Many cultures, such as the Hawaiian, offer prayers to the sea for a continued source of food and livelihood. The Balinese people worship the mountains and fear the sea, believing the evil spirits dwell there. To each of us the sea has a different special meaning. Always it has beckoned to me. While on an outing to the rugged southern Oregon coast, we stopped to explore an out of the way cove, in search of agates. Much to my delight, the treasures there were long rows of seaweed: yellow, white, brown, green, smelly wonderful seaweed! With plastic bags in hand, I gathered as much as I dared to fit into every corner of our jeep. Upon arriving home, I soaked all the seaweed in fresh cold water. The next morning I rinsed each panfull and cooked all the matter with caustic soda for one and a half hours. After thorough rinsing, I beat it slightly in a blender and added it to the vat. Because of the varieties of seaweed--I suspect it was the agar-agar--I needed very little dispersing agent. The first few sheets were difficult to couch. This problem was solved by adding a small amount of kozo (approximately one part to ten parts seaweed). This paper was a joy to make, from the trip to the ocean to the final step of pulling the sheets from the drying boards. We traveled back to this cove on the coast three different times, but each time I was disappointed not to find the wonderful rolls of magic seaweed. If you close your eyes and smell the paper sample, you will see and hear the beautiful Pacific Ocean.
