Seaweed Pressing

Seaweed Pressing

My piece, before pressing

I signed up for this rather interesting sounding workshop, not knowing really what to expect.  I've done a fair amount of flower pressing in my time, but certainly not seaweed.  The only thing I used to do with seaweed, is bring it back home as a child, when we had been to the beach for the day. Why? Well to be able to forecast the weather of course, but I don't remember it ever working!!

The workshop was held at Lepe Country Park, and run by a local artist Jane Cartwright.  In a portacabin classroom we were introduced to the art of seaweed pressing, and shown that just like land plants, seaweed has it's seasons.  Jane had a folder of various pressed seaweeds, and it showed the sorts of seaweeds we could expect to find each month.  The autumn and winter pieces were a lot darker in colour, browns and reds. When you started moving into the spring and summer months, reds, purples and acid greens were in abundance.

So after being given our short introduction we all headed out to the beach, and up onto the spit, thankfully the weather was holding.  Each of us had small containers to collect interesting seaweeds that caught our eye.  Obviously the only seaweed we were allowed to pick was drifting and not attached to anything, or rooted in the seabed.

I was really amazed to find that there were so many different types, shapes, and colours, all within one tiny area of the shallows.  I collected as many different pieces as I could, emptying the pot several times as I went, as often wildlife was hooked up in the seaweed.

So back off then to the classroom, for the art to begin.  No sooner than we all piled in and sat down, did the heavens open, flashes of lightning, claps of thunder, torrential rain and hailstones, I think we timed our foraging venture just perfectly!!

Jane showed us then how to create art from seaweed, just with some simple tools - some small knitting needles, some mesh, a tray, watercolour paper, and a glass jar of seawater.  The mesh was placed over the tray, and watercolour paper on top, then a pipette was used to drop a very small amount of water onto the paper....this would allow you to move the seaweed about on the paper with relative ease.  So that's what happened next, a piece of chosen seaweed was placed on the paper in the water droplets and the knitting needles were used to tease the seaweed into the desired shape, obviously the more natural it looked, the better.  It was explained that seaweed doesn't stay in form for very long, out of the water, and within an hour would start to disintegrate....so you had to work fairly quickly.  Once you had your seaweed placed as you liked, you could drain off the excess water,  into the tray, and it was ready for pressing.  This is where it is exactly like flower pressing.  Some nice thick sheets of blotting paper were used, in the press, and once screwed down it is left for 6 weeks. After which you then have wonderful, underwater art.

I'm looking forward to picking my pieces up, but in the meantime I'm going to have another go at this art.

Exx