THALASSA! THALASSA!

To make a convincing sea just takes some acrylic based paint and an old sheet. The Mediterranean is a beautiful colour in the summer sailing season so don't settle for a dull gray or washed-out blue. Ultramarine or turquoise when diluted give great colours.

Using a king-sized double sheet and match-pots makes for a cheap large sea.

The sheet should be fine weave cotton, not synthetic or it wont absorb the paint.

Mix half a litre of acryclic based paint of a Mediterranean blue colour and the same of water in a bucket. The sheet should be light blue or white. Yellow may work ok as long as the shade is not to dark.

Dampen the sheet without making it soaking then either scrunch it up or use clamps or clothes pegs to hold parts if it in rough pleats - not all in the same direction. Stuff the sheet into the bucket and ram it down. Immediately lift it up and let the paint drain back into the bucket.

Do this again several times. The sheet will probably soak up all the paint.

Then squash the sheet up and down in the bucket to squish the paint well into the fabric.

Let the sheet drain as a mass roughly held up over somewhere it doesnt matter that blue drips spatter all over.

Next day the sheet looks a bit congealed and partially drying out.

Use a watering can or shower head to spray on it a little, turn a few times , spray a few times - not too hard or to long. This takes some paint off and gives shading. Hang the mess up again until it look like it is nearly dry.

Take off the pegs or clamps and spread the sheet to dry. You should have a sort of tie-dyed sea.

Repeat with thicker paint if the shade is not what you want. The sheet will feel starched but not rigid.

Iron the sheet and use elastic sheet straps to keep it taught over the board. Store it on a stick, rolled around or scrunch it up but neat folding makes a lousy-looking grid of creases on it.