Tea Boxes

This past week I've been working on a smaller scale with the stained tea bags. The boxes I'm covering are 5 x 5 x 1 1/2 inches and I'm really enjoying the more hands-on approach used in making them. Composition on this scale allows me to see the patterns and colors on the papers in an entirely different way and of course in greater detail.

Work on the larger pieces continues but these smaller 3-dimensional pieces feel more playful and seem to encourage lots of experimentation. Here are a few of them:

Teaming with tea

The obsession with tea bags continues (could this be a life-long mania?). While we were in Queensland last week amid regional flooding (which translates to heavy rain every day we were "vacationing") there were plenty of opportunities to discover some new brands of tea. Such excitement! I brought back two dozen sodden bags, which have since dried out in the blessed Sydney sun.

So more of the same with variations. These pieces are steadily multiplying and will become a series:



I'm also playing with the tags and probably have collected enough to begin assembling them. In the meantime I'm working on a piece constructed on a tea-dyed tea towel that lists many friends over the years with whom I've had the joy of sharing a cup (or perhaps many). This one still needs some work but should be a piece of special meaning:


I'm trying to keep the filter off and be in the flow as much as possible.

What Else?

I continue to gather tea bags from increasing larger sources. What an odd thing to collect!

Here's an idea that needed to be tried. I dyed the canvas with tea (what else?) and sewed the tea strings onto it, leaving some of the tags on. Don't know quite where this can go, but it's a start!

it all comes together

I had no idea that a blog would change my life. It has changed what I do, where I do it and who sees it all.

In less than a year I have gone from being a nearly full-time painter to being a nearly full-time writer. I have learned to deal with a camera and use my paintings and photographs to illustrate what I write in newspapers, magazines, blogs and websites.

My writing has brought me to Siracusa in Sicily where I cook and have a table that overlooks the Mediterranean where I paint. The fava beans in the photo were the featured in a recent post on my food blog, CarolEgbert.com.

--Carol Egbert

Tea Craze Continues

Okay, what else can I do with the components of the tea bag? I'm trying to consider all parts, the paper of course, which continues to be a rich source of design possibilities, the tags of all sizes, colors and materials, the humble strings which attach the bag to the tag, and the tea leaves inside. Much to ponder!

I've gathered quite a collection of tea tags now that I've sorted into colors and will probably plan to do some kind of collage with. Here are a couple of the tag collections:


I'm also experimenting with stitching with the tea strings. Many have been dyed various shades of brown during the tea bag drying process and I'm finding them quite interesting when sewn onto tea-stained cloth.

I'm open to suggestions if anyone reading this has any ideas. I think I have the energy to keep pursuing this for quite a while! Also if anyone wants to dry and save used tea bags for me, I'd love to collect more varies!!!!

More Tea

I'm continuing to work with dried tea bags and really enjoying the interesting results I'm getting. I'm trying to become a little looser in the ways the papers intersect and overlap.

Here are a tray of tea bags finally drying in the sun after days of pouring rain:


These two pieces are on smaller canvases, 10 x 12 inches, which will be a lot easier to transport if I decide to bring them back to Vermont. I imagine combining a number of these together to make one larger piece:

My Cards in Canada

Woo hoo! I finally got approved by the Canadian greeting card distributor that is interested in several of my black and white designs as well as the quotation cards. Now for negotiating the details. If everything works out, this will greatly expand the market for my work. Yowza.