Paper and Paint

I finally cooked the bits of seaweed I picked up at the beach and tried it in my paper making experiment. Because I felt bad collecting seaweed I did not pick up much; just enough to try it out. I cooked it for several hours with washing soda because I didn't have any soda ash, so it didn't get very soft. But once it cooled I cut it into small pieces and put it into the blender with some water. I really didn't have very much so added some cut up used paper that was destined for the recycle bin. With very little I simply poured directly from my blender jar to my screened frames. Below are the pieces drying. I found this batch dried very crinkled and some broke as I tried to press them flat. Next time I would be careful to press more water out when making them. I did a lot more pressing the first time round. But they will be fun to incorporate into some work this winter.I found some very old fabric paints and an old white sheet in the rag bin. Below is some of my paint play.The top left is a layer of pretty peach tissue that a friend had wrapped the giant zucchini from her garden in. (Thank you Sandra for the tissue and zucchini!) I used paint to adhere it to the sheet and then continued to paint over it. Next time I'll wrinkle the tissue so it adds some texture that the sheet alone could not have done. I continued on with the piece below and now it awaits for some netting and sewing to hold those pine needles in place. And speaking of pine needles I'm anxious to put some of my dried bits of nature into some fiber studies and pots this winter!