The first time I saw seed art, or even heard of it, was in Minnesota at the state fair. They have an annual exhibition of seed art at the Agriculture/Horticulture building next to where they display ears of corn and have vintage seed sacks. Some of the seed art on display there is really amazing, and I was always in awe of the painstaking detail in many of them.
So for our November craft coven, when Roth said she wanted to do seed art, I was obviously very excited. But alas, when the dinner came around, I was totally laid out with the flu. I could barely move. So I missed my first coven ever, but at the end of the night the others sent me their artworks and they were all amazing!
These are roth's kitties Jasper and Leroy. She made this seed art of them that perfectly captures their personalities. The other coven members made Plants, an Owl, and another pet, My friend Rosemary's Dog Nugget.
Here's what you'll need:
- Seeds, rice, beans, etc of different shapes, colors, and sizes.
- Tacky glue (elmer's glue is fine)
- a wooden or cardboard plank on which to glue your seeds
- bowls or containers for the different seeds
- Newspaper or other paper to work on
- tweezers for placing the seeds (optional)
1. First, you'll want to gather your supplies, separate out the seeds you'll be using into diffeent bowls and prepare your work area. You'll also want to do a light sketch of your art in pencil. I made a wolf in front of a full moon, which is appropriate for January because January's moon is the Wolf Moon.
2. There are many seed options and they will all have different desired effects. I used black wild rice for my wolf to mimic the pattern of spiky fur. Defending on the desired texture, you can either place each seed to form a pattern as I did, see the photo above, or you can apply a thin layer of glue on the area you want to fill and pour the seeds over. More on that later.
3. If you are building out your design by hand, do the detail work on that before filling in other areas. Again, you can use the tweezers to help you place each seed or grain.
4. Continue placing your seeds until you get to your outlines.
5. Once you have finished the detail work, now you can fill in other areas. Apply a thin layer of glue to the area you want filled in with a specific seed. Get creative with colors, shapes and textures of what you're working with. Above, you'll see I used red quinoa for the inside of the wolf's ears and I used mung beans and lentils for the corners outside of the full moon. The moon itself was made up of white rice.
6. Working in small sections at a time, apply a thin layer of glue...
7. Then pour the seeds on top, shaking off any excess into a bowl. You may want to gently press on the grains so they stick tot he glue before shaking them off into the bowl.
8. Allow it to dry, and you're done!