New Pouches

Two new pouches just put up on Etsy

There are a few more in the works.

If they don't sell I will be taking them to the two markets I have coming up locally

and then off to the Blue Mountains in April.

And at least one of them I will be keeping for myself.

x te

Time Out to Relax

This week I have been at the Beach

In fact this beach

Every day I have walked

around the point

several times 

Sometimes on the grass

sometimes on the path

sometimes on the sand

and

best of all

sometimes in the water

It has been magical

x te

and the winner is

and the winner is

henrietta (aka ani aka zani)

I have sent an email personally but will also say here

please contact me so I cna get this package in the mail.

I used a random number generator to make the choice for me

as I am currently in town staying in the caravan park

by the beach.

x te

Tea Bag Explorations

It would seem that everyone these days is playing with tea bags and why not?

In our current climate of recycling they are easy and so versatile.

Now I don't drink tea but luckily my partner does

though only 2 cups a day!!!!

Which is hardly enough

So I thought that I would show you

what I have learnt so far about this humble material.

Tea Bag dyed with eucalyptus leaves in a clamp

consisting of 2 coffee tin lids and 2 fold back clamps(bulldog)

 in an iron rich pot

About 10 dyed at once

This is quite a subtle result

Tea Bag dyed as above except I brushed the leaves

with beaten egg white

Tea Bag dyed as above except I brushed the leaves

with beaten egg yol with a little water added

Then the other day I decided I would like to try for much more clarity in the prints

So here I placed baking/silicon paper between the lids and the teabags

and there were only 3 bags in the bundle

I also placed a small piece of open weave cotton cloth with one of the tea bags

This made no discernable marks on the tea bag print but still dyed very nicely

I once again used egg yolk

A tea bag

note I am not using cinerea this time

the silcon paper dyed beautifully as well

perhaps I will try waxed paper next time

for using in encaustic works

as the silicon paper dyed so well

I wondered how well water colour paper

would work to seperate the tea bags

and generate small prints in their own right

I pulled these apart while still wet

Here you can see that the egg stuck to the paper and tore it

I rubbed the paper off the tea bag

but didn't remove it entirely

as I was concerned about damaging the tea bag

And they all look great on the other side

the second lot in the same bundle

I left to dry

well i left it for a while then got impatient

and ironed it dry

This seems to have set the egg

and I had no trouble pulling

this lot apart

And here is the other side.

So there you have it

Naturally dyed tea bags

I look forward to hearing about your own ideas

on how to explore this are even more

For those of you who love the way these look

 but really don't wish to make your own I have

some of my tea bags for sale in my Etsy shop

More to come when my partner drinks more tea.

x te

The Giveaway Resumes

gesso, milk paint, earth pigment and natural resin on cloth

I thought it might be nice to show what i have so far collected for the giveaway bundle

stitch, starch paste, ink, egg, wax on cloth

natural dye on blanket

natural dye and stitch

scrap of stitch

Tea Bags!!!

gesso, natural resin and wax on paper

and of coourse some buttons.

a nice little collection

I will leave this open till the afternoon of

Monday March 12

my time

Those of you who left a comment on the last post

will automatically be put in the draw.

I would like to thank everyone for the

lovely comments and emails I received

in recent times.

x te

Slowly getting back into it

I have been quietly pottering about at home thinking, processing

and yes crying

It does sound a bit strange to say that dyeing

 has been a part of my recovery process

and today i put some of my tea bags on Etsy

As I have a large pile of them

I believe there will be more.

Well it's a start

x te