lend me your ‘shell-like’
this girl dislikes pink
innovate for her
~
Ronovan’s Haiku Prompt words this week are PINK and SHELL.
Yikes – how to marry that with what I had already planned for our Photo Challenge prompt of WASTE.
It is the extra creative challenge I like to give myself each week. Well Miss E does not like pink – I know that card does have a bit of pink on it but ……. hey! I did my best!
~
Anyone who has been reading my blog for a while knows I’m an obsessive recycler AND like to try new crafty things, so this week’s Photo Prompt is right up my street!
~
Life-cycle of a tea bag once it enters my house:
It sits in its box in a cupboard full of all manner of black, white, green, herb and fruit teas. I have at least 12 different varieties in there.
Then in it goes – into my favourite mug
This is a mug from Dunoon. I wanted a big white bone china mug. I contacted Dunoon and asked if I could have the Nevis Design in plain white – I could! and for about £10 cheaper than the decorated ones – I got two. I LOVE them. ❤
After first use the tea bags sit in the little coloured dish to be used, three together, for another cup.
I told you – obsessive recycler!
And now, courtesy of Pinterest, I have discovered there is a whole new world of art materials to be explored – used Tea Bags! I was astonished to see how much amazing art has been created with used tea bags. You can see some examples on my Pinterest Page, ‘Art Tea’.
Of course I had to give it a go.
So instead of going into the compost after their second use, the tea bags are now emptied and dried. (The leaves still go in the compost) My bean-sprouter works well as a drying rack.
Cutting or tearing some and leaving others as two ply paper
Now ….. how to turn them into art ……
A bit of collage using some paper napkins and some hand and machine stitching.
The circular tea bag has a picture of a cup stuck on the inside with Modge Podge and is re-stuffed with a little wadding. I downloaded the picture of the cup from this Education Site
I’m wondering about this art form – it nudges towards the “just because you can, do you think you should”. I tried putting it on canvas to go with my ‘making art with found and discarded objects’ collection, adding and expanding on the Beach Clean Art theme. Using waste in art.
I’m not sure it stands up as an artwork so I turned it into a greetings card, with packaging paper put between the layers to stiffen the card so that it will stand up
A little pocket for a gift (in this case a fresh teabag) or message. Then it can be recycled once more and re-used as a card with a different message in the pocket.
And then I realised there was a certain person about to have her 10th birthday – perfect
She was thrilled with it and her friends intrigued.
I’m really not sure if my experiments will produce ‘art’ that I feel worthy of exhibiting , but has been fun to try and I can’t throw a teabag away at the moment – I’m amassing quite a collection, so I’ll have to come up with something arty to do with them.
Update
Coincidentally, I’ve just seen that there is a programme on BBC2 tonight about the making of tea bags: http://www.radiotimes.com/tv-programme/e/fsq8rq/inside-the-factory–s3-e1-tea-bags/
and here is the programme on BBC iPlayer:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b08ywhdn/inside-the-factory-series-3-1-tea-bags
The sheer scale of tea bag production is mind boggling – and I’m shocked to discover that 25% of the materials used to make tea bags is plastic – Yuck!
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Such an interesting post Sandra, on lots of different levels – thanks!
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So glad you enjoyed it Cathy – time for a virtual cuppa – I’ll put the kettle on! 😉
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😀
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You took a great idea and ran with it! I love your artwork! 😍 That’s something I never would’ve thought of 😁 Thank you so much for sharing. ~ Tina 💕
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I’m so very glad you enjoyed this post Tina. How lovely to have you aboard as a Wild Daffodil follower – you are very welcome. I’ll put the kettle on and we can have a virtual cuppa together! 🙂
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I’m glad to be here 😍 Kettle is whistling…I will enjoy our virtual tea-time 🤗
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mmmmm ….. slurp! giggle, sip, chat! 😉
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😀 It is delicious 😊 Great idea!
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😀
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Not wasteful at all 🙂 🙂
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Thank you Jo. 😉
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Love the haiku and your tea bag art is pretty impressive, especially on the card! 🙂
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Thanks Eddie. The haiku was difficult for me this week.
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You always do so well with them though 😁
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Bless you! Thanks. 🙂
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💖
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Fun experiments and who knows where it will lead! Maybe you’ve found your medium!
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Ha!Ha! I’m having fun experimenting Kerry, but they are all a bit too .. well BROWN for me! I will keep gong though to explore what they can offer.
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Interesting idea. You have so many arty ideas. I don’t use tea bags very much myself. I always buy loose tea if I can!
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I think I’m going to have to try to do that myself soon.
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I do it so I can control the strength plus I always felt I could taste the tea bags! Even ‘one cup’ tea bags used to be too strong for me with normal Indian tea.
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I’m wordless!
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Ha!Ha!Ha!Ha! 😉 😀
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I am all for recycling and I do think it is art! Will have to check out that pinterest site.
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Thank you – sometimes I wonder whether I’m going off the edge of reason! Ha!
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Never:-)
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Ha! 😉
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Am grateful to know I’m not the only more-than-once per tea bag user! Hope the programme tonight is interesting.
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Do you think there are more of us Del!?
I’ll let you know about the programme.
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I tried to watch a preview but iplayer doesn’t like to work outside the U.K.
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Oh dear that’s a shame. I wonder if you can watch the programme on BBC iPlayer – it used to be available outside UK, but now you might have to pay to watch it. It was a fascinating and mind boggling programme. I was shocked to discover that teabags are made of 25% plastic! Urgh!
Here is the link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b08ywhdn/inside-the-factory-series-3-1-tea-bags
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My mouth just dropped open. 25% PLASTIC?!?!?!
Will check out the link – thank you! Don’t know if we even have an option to pay for iplayer. Would 😍 to get more of BBC’s educational programmes over here.
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Mine did too! They put a layer of plastic in with the paper so that it can be heat sealed. Shocking, isn’t it!
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I. Am. Astounded.
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Likewise!!!!!!!!
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How interesting that we both went for recycling, rather than pure waste! I much prefer your teabags to my prunings! think it’s a very nice card, I wondered if the tea bag paper would withstand some watery paint?
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Hurray for recycling and re-using! The teabag paper is happy to be painted – some people seem to spend hours making really detailed painting on them – can’t quite go there, but sploshing it about might well be a the way I go.
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