As a kid I learned to windsurf in a bay just a few metres from my grandparents’ home on the east coast of Spain. In this bay there were areas of seaweed, waving away just under the sea level. I always dreaded falling of the surfboard in those seaweed fields as the plants would wrap around my legs; it felt creepy! Unfortunately my windsurfing skills never got good enough and I often fell right in the middle of the seaweeds.
Now, many years later, I find seaweed fascinating. The different shapes and colours that change when it washes up ashore. And how it totally regains its flexibility when you put it in water again. I collect different seaweeds and dry-press them for their shapes.
The German scientist and illustrator Ernst Haeckel made beautifully detailed drawings of seaweed and other sea life in this famous book Kunstformen der Natur. I can spend hours studying his beautiful illustrations.
After my childhood fear of seaweed I have come to love it for its natural beauty. A sure source of inspiration for a future design.
