There is a lot of great things to be said about using Cling Wrap to create Texture in Watercolor. It’s cheap, super easy, you probably already have it in your kitchen and the outcome is so pretty. But I can come up with one bad thing – it’s plastic and that’s not a good thing for the environment!
For a long time I have been using Cling Wrap for my art practice, but a few weeks ago one of my students came to me. She said that she was trying to avoid all things plastic in her home to protect nature and wildlife. This made me think.
Nature is one of the most important things we have and we really need to look after it. So I wanted to write this blog post to show 2 ways to help.
1. I want to show there are alternatives to using Cling Wrap and creating beautiful Texture.2. Furthermore, I want to give a big high five to reuse!
Alternatives to Cling Wrap
Lunch bag paper
I looked in the drawer to see what I had laying around and found some lunch bag paper. You know stuff you wrap around the kid’s lunch. Well, I waited for kids to go to daycare, then I grabbed a piece, crumbled it up, and placed it in the wet paint. I had to put a book on top of it to make sure it actually affected the paint. Now we just wait. And while we wait why not make another experiment?
Baking Paper
I did the same with a piece of baking paper. This somehow seemed harder to crumble up but I did the best I could. Here I also placed a book on top while it dried. I’m super excited to see how these experiments work out! So are you ready? Scroll down a bit further to see the results.
Both of them have created some Texture and like the Lunch Bag Paper best. But I think this takes a few more experiments to really find a good alternative. If you have any ideas you are more than welcome to send me an e-mail at camilla@camilladamsboart.com.
Reuse, reuse, reuse
That was a few experiments to find an alternative, but there is also another way to go. Don’t throw anything out ever. Do you already have Cling Film in your kitchen? Great! Don’t go and throw it out. You can use it again and again (just don’t use it with food first). Even if you already used the Cling Film in the wet paint you can just let it dry completely and then wipe it off. Just keep it somewhere safe because this might be one of those things your hubby really wants to just throw out. Since it looks like trash. A lot. But it’s not.
In most homes, we have plastic bags of some kind too. These can be used in the same way. I know it’s not eco-friendly but it all comes down to reusing and not throwing it out. As long as we keep it safe and don’t buy more we should be good.
And if you have some Cling Wrap laying around I definitely encourage you to use it. To create art is the best thing we can get out of this. Just make sure not to throw it out but use it again and again and again.
If you want some inspiration you can check out my classes on creating Texture here:
- Creating Texture with Cling Wrap
- Create Texture with Salt
- Create texture in watercolor with a Plastic Card
I want to say that in the past I haven’t always thought about nature like this. But somehow it has just been more and more obvious to me that we all need to do our thing to help get our climate back. At least for our kid’s sake.
