Have you ever wondered how ink was first made? How did the ancient civilizations make those beautiful colored inks? What were the pigments and dyes used in making inks? Many of the colorful dyes that were used by ancient civilizations came all from the natural world. These early pioneers created ink using fine carbon particles and natural pigments combined with plant gum to acts as a binding agent. Inks have a large impact on our lives! It is essentially a fluid…
Elder (Sambucus nigra) or Holler as it is called in Austria grows very commonly as a shrub or small tree. Its natural habitat is on river banks and in wet woodlands. The fruits and flowers of the Elder have long been used in traditional Austrian medicine. In fact, Elder is an absolute classic whether it is made into a syrup, roasted, or cooked into a marmalade, one or the other of these delicacies can almost always be found in an…
The journey of a plant to paper! What is Paper? It is a network of plant fibers laid down as a flat sheet. Paper is a basic and immensely versatile material that has been used since long for written communication and the dissemination of information besides having numerous other applications. Paper has many names (papier, carta, kagaz, waraq, etc) depending on where you go, but everyone understands its many uses and importance. In today’s modern world there exists an endless variety…
It was in the year 2005 I was still a graduate student finishing up my Ph.D. program in Australia when I was introduced to this exotic fruit called Avocado. I had never heard or seen this fruit before that, and honestly I never really liked the taste of it either but gradually over the years my taste buds developed a liking for avocados. If someone had asked me then what I did with food scraps? I would have simply replied—well,…
How to create handmade watercolor paints from foraged pigments. What is better; paints made from foraged natural pigments or mass-produced store-bought paints? Everything is derived from nature; unfortunately, today we are living in a world that is driven by consumerism. Imagine walking through a forest or climbing a mountain, and foraging for pigments to make your own paints just like how it was done in the bygone era, instead of going to an art supply store and purchasing a mass-produced…
Easter falls this weekend but with the strict regulations implemented globally to control the COVID-19 pandemic, not being able to take part in a traditional Easter celebration may make some feel disheartened. We too had planned to celebrate Easter with our family in Upper Austria but with travel restrictions and lockdown still in place, Easter will be quite different for us this year! In times like these, we may come to realize that staying at home with the entire family…
In Austria, the coronavirus lockdown was introduced swiftly. This was just a week after coming back from our holidays in Tenerife. We were officially in quarantine from the 15th of March until further notice. We had anticipated the implementation of such measures based on the situation developing across the globe. However, the lockdown hasn’t changed anything in our lives except that our son got holidays from his Kindergarten for an uncertain period of time. How are we dealing with this…
The last leg of our summer holidays last year was spent in south-eastern Styria, locally known as the Steiriches Vulkanland (Volcano land). This region was a hotspot for volcanoes – but that was 17 million years ago. Today there isn’t any lava spewing out or any scorched black earth. Nature has done its course and created a beautiful lush green landscape of rolling hills. The hillcrests in this region are covered by forest and the valleys are dominated by farmland,…