These gorgeous, earthy, unique pouches are created with cotton, and linen fabric that I've eco-printed, and stamped using a handmade oak gall ink.
 
The beautiful wooden spiral block printing stamps inspired me to go all the way and make a medieval oak gall ink to print with. As the name suggests, iron gall ink dates back to use in the 5th century. The gall from an oak tree is the result of a symbiotic relationship with a species of wasp within the Cynipidae family. An oak gall is formed when the larva of the wasp develops within a leaf or branch of an oak tree. The larva emits secretions throughout its development, which causes the tree to grow a hardened casing that is the gall. Sometime after the wasps have evacuated, galls are harvested and can be dried, and ground into powder for use, or boiled into a concentration. For the case of ink, this solution is then combined with iron sulphate, which reacts with the high levels of tannin to produce its signature, dark, purplely black ink color. 
 
For my ink recipe, I have used clove as a preservative, which doubles to give it a pleasant scent. For use in stamping on fabric, I combine my oak gall ink with Golden's Gac900, which I then heat set, making it washfast, so that the \\\stamping won't come out in the case that you have to wash your pouch. 
 
The eco-printed fabrics were the perfect compliment for the oak gall stamping. I also like to paint my own designs (i.e. bag C) so you will see some of those in here in addition to the stamped pouches. Because my eco-printed fabrics are a limited and varied, I will be listing these as ready made coin pouches only, and will update this listing with my most current coin pouches!