Tea is many a splendored thing! It's not just for drinking, or putting in your plants - what about tea painting? A lot of teas have amazing color, especially when they've steeped for a long time and are highly concentrated. Ever since I first tried it in Mexico last March, as it is a staple tea there, I've liked Hibiscus tea, but for more than just its taste. It makes the most beautiful, alluring, deep, blood red pigment. When I first noticed this I immediately wanted to stain everything with it, and played around with drips on a paper napkin. That being said, I've also dripped it on my pants by accident and that, too, was stained. So it's very powerful. The image to the right is what it looks like steeped for 20 minutes or so.
So today I finally took the time to lay it down in my sketchbook. It's watercolor paper, so it was able to absorb it better than other paper would, but it still took longer to dry than regular watercolor. I'd be interested to see variations of it less and more diluted and how the color would intensify with more layers. Surprisingly, it dried more purple than red, but I still think the color is beautiful. Here's how it turned out just a little bit wet still: (below)
I will conduct further experimental endeavors in time!
I've tried different tea cups, but they all seem too delicate for me. I like tea that I can breathe in as I drink it. I want to feel the steam rising off the hot liquid and accost my senses even before I take my first sip. I want to look over the rim of my cup and watch the world stop and wait while I have my tea.
That's a lot to ask for in a cup.
At a Cracker Barrel somewhere off I-95, I discovered it. My perfect cup. An extra-large, fat-handled mug emblazoned with a classic Corn Flakes box image. A mug I can happily stick my nose into and breathe in all the aromas and steam as I drink.
And so I come to my latest suggestion for a gift idea
An afternoon tea break in a box:
Get a mug or teacup you think matches your "giftee's" personality. Fill it with a sealed bag of tea you think they'd like. Add a few honey sticks and an orphan silver spoon from an old flatware set. Pick up some shortbread cookies or biscotti to compliment the tea. Lay it in a box. Tie it up with a ribbon and you have a personalized gift! Near or far, they'll think of you every time they have tea.
Do you have a favorite tea cup? Does tea taste different depending on the cup you use?
Weigh in with your comments below. I'd love to hear what you think!
Have you gone to a tea room lately? Of the many that I've been to or researched, they are all either English or Asian style. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that... but is this how you enjoy your tea? Do you always have your tea in a china cup and saucer... or from an Asian pot in a tea bowl? Or... do you have a favorite mug? I have many pots and many cups, mostly without saucers and many mugs (I use a mug in the mornings)... I tend to marry pots I like with cups and creamer/sugar sets that don't match the pot perfectly, to make my own tea sets.
My favorite, or at least the one I use every night, is a green Alladin pot with gold trim that I've put together with my favorite orphaned cup (a vintage hand painted Nippon), a brass compote (for my Stevia) and a beaded stainless steel mesh tea ball.
I have a dream of opening my own tea room... but it will be different! It will have more of a bohemian flare! I'll have many different tea sets that I've put together from teawares I've found in thrift stores and antique shops... and even from my own hutch!
This one I call my "Worldly Set" as it seems to come from many different cultures... Asian basket, Middle Eastern charm on the teaball, decidely American cups and Depression Glass creamer and sugar and a huge pot that echos of Europe!
This one I call my "Hippie Set" as joining the vintage 1970s raised fruit avocado green teapot with vintage avocado green cups just screams 70s! The basket and the amber Cubist pattern Depression Glass creamer and sugar match the pot very well... and the teaball is beaded with green and amber glass hippie flowers!
Here's a cute set that I recently sold... It consists of a really cool, small, black Mid-century Modern pot with a small Depression Glass creamer and sugar. Its teaball is adorned with a pewter bead with a moon on one side and a sun on the other and an irridescent crystal.
I love putting tea sets together and if I ever get to have my tea room... I'll have the coolest one of a kind tea sets around! You all be sure to keep your eye out for it and come in for a cuppa... A girl can dream can't she?
For my "maiden post" I thought I would tell you a bit about how I got here. I got my love for tea and all things tea from my mom. She, of course, gave me my first tea set... It was a child's set made of China, with beautiful yellow roses and gold trim. Tea parties were among the few girlie things I did as a child. I have two older brothers and was a bit (understatement) of a tom boy. I still have some of the pieces from my childhood sets, but most were broken... I retain the pieces like fragments of those memories.
Tea represents a spiritual connection with my mom. She passed away in 1993 and I still miss her terribly. In the photo above she was in her early 30s and very stylish. It was the 1960s after all! The Asian tea set was a gift from her (or to her from me, I can't really remember) when I was a teenager. We exchanged tea pots and sets as gifts for all occasions. Our favorite tea was Oolong. It was a real treat because, back then, the only place you could get it in Florida was in Asian restaurants. When I drink Oolong tea now, it tastes of my past and carries me back to sharing tea with my mom.
My daughter was not into girlie things either and since she came into my life at 6 years old, many of her childhood interests were already established. Growing up in the 80s and 90s, tea and tea wares were far from her mind. Two years ago, she blessd me with a granddaughter and when she is old enough, I will give her a real China tea set. Maybe we will have a favorite tea and when she drinks it as a grown woman, it will bring to her memories of enjoying tea with me...
Imagine a piece of art painted with tea. That's what Dara Gold from Toronto, Canada did and her imagination goes beyond that creating amazing pieces of art.
While sipping a cup of tea and staring at her sketchbook thinking how to make her new method of a mark, it dawned upon Dara to try it using a left over tea bag. For the next week, whenever Dara drank tea, she would use the tea bag to make a stain on her drawings. Once the stain dried, she saw things in them which inspired her to draw. She even stains canvases to start the painting process. Dara generally works with orange pekoe and sometimes utilitizes cranberry or wild berry tea for added blues and pinks. She's learned that red teas dry off blue even though their original stains are vibrant pink and purple hues.
She starts off with a large piece of paper or canvas and stains it without a particular image in mind. After studying it for some time to figure out what the image speaks to her, she inks it with a pen. On canvas, she adds paint and paper and then inks it with a brush or India ink. All the inking on paper and canvas is free-handed.
Dara Gold's combination of memorable characters and scenarios embedded in splats of tea is innovative and unique. Her complete work can be found at www.daragold.ca.
