Cathedral Refectory, Wales, and Wexford County Council in 2023.
David facilitates workshops for adults at Chester Beatty, Dublin, Irish National Heritage Park, Wexford, mentors professional visual artists, and contributed to Making Charcoal for artists by Kate Boucher, published by The Crowood Press (September 2024).
David will provide an instructional PDF for this demonstration.
See ink paintings by David Begley at
Policy on Sharing Course Content
Thank you for your interest in our programmes. To ensure a high-quality experience and to respect the intellectual property rights of our teachers, we ask all participants to adhere to the following guidelines:
Do Not Share Recording Links or PDFs: The content provided during our sessions, including recording links and PDFs, is the intellectual property of our instructors. These materials are meant exclusively for the use of registered participants. Please refrain from sharing these resources with anyone outside of the program. Unauthorized distribution can undermine the value of the content and the hard work of our educators.
Do Not Share Zoom Links: Each session has a limited number of spaces to maintain an interactive and engaging environment. Sharing Zoom links with individuals who are not registered disrupts this balance and can lead to overcrowding, detracting from the experience of all participants. Please ensure that Zoom links are kept confidential and are not shared with others.
We appreciate your understanding and cooperation in these matters. By following these guidelines, you help us protect the intellectual property of our teachers and ensure that all participants have a fair and enjoyable learning experience.
Want to Gift this class to someone?
The best way is to buy a gift voucher for her. They can then sign up to the class using the voucher code.
This means that you can surprise them with the gift, and then the recipient can register with their email address to access all the resources.