Introducing The Manual of Wild Biochromes

This is The Manual of Wild Biochromes. It's an online repository of information about ink, paints, and pigments derived from plants. The title is a play on the 18th and 19th century industrial revolution books (and fits well with our letterpress workshop), as well as a nod to the science and alchemy we love to play with when using inks.

bi·​o·​chrome -‧ˌkrōm plural -s : a colouring matter that can be extracted from a plant or animal : a natural pigment

We started with the online workshop From Galls to Nettles, and now that content is being transformed into a book. We hope you'll read through the pages and provide feedback so that we can make it better before it goes to print.

Who is "we"? It's us! Emma (and sometimes Jon) from Princetown Press. From before her days in the world of software development, Emma has had a real bee in her bonnet about access to information and gatekeeping. The colour community has been amazing at sharing their knowledge, and this project is Emma's way of collating information, promoting other colour workers, and helping people just like you along a journey of colour-making.

We are primarily interested in colour that's foraged, not grown in a garden, and we are primarily interested in botanical colours (as opposed to mineral pigments). We've been known to dabble, though. We are also primarily letterpress printers. The Manual of Wild Biochromes is a phenomenal side quest that started with a calligraphy class at Meticulous Ink (thanks, Athena!).