Making Ink, Axum, Ethiopia, 2009

Making Ink, Axum, Ethiopia, 2009

Melaka Tsehai burns the oil off of an addition of nug (an oilseed) to the carbonized grains, leaves, and earths that serve as the base for black ink. Various implments of the scribe’s crafts are on the ground beside him. Also, lest any one accuse me of having done the opposite–I have actually *de*-saturated his spectacular neon orange hat. A truly one-of-a-kind hat.

Scribal Tools, Adigrat, Tigray, Ethiopia, 2009

Scribal Tools, Adigrat, Tigray, Ethiopia, 2009

An inhorn with black ink, a small bottle of red ink, a bamboo pen (ba’ar), and a piece of tile used for rubbing the parchment surface before scribing all sit in their places on a wooden inkstand, in the home of a scribe in Adgrat, Tigray Province, Ethiopia.