By: Leanne, Mia, Wats
After three fantastic days of kayaking with the Crystal Seas Kayaking Guides, it was a relief to be waking up in a nice comfortable bed. We sat down to breakfast as usual and kicked off our projects. It was time to brainstorm because the project deadline is rapidly approaching!
Then, we hopped into the vans to begin our voyage to the Friday Harbor Labs (FHL). There, we met up with Dr. Rebecca Guenther, who is a renowned algae specialist and long time resident at FHL. First, Dr. Guenther gave us a briefing about the day, which included algae collection at the docks of FHL, followed by a lecture and then some algae pressing and cyanotype print making.
First, we headed down to the dock at FHL. We split into small groups, and fished up tires which lined the sides of the dock. On the tires, there were many types of algae growing, as well as many other marine organisms. The dock was shaky and we were fearful of falling in. However, no one did! We all remained dry.
After collecting sufficient samples we returned to Spring Street with hungry bellies. Some of us went into downtown Friday Harbor and got seafood at The Bait Shop, while others stayed at the dorms and ate spaghetti.
After lunch, Dr. Guenther joined us at Spring Street to begin an informative lecture about algae. We learned all about the many different types of algae, as well as how to identify them. We also learned about dichotomous keys, life cycles, and harmful algal blooms. Now that we know so much more about algae, we were ready to continue our deep dive into the world of algae through some artistic exploration!
We did two different kinds of art using the algae we collected earlier in the day at the docks. First, we made some algae prints using a wooden press similar to flower pressing for all botanists out there. We made some gorgeous art pieces by laying algae onto paper, then covering it with fabric and sandwiching it between cardboard and blotter paper. We loaded all of our pressings into a wooden presser and they will be done by the end of the week. We are excited to see how they turn out!
The next medium we explored was cyanotype printing. This works by exposing a paper coated in a special chemical to the sunlight, and then dunking it into a hydrogen peroxide solution. Dr. Guenther prepared pressed algae for us to use, and then we artfully arranged them on sheets of paper. The algae arrangements block the sun from reaching certain points on the paper, which creates wonderful silhouettes of the algae on the paper.
We are all hungry and excited for a nice dinner tonight prepared by some of our fellow students. After dinner, we will be watching a performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream courtesy of Shakespeare Under the Stars. It has been a great first day back from the kayaking trip and we are ready for the week ahead.