Between Salt and Water focuses on the study of seagrasses and ocean water collected from three oceans and studied through dyeing, weaving, and material softening processes. The primary focus of this collection of experiments is to observe how the material configures itself so as to reveal new kinds of information - more concretely, the relationship between our production processes and the natural world. I let the material in both its raw and processed state to inform my making - dyeing matter left in the dye bath is used to create paper, softened kelp is used to create yarn, the leftover kelp is used to create lace. The varied processes I employ are cyclical in making and in their return to the earth.

It is crucial to bring attention to the decline of kelp forests and their function in maintaining earth’s ecological balance. Kelp sequesters away large amounts of carbon up to 20 times more than per acre of terrestrial forests. A combination of various human activities have resulted in a rapid increase of kelp grazing sea urchins creating a subsurface of kelp wasteland around the world. I collected the washed up kelp from the beaches of Galway, and began to study it.

Boiled seaweed left in the dye bath was used to study paper making. It acted as glue when mixed with rice starch and paper pulp.

The remaining leaves were then immersed in a natural softening solution for a few days. The malleability of the kelp correlates to the time it was left in the solution. It prevents the kelp from drying.By replacing the water content with vegetable fat.