Anemones

We took a spontaneous trip to our local beach earlier this week, by complete and utter luck the tide was so far out that we could see all the little critters that made their homes along the rocky pier.

I took about a million pictures and my husband made fun of me for acting like a person who had never seen the ocean before or otherwise expected to never see the ocean again. I explained that they were for inspiration. And, likely because I have about 5 writing projects going right now, I actually did use one of the photos today.

I wanted to do something with this gorgeous sea anemone. There were tons of these dudes in and near the rocks, ranging from bigger than my palm to the size of dimes. I will never get over how neat anemones are, even if I am pretty sure they are the results of the unholy union between an eldritch abomination and a baked potato.

I decided a stamp would be best suited for making an anemone. I printed out my dude in black and white, scribbled on the back with a 6B pencil and began to mark the major lines.

A half hour later and not even halfway through, I decided to use the radial symmetry to my advantage and just do half. I wish I had thought of this sooner and just done a quarter but I guess the added variety in the tendrils is nice.

Slowly carving along. I actually love carving careful lines for stamps like this, it's relaxing and I can just zone out for a while and listen to music. I scribbled with sharpie the spots that needed to be removed completely as I went because I knew the tangle of tendrils would be near impossible to decipher by the end otherwise. 

Stamp carved. I was nervous to do the proof. Usually I proof, recarve, proof, recarve about 4 or 5 times before I am happy with a stamp. 

But somehow, despite the tangled mess (or maybe because of it), I liked it as was on the first try. 

I started a background on an 11 x 17 piece of mixed media paper. Toothbrush, school watercolors, salt, paper towel dabbing. I wanted something reminiscent of sand but not so textured it would distract from the stamp.

I cut it into 6 approx. 3 3/4th by 5 inch postcards and 3 atc blanks. 

Using the "buying sponges would cut into the money I need for my tea and paint habits" method, I prepared some gouache. 

You can see in the upper left the mask I used for sponging. I stamped the image on cardstock and roughly x-actoed it out. I didn't want perfect here. 

A layer of white and light blue lightened the anemone blobs a bit.

There was so much paint on the mask I did a few envelopes just by pulling a wet brush inward. 

I tested a few ink colors for stamping. I decided blue was the most striking, although I liked all 3.

Stamped the anemone details over the painted bit. Something seemed missing... 

I rubbed some of the edges of the cards with a brown stamp pad. Maybe a little subtle, but it makes a huge difference to me. 

So I ended up with 6 postcards (which will be so dapper mailed with the new shell themed postcard rate stamps).

One diptych atc set

And as a bonus, the stamp I carved very easily doubles as a dahlia type flower which I am sure will be utilized later in the season. 

And suddenly my stupid amount of "inspiration" pics feels justified.