I was amazed by the diversity of seaweed present on the Cornish coastline, with its wide range of colours and shapes.
I collected the seaweed over two days, visiting the beach just after high tide. I could have picked it from the rock pools, there was plenty, but I decided instead to pick up the loose pieces that were left on the shore by the waves because I wanted to keep the environmental impact of my artwork to a minimum.
collected seaweedThe seaweed just looks like coloured lumps when you find it on the shore so you don’t really know what you’ve got until you rehydrate it. I tried to pick up a variety of species to reflect the variation present. I aimed to gather smaller pieces so that it would be more likely to fit in my glass shapes. Any excess I gathered was dried and used as compost.
The seaweed needs to be soaked in water and rinsed. To press the seaweed, I floated it in a flat dish to encourage it’s natural shape (using a white dish makes it easier to see), then slid watercolour paper underneath and gently lifted it out. The paper then needs to be left to drain for a few hours, until it is dry enough to be pressed without encouraging mould.
Following this method, the seaweed pressed beautifully onto the paper, however I found that I was not able to remove the more delicate pieces from the paper that I pressed it on. From researching it, I found that this was due to the natural alginates present in the seaweed, which when added to water effectively form an adhesive, gluing the seaweed to the paper and I was unable to remove them without breaking them. This was a problem because I wanted to place the seaweed in clear glass so it could be viewed from both sides.
the clear ‘goo’ is alginates produced by the seaweed in water
I placed the seaweed onto netting to prevent it adhering to the paper
Leaving the seaweed to drain
I couldn’t find a solution to this online; I don’t think anyone has documented it before, and seaweed collectors usually aim for the opposite- to have the seaweed stick as firmly as possible to the paper. Taking inspiration from the process of paper making, I experimented with using different types of netting between the paper and seaweed. Probably the best method would be to use silk screen, but this would have been difficult for me to arrange in the timescale. I eventually settled on a thin plastic mesh that worked well. I also placed the seaweed onto dry paper rather than wet to try and prevent the alginates forming as much as possible.
This method was successful and I was able to remove the seaweed cleanly from it’s netting after a period of pressing.
The pressed seaweed placed in glass
