No. Not THAT teabagging. Painting on used teabags is what I mean.

I came across this on Pinterest. Using used teabags as a canvas for art: painting, stamping, embroidery even. Some beautiful examples exist. I’m not going to post any here though  because they’d only show up my miserable effort.

The technique is simple. Brew the tea, dry the bag, make a slit, empty the tea dust and spread out the bag.

At first, I thought that was it but I forgot, of course, that painting on the resulting bag surface would be like painting on blotting paper. None of the instructional videos tell you how to overcome this so I decided to experiment. I used acrylic matt medium on the bags to provide a grounding for the ink and paint, and stop it spreading like a blot. It seemed to work. I presume gesso would have the same effect although it might make the bags a little stiffer.

Here’s the idea

And the work in progress (I’m no artist)

And the finished product

As a first go, I think it’s OK. I like that it has atmosphere, that the tea stains on the bag provide texture and the impression of light and that the seams suggest a table. I have a few more ideas that I’ll have a go at, using bags with tags that provide a lot more surface area.