Quills and Ink

What better way to celebrate the writing of the Declaration of Independence than to make our own quills and ink.

To make the quills, we used large craft feathers and trimmed the ends to a slanted point, cleaned out the middle of the shaft and cut a small slice in the tip to allow for ink flow.

The ink was the messy and entertaining part.  I smashed black berries in a strainer, allowing the juice to drip down into a bowl below.  It yielded a surprising amount of juice.  We stirred in salt and vinegar to stabilize the berries and then dipped our quills in to give it a go.

Each child dipped their quill and wrote their name on paper to be included in their portfolio with a photograph of them using the quill.

Writing with a quill was no easy task, but somehow our forefathers got the job done.  

After the kids were finished, I took a shot at writing out the first few lines of the Declaration.  Good Grief!!  Dipping your pen every few letters and that scratchy sound on the paper is a sure-fire way to cut off my communication with the rest of the world.  Thank goodness for email and spell check.