Natural Ink Printer


2024




For my graduation project, I developed The Natural Ink Printer, a printer that reintroduces craftsmanship into the digital printing process. The project started because I was missing the character and aesthetics of traditional handcrafted printing techniques that got lost because of the industrialisation and digitalisation. The goal was to explore how digital technology could embrace craftmanship, creating prints that feel personal and organic instead of massproduced and uniform. 

The process started with experimenting with different natural materials to create ink with. The final print was made using tulip ink, which represents the colours of a Dutch spring. The tulips used in the process were agricultural waste from tulip bulb farmers, who routinely cut the flowers from the stems to redirect nutrients to the bulbs. 

While combining the tulip ink with an inkjet printer, I discovered the limitations of consumer control over modern printers through glued cartridges, proprietary chips, limited software updates, and scarce technical information. To overcome these barriers and print with natural inks, I collaborated with coders to modify the machine into a pen plotter, resulting in The Natural Ink Printer. This printer challenges the expectations of fast, uniform and precise modern printing and brings the uniqueness of handmade craftsmanship back into digital production.