Seaweed inspirations

  

We started by going down to the beach (it was a glorious sunny afternoon!) to collect different varieties of seaweed from the rocky areas.  We made sure not to take any that were still attached & there were plenty to choose from.  Even pieces which were out of the water would re-hydrate to wonderfully delicate colourful examples.  We all returned to the mill with little buckets of natural wonders to work with.  

The process of selecting the suitable seaweeds for pressing was the difficulty as there were so many lovely pieces to choose from.  We had trays of water to suspend the seaweed in & after deciding on the piece we carefully submerged a piece of water colour paper underneath.  Lifting the paper out keeping the seaweed in position was the tricky bit! However you could use a paintbrush to delicately adjust any fine fronds back into place.

Then after leaving to drain a little we sandwiched the paper into layers of baking parchment & newspaper.  This was then temporarily bound together to keep the layers safe.  We actually purchased the pressing kits so we could firmly press everything as we were not going straight home.  We have since changed the paper layers & are patiently waiting to see how things dry!!

I am not a very patient person so I am itching to see how the pressings have worked!  We are going to leave them a full week before looking again & changing any paper if necessary?