Trash to Treasure; Tea Bags

Trash to Treasure is a new segment I’m testing out, and super psyched about — in it I plan to show you all the wonderful things you can makes out of items that you thought were trash bound; overworn, torn up jeans, that oversized or ugly tee you bought as memorabilia on your last vaction, soda pop tabs, orange peels, some of those thousand bobbi pins cluttering up your make-up counter — to name a few.

I figured I’d kick it off with one of the more unconventional items on my list, tea bags — which I’ve found a couple cool re-uses for, other than brewing them a second time, which is possible, but boring.

Note; I found this cup in a pile of household items left behind by a group of Roma gypsies that had been living a few houses down. It’s handmade and painted and incredibly beautiful… I assume they left it behind due to a teeny-tiny crack in it’s rim.

• As “Water Colour Paint”

On the way from the cup to the trash you move as quickly and cautiously as possible, one hand under the bag, moving with it in unison to prevent any obnoxious little colourful drops from hitting the floor or messing up the counter, drip-dropping, drip-dropping — which gave me an idea…

After brewing your tea, instead of heading for your trash with the bag, put it in an empty cup or dish to cool off for about 5 minutes. (Tip; you want to keep in as much moisture as possible, so avoid laying it on a piece of paper or cloth to cool). Black, green and camille tea aren’t suited for ‘painting’, use, at best, some type of fruit tea.

Next step, get to squeezing, letting the drops hit the paper instead of your tile floor–

But plain dolka-dots are boring; A swing of the wrist creates a splattered look, flat tips make for good stamps, surely you’ve got a move or two or your own…

Get creative!

But ‘painting’ with tea goes farther than just squeezing drops and splattering — visual texture can be created by using the still wet ‘innards’ of the tea bag.

Rub the crumbs in one direction with a paintbrush to create texture

Allow painting to dry completely when you’re done, then you can gently wipe away the leftover crumbs with your hand

I decided to use blueberry tea for my first attempt at tea art, assuming it would leave the darkest ‘stains’ — it ended up fading to a light blue –And red tea, cranberry, for example… … dries into a dark purple. As far as my experience shows, tea never looks the same on paper as it does in the cup, it usually tends to be lighter, though layering, like with water colours, is possible and darkens the tea ‘stain'; logically, the thicker the ‘puddle’, the longer it needs to dry, the darker the mark it leaves.

I decided, anyway, to highlight the lines with pen… once the pieces was completely dry;

If you notice the little flowers, easier to see now that they are outlined with pen, you’ll see that tea can be uused not only for completely abstract pieces

If totally crazy abstract art isn’t your thing, you’re not completely left out of this tea-painting-party — empty the wet contents of the tea bag into a little cup of dish and mix with a bit of tea to create a sort of paste. It works exactly as water colour does!

Three pieces made in an experimental rush.. from a single tea bag

Know, too, that you’ve just created some of the best smelling art in history! Hold on the your tea crumbs, too; gather them up and let them dry, they make for a great addition to homemade potpourri … which may follow in a future tutorial, ‘Eau de Aimlessness’ scented potpourri.

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