Hello, the cloves are there to help reduce the formation of mould in the bottle. Adding some thyme/bergamot/clove essential oil and ensuring a good strain of all detritus can help too. Good luck trying it out!
Yes, though it is a slightly different method for flowers as a mordant like alum or baking soda might be needed depending on pigment strength. There's a video on making ink from gorse flowers on my channel somewhere 🙂
I don't know whether it would work, all I can say is try it and see! You don't have to use cloves, a drop or two of bergamot or another essential oil can have a similar effect.
Hi Julie. There are many factors that affect this - like how well you strain it to remove any small particles (a fine mesh advised) and whether you use any preservers (like the cloves and/or essential oils). Also how you store them makes a big difference, using airtight vials, keeping them in a cool place, out of sunlight etc. Hope that helps!
You can use this method other trees, just got to watch out for which are toxic etc. Fruit trees are very good, cherry, apple etc. There's different methods for other tree parts, like seeds/acorns, which I'll be sharing through the year as I learn them too 😊