Sample #1 shows the result of dropping sea salt into a wet wash of watercolor on Sheer Heaven.This is similar in appearance to the same technique applied to watercolor paper, but somewhat more intense. Different patterns are obtained when the salt is added at different stages of the drying process.

Sample #2 was an interesting surprise. Using the rough (right) side of Sheer Heaven, we did a wet into wet wash, dropping lighter and darker blues and some purple onto the wet paper. Then, just to see what would happen, we dropped a little rubbing alcohol into the wash. Nothing happened, so we set the paper aside to dry.

Later, when we were staightening up, we happened to turn the sheet over and found this marvelous marble effect on the backside. The alcohol had created opaque white spots under the watercolor! - visible only from the back. We are doing lots more experimenting to see if we can produce white-on-white by using alcohol alone or whether the same thing will work with acrylics or dyes. We will let you know!

Sample #3 is a sample of backpainting the Sheer Heaven with opaque watercolor (gouache). You can use the white from your regular watercolor set because white is always opaque. We stamped the Magenta cat with black on the right side of the Sheer Heaven, turned it over and painted the cat with opaque white. Then we turned it back over and put it against a black background - the gray is the black background as seen through Sheer Heaven. We just like the way this looks.

Check back for the results of our further experimenting with water media.